Layouts and layout building

Hello all.

I am on the verge of taking the DCC plunge, and i'm seriously considering the MRC Prodigy Express. Any of you that have experience with this product - is it able to control turnouts on its own, or would I need to add the Advance cab in order to access this feature.

Thanks in advance.

Richard

The on line manual:

http://www.modelrectifier.com/resources/trainsound/0001408.pdf

I have the Advance and really like it.

The Express will not do routes though (only individual accessory decoders - i.e., one turnout at a time).  The "major" downfall of the Express is that it does not read CV values.  I consider the ability to read CV's as an extremely important function.  My advice is get the Advance and be happy with all of the needed features.

You need what's called a stationary decoder to operate your turnouts. Here's a few different types. Some new ones can operate up to 8 turnouts.
http://dcchobbysupply.com/zcart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5

AlanB-That's interesting about the CV's. I thought even the Express could read CV's. I guess it's not much more of a step up from the Bach EZ command.

This should confuse you even more about CV's!

http://www.capitolcityntrak.org/cv_definitions.htm

   I purchased Prodigy Express this year and I am very satisfied with it. It all depends on your objectives for the system. I have a small layout and wanted an easy system to programme and certainly Express is that. I also wanted walk-around control with a large display. I am not interested in computer interfaces nor do I really care if it can read a CV or not. The 5 decoders I have installed all have the default values listed so all you have to do is keep a record of what you enter on a piece of paper. A small inconvenience to me.

While it is only a 1.6 amp system you can get it up-graded by MRC for $25 to 2.5 amps. I sent mine in and had it back in 2 weeks but in fact it was up-graded to 3.5 amps. So for a total cost of $140 I have a 3.5 amp system that will do all I need. Just check the MRC site for information on this. I did the up-grade as I converted from DC so that I could have sound. With 1.6 amps it doesn't take much to trigger a momentary short as explained by MRC and the extra power corrected that problem.

Decoder Pro is your friend.

I have been programming for a decade without the use of CV read-back and I have had narry a problem.  To call this issue "major" is a bit an overstatement.

In terms of the MRC express, the only thing I would consider 'major' would be the 1.6 amps it puts out.  It should be enough for most layouts, but will only run 3 Athearns at once.

If you are in the market for the Express as your pricepoint, then you need to consider the Zephyr.

David B

davidmbedard wrote:

Decoder Pro is your friend. I have been programming for a decade without the use of CV read-back and I have had narry a problem.  To call this issue "major" is a bit an overstatement. If you are in the market for the Express as your pricepoint, then you need to consider the Zephyr. David B

decoder pro is all well and good if you have a suitable PC or laptop to use it with. i lashed out on a locobuffer USB and it just won't work with my sony vaio which was a $2K laptop. although i do like the idea of incorporating a PC into running my trains. it should not be a necessary item for reading back CV's if you have a DCC system. but i agree totally with your Zephyr suggestion.

47gotcha wrote:

This hobby is getting way to complicated.  When I play with my trains, I just want to veg, but now, I need a PHD to run my trains!

Not really. It depends on what you want to do. You can just install a decoder (or buy an engine with one already installed), put it on the programming track, and change it's ID No. to match the engine number. Then put it on the layout and run it !!

However, DCC allows you to do a lot of other things that make running trains more fun and more realistic. For example, you can "speed match" your engines so when running a long train with 3-4 engines, they all start together, run at the same speed, and all stop together.  You can do this by adjusting their CV's for starting, middle, and top speed.

You can set a CV to determine which end of a diesel is the front. Maybe your railroad ran their engines long hood forward, you can adjust a CV so when you tell the engine to go forward, it knows the long hood is the "forward" end. Or if you have two engines you always run back-to-back, you can adjust one to run the same direction as the front one...otherwise, when you tell them to go "forward" they'll go in opposite directions !!

However, if you can't read back CV's, you aren't going to know what you're adjusting, you'll just have to put in a number between 1 and 255 and see what happens...and be sure you wrote it down, or you might forget what you put in!!

loathar wrote:

Does anyone think something like Decoder Pro makes sense if your only going to have 10-15 locos and only speed match 2 pair? If I'm looking at this right, DP stores your locos CV settings in a computer program so you can recall and reload them if your decoder loses it's settings.(right?) Does it do something more than that? How often do decoders lose their settings? I can see where it would be useful if you had a big fleet.

Although things are better now than they were, some decoder companies still make it a little hard to work out what number to put in each CV - especially when it gets into that hexidecimal baloney. But generally now it isn't that hard, but sometimes even with easy ones (like TCS) you still need to do a little addition. Decoder Pro skips a lot of this, it basically does the math for you.

(BTW TCS decoders have a little booklet where you write in the CV values as you program them, so if you do have to reprogram your decoder, you just have to re-enter the numbers you wrote down.)

Keep in mind speedmatching is a hit-and-miss proposition. If one engine runs faster than the other, you reduce it's top speed and mid-speed CV's by say 10, then put them on the track and try them again. Still too fast?? Reduce the CV's another 10 and try again. Depending on how exact you want the match, you may need to change CV's 10 times before it's right...and then you can start programming the start and stop momentum CV's so both engines start up and then glide to a stop in perfect unison.

I prefer to have my programming track be a section on my mainline controlled by a DPDT switch so I can run the engines around the layout, then reprogram the one without having to remove it, and try it again. I don't know if I'd want to have to run upstairs to my computer every time I wanted to change a CV.

I guess with Decoder Pro I would try doing a decoder first and see how it goes, if it doesn't seem hard to you try another. Might turn out you're OK without it, but if not, you can always get it. (That sounds like a "Yogi-ism" somehow....)