I 've never heard of any such claims that a DCC shirt may start a fire if either of the tow were to be "more dangerous" it would have to be DC as most if not all DCC systems have some sort of built in circuit protection not to prevent a fire but more so to prevent harm to the command station it self. Also DCC boosters such as Zone share or Zone master by CVP have a built in circuit breaker. I have heard of fires being caused by the chep power packs that came with DC train sets such as old Tyco or model power cheap junk
So I would not be concerend with the threat of fire but rather damage to equipment.
Don't know about starting fires.
Look at the below link about DCC and improper use of the product. Scroll about half way down. Read everything associated with this issue. With some people as one of the red neck comedian says, you cannot fix it. Again, improper use of product and not realizing what they are doing. The male species on this planet has trouble reading instructions first.
Many people jump into DCC and are clueless about electricity and what it is capable of even at low voltage.
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/track_2.htm#c2
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Marty, I have never heard of such a thing. I have been using NCE DCC since 1999, and used a pre DCC system called Dynatrol for 8 years before that. The main buss lines are the same ones for both and I have never had a fire, never smelled smoke, never experienced any sort of hazardous manifestations in all those years on the railroad. Did burn up a Tortoise switch motor once. My main power buss lines are 12 gauge, the drops are 18 and 20.
Bob
Call me a troublemaker ... I've been researching the switch from DC to DCC for a month or so now. If I had a $1 for every person that said or typed that you have to be extremely careful because a DCC short is like a soldering iron that can catch your layout on fire ... I would have enough money to buy lunch at the big train show in Long Beach on Saturday.
Now, I have listened and I am being careful to put in heavier bus wire and I am DEFINITELY going to do the quarter test everywhere ... at least when I get the nerve to actually spend the bucks to buy the DCC system (soon).
So, my question is, if this layout fire scenario really happens, then why hasn't Digitrax, MRC, NCE, etc. been put out of business by lawsuits, as there products are clearly dangerous? There has to be a million cases where shorts occured and no one noticed for a long periods of time. Anyone have first-hand knowledge of a DCC caused layout fire?
Remember, I'm just asking this particular question because I'm curious. I have no intention of ignoring your good advice to verify that my DCC system and wiring will handle routine shorts. So, you don't have to convince me to be careful and I am not advocating that new DCC layouts can ignore safety.
Thanks,
Marty
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