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mixing railcommand and dcc decoder equipped locos
mixing railcommand and dcc decoder equipped locos
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wp8thsub
Member since
November 2002
From: US
2,455 posts
Posted by
wp8thsub
on Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:29 PM
RailCommand is digital and it's command control, but it's not DCC compatible. It's an updated version of Keith Gutierrez' original CTC-16 concept which pre-dates the NMRA DCC standard. Placing a DCC locomotive on a RailCommand layout will get you nothing and vice versa. No harm should be done to either decoder/receiver.
Think of it like Macintosh vs. IBM PC clones; they have different internal architecture but appear to function in similar ways on the surface.
The Rail Lynx system uses more or less standard DCC decoder architecture but only picks up power from the track, not the command signal. The command signal reaches the decoder via infrared transmissions from the throttle (which works somewhat like a TV remote) to an infrared sensor mounted in the loco. Rail Lynx equipped locos work fine on a layout where RailCommand is running at the same time, since the two systems don't need to talk to each other.
Rob Spangler
Reply
wp8thsub
Member since
November 2002
From: US
2,455 posts
Posted by
wp8thsub
on Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:29 PM
RailCommand is digital and it's command control, but it's not DCC compatible. It's an updated version of Keith Gutierrez' original CTC-16 concept which pre-dates the NMRA DCC standard. Placing a DCC locomotive on a RailCommand layout will get you nothing and vice versa. No harm should be done to either decoder/receiver.
Think of it like Macintosh vs. IBM PC clones; they have different internal architecture but appear to function in similar ways on the surface.
The Rail Lynx system uses more or less standard DCC decoder architecture but only picks up power from the track, not the command signal. The command signal reaches the decoder via infrared transmissions from the throttle (which works somewhat like a TV remote) to an infrared sensor mounted in the loco. Rail Lynx equipped locos work fine on a layout where RailCommand is running at the same time, since the two systems don't need to talk to each other.
Rob Spangler
Reply
Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
Posted by
Anonymous
on Thursday, September 18, 2003 8:36 PM
From my understanding, as said to me by a fellow modeler who uses RailCommand, a locomotive equiped with Rail Command decoder will work on a DCC equiped layout, however, a DCC equiped locomotive will not work on a RailCommad layout. Simple reason is that RailCommand is Analog and DCC is digital
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
Posted by
Anonymous
on Thursday, September 18, 2003 8:36 PM
From my understanding, as said to me by a fellow modeler who uses RailCommand, a locomotive equiped with Rail Command decoder will work on a DCC equiped layout, however, a DCC equiped locomotive will not work on a RailCommad layout. Simple reason is that RailCommand is Analog and DCC is digital
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
mixing railcommand and dcc decoder equipped locos
Posted by
Anonymous
on Thursday, September 18, 2003 6:51 PM
what will a railcommand equipped loco do if placed on a dcc layout and vice
versa. can any harm occur to any components? wayne
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
mixing railcommand and dcc decoder equipped locos
Posted by
Anonymous
on Thursday, September 18, 2003 6:51 PM
what will a railcommand equipped loco do if placed on a dcc layout and vice
versa. can any harm occur to any components? wayne
Reply
Edit
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