Dcc / Train newb

[deboardfam]

I have been researching and researching for my first setup. I know nothing about the hobby, wiring, trains, etc. Here is my first of probably many questions about DCC and wiring. If I understand correctly, if all of my locos are DCC and i have a DCC controller I wont need stops and blocks and all of that crap to my wiring. Wont have to seperate the sidings etc from seperate power. Just get power to my whole track and let the DCC do the controlling.

If I wanted to be DCC for just my locos but still have seperate throws for my switches is that okay? I would just have to wire each switch seperately to a throw at my control center. Right?

My wife is on board.. and loves the idea.. just wants me to sell out my other hobby so I have the cash and the room. She already picked a place for an L shaped layout with two roughly 3 or 4x8 sheets. 3 (unless she lets me get away with 4). Will take a lot of room in the living room though lol

[Artieiii]

I have been researching and researching for my first setup. I know nothing about the hobby, wiring, trains, etc. Here is my first of probably many questions about DCC and wiring. If I understand correctly, if all of my locos are DCC and i have a DCC controller I wont need stops and blocks and all of that crap to my wiring. Wont have to seperate the sidings etc from seperate power. Just get power to my whole track and let the DCC do the controlling.
Yes this is correct.

If I wanted to be DCC for just my locos but still have seperate throws for my switches is that okay? I would just have to wire each switch seperately to a throw at my control center. Right?
Yes you are free to wire the switches in a conventional manner or you can choose DCC control.

My wife is on board.. and loves the idea.. just wants me to sell out my other hobby so I have the cash and the room. She already picked a place for an L shaped layout with two roughly 3 or 4x8 sheets. 3 (unless she lets me get away with 4). Will take a lot of room in the living room though lol
May I suggest a spare room or the basement as her enthusiasm will likely fade. My wife supports my layout but I chose to make a ceiling shelf in my man den. Not the best solution to view your trains but it works for me.
-Art

[NIMT]

I guess I'm just lucky to have a wife that pushes me to do more with the trains than just little layout.:cool: We have the understanding and agreement that I get my 110' X 65' (subject to expansion) train room as long as she gets her dream kitchen!:D
One notable exception to the connect it all together is if you have a reversing loop then you need to install an control for that.;)

[deboardfam]

I dont have a spare room or a basement.. She wants me to build an L shape in the corner and make book shelves and kids toy storage underneath part of it. What would make her lose her enthusiasm? The noise or just taking up space? To do this I will have to move the TV where she always wanted it so she is getting something out of the situation as well. The train idea was hers actually. She got me into the hobby. :laugh:

Yeah I read about the kitchen in your other thread LOL.. that works. She wouldnt care if I built a 100' long either.. we just dont have the space :-(

[sstlaure]

You don't HAVE to wire in blocks, however I'll say this....when it comes to diagnosing a short in the system, it makes diagnosis a lot easier when you can isolate the short to a particular section of the layout.

When wiring DCC, you shouldn't wire with a common ground, run separate grounds to each block. (I've had quite a few old-timers that run DCC advise me of this) not sure exactly why, but I did it that way on my layout.

I'm basically wiring mine up as DC, then will install the DCC system once I get the bugs worked out. (Allows me to test each section as I build without having my nice DCC stuff exposed to possible damage from all the construction work going on.)

You yourself a favor and limit the reach-in distance to no more than ~30 inches, any more than that and you'll really need access from the other side of the table to fix any derailments, etc that may occur.

[deboardfam]

All of that is greek to me scott. I have been reading wiring information but. I just dont understand what the point of blocks etc. What I wire from or to.
Wiring is going to be my big issue I am afraid. I dont understand nor have seen a layout other than a big commercial one in real life. :confused:

[sstlaure]

It's really not as bad as it sounds.

The reason for blocks is so that you can turn sections on/off. Each section must have a positive and a ground feed. (Let's call positive Red and ground (or negative) white.)

It doesn't matter which rail you make + or -, you just need to be consistent on the whole layout. Pick a direction of travel on the rails, say clockwise. As you go around the track, the Left rail should be negative and the Right rail positive (I pick this as it's easy to remember Right=Red) You could go the other way, but this is easiest for me to remember.

Travel around the track putting all red leads to the right rail and all white leads to the left rail. If you look at some of the pics in my build thread I've got wiring pics in there.

Power goes from your controller to a central point (again one + and one - lead.) You go from that central point into your switch, then out of the switch to the block. When you turn the switch on/off - you break the connection between the controller and the block.

[deboardfam]

Okay makes sense.. The switch i will have to look a little more into how to wire it. The power is simple enough. So the power out from the Ez command would go to a splitter so to speak then would split off to different points along the rails (say every 3 feet or so).

[sstlaure]

I power each section of track (roughly every 3 ft) to ensure good continuity.

I went with #20 wire for the power drops from the track to the buss wire and I went with #14 for the buss wire (you want a larger diameter wire for the buss to reduce the possibility of voltage losses - power drops in a wire the more you increase the length of the wire.)

On/off Switches are merely 2 leads in, 2 leads out (one positive and one negative.)

[deboardfam]

Gotchya.. so on is one position on the switch.. and off is the other right?

[sstlaure]

Bingo....If you look at the switches I'm currently using, up is on, down is off.

[deboardfam]

Sweet.. my buddy had these cool lionel lighted on/off switches. I need to find a cool type of switch.

[cabledawg]

Deboardfam, there are tons of different switches out there, some having cool lights either in the end of the toggle or the toggle itself will light up. Just have to search around. Mouser.com has DPST illuminated switches, but they are center off, so you'd just wire up one side and not the other. And they are kinda large and about $13 each, but it'd be best for your DCC setup if you wanted lighted switches.

[deboardfam]

Thanks cabledawg.. thats what I was looking for.

You will have to check out my build and help me design a layout for the size i got.. I heard you are the track master. :cool: