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…................--- Major DCC-EX Bus Rewire ---
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The following is going to be pretty dry/boring to most I'm sure but will help me down the road if I forget some of what I've done. The site helps me a lot with that.
The layout was originally set up to have 8 power districts and I wired the main perimeter bus with that in mind and used Tam Valley Boosters and circuit breakers. I only had track in a couple of those districts but tested all 8 districts and the Tam Valley components worked well.
I then decided that I really should get the major part of the scenery finished since I didn't want to be working over track and putting scenery in so laying track and connecting to it pretty much came to a halt for a longer time than I anticipated.
During that time the DCC-EX crew made a huge addition to DCC-EX. The ability of the command station to produce up to 8 track outputs that can be either DCC or DC (also Program). Any of the districts can be either DCC or DC at any time and it is really easy to change them with the Android app EngineDriver. You can be running DC in one or more districts and DCC in the other or Programming a loco in one all at the same time.
I've tried to buy or build all the diesel engines UP had from the 40's to the mid '70's that have been made in N scale. There are a lot, right around 70. Most all of the ones I bought were made in the '70's, 80's, 90's and after 2000. Most were never offered in DCC. I've converted about 30% of what I have to DCC, mainly with $16 to $30 decoders. I bought a lot of them more to look at them than to run them. Now with DC available with DCC-EX I don't need to convert lots of them to DCC which is a huge savings in time and money.
To take advantage of what the command station can do I decided to break the 8 districts up differently and now could sell the Tam Valley components if I want as I don't need them any longer.
Previously the bus segments were lone with one after the other. To take advantage of what DCC-EX can do I ended up with new districts near to each other that needed the track drops to go to different buses.
Above district A is for the two track main (same with district C at the top). I set those up so DCC or DC trains could lap the lower level or be parked on one or the other main line tracks and then have the track power turned off for that track. Then the district could be changed to DC or DCC depending on the situation and a train run on the other main track. Keep in mind you can change the districts in seconds with your throttle.
Notice above district G (8 districts are A-H) is the main yard and maybe a DCC loco is working it while a DC loco is lapping the lower level with a DCC train parked with the power off on the other main track. I need to get track drops from G and A to the bus on the side of the layout so it has to be cut into sections so that the track drops don't have far to go.
The upper level is mostly two districts (B and E) and some of both have sidings where a DCC or DC train can be parked. The whole E district on the right is a reversing section if you use the 'X' cross-over from on side of the layout to the other. In DCC mode the E district can be changed to DCC Auto-Reverse (another DCC-EX feature) and that will automatically do the reversing. If that cross over is used in the DC mode you can use the DC-DCX mode that change the polarity of either district B or E while the train is in the other district. They are both large with the layout being 24 feet long.
The sawmill area will be District F which also powers the coal mine complex tracks on the lower level a the track for a small town there also. Again is is so DC trains can be running most of the rest of the layout while DCC ones are working or running in other areas.
To break up the previous long bus runs I cut the wires (above) and put in new screws and wrapped the wires around them.
Above one can see how the bus was broken up in the area above. Top wires on the right and left are 5v for servos and LEDs. Bottom wires on the right and left are for track drops for the hidden staging area track. Those tracks can be individually turned on/off so that DC and DCC trains can be staged there.
The middle wires are for track drop for the inner or outer 2 main tracks. Either can be turned on off with a panel out of view.
The south side bus was also broke up into a number of sections to handle the various districts and 2 main line tracks there along with 5v power for the turnout servos and LEDs. No track drop has to be longer than about 5 feet to reach a bus section for them.
Bus is label so I know where to run the track drops as I lay track. An operator doesn't need to know any of this just which district they are running in.
Most of the new short districts repeat every 6 feet or so and are connected with jumpers to each other and then back to the command station.
I got all the wiring in for track drops so now can go back to laying track any place on the lay and have someplace to connect it to so the track can be tested as it is laid.
Another control panel was made to control the 2 track main that runs in the C district on the south side of the layout.
To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ).
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