DCS Confused

Did you pick up Barry's book?  It's a great first start for the new DCS user.  He has a section on wiring the layout.

I was just looking on Amazon at what is available. I just ordered the OGR MTH DCS DVD.

I looked at Barry's book. I may buy that also!

I will 2nd gunrunnerjohn's advice, you need Barry's book. It will be a great help to you all around, lots of good info in there.

Or an uncle that has DCS and understands it.

U.W.

Barry's book is a must have, but it goes into a lot of things that a simple layout will never need.

Here's what my 12x12 switching layout looks like:

All I have going to it are 2 wires, straight from the TIU.  All my switches are hand-thrown and I have no motorized accessories to worry about, so wiring can be very simple.The drop-down Wye section (to gain access to the room) has 2 wires going from it to the mainline track.  I can raise/lower the section while a train is running without loss of power.

Set up a simple loop of track on the floor and hook up the system just to get an idea of what to do and how it works.  Once you get the feel of it hook it up to your layout and get ready to have a blast!

Walt, feel like a road trip?? The whole block thing with DCS doesn't make sense to me-that's why I need a book or video to see how it's wired. I ordered the DVD and it might be a good idea to also get Barry's book. 

With regard to blocks, if you have multiple power connections to various portions of the layout, it's a good idea to have insulated joints between them.

A DCS signal travelling down multiple different-length feeders can result in duplicate commands arriving at the track one after the another. Putting in insulated joints insures that each block gets its DCS signals from only one direction.

For example, I have an 11x17 loop with a power feed right at the TIU, and another at the opposite end of the layout. Depending on where a locomotive is on the loop, hitting the "two short horn blasts" softkey causes two short horn blasts--twice.

---PCJ 

Mark: don't overthink it, it's really not that hard or different.  Remember the one rule that I emailed you about and that just about covers the most important part of the wiring (IMHO) for your layout: you don't want an engine to receive a command from 2 or more sources so you isolate the lockons from each other by using a dummy pin the center rail only.

- walt

Feel free to call the shop.  We can help you out with that.

Dave

Use Barry's book. I did, and the DCS on my layout works really well.  I have the maximum signal strength everywhere on the 300+ feet of track I have.

Barry's book is a must!  He is always helpful when you have a question on the forum.  Explanations are given in clear and simple terms.

Good luck!

Paul

As others have noted:  You really should get Barry's book.

That said, DCS is NOT difficult or confusing.  It's what I use on my layout to operate both MTH and Lionel TMCC/Legacy locomotives (I also have Legacy available, but prefer the more convenient size of the DCS remote), and I'm certainly no geek or guru when it comes to things in the digital world.  Heck, I'm still learning to use some of the features on my iPhone.

If I was able to learn how to use DCS and its various features--and in a very short time--you certainly can learn to use it as well as or better than me.  I admittedly do not make regular use of even half the features that are available in the system, but when it comes to operating multiple locomotives (five on the layout at any one time in my case) on a layout that is essentially wired with just a couple of wires to the track, I will readily admit that DCS has made my train operating both easy and fun.  About the only glitches I ever experienced, and they have been very few in number, could be assigned to "operator error" and not to any fault with the system.