Train Control System DCC techy question

gigasaurus

DCC is popular in HO and, to a lesser degree, in two rail O scale.  DCC is based on 1980s technology and starting to look dated in ways that limit its growth potential.  One of the reasons that DCC is not more popular in larger scales is that since it uses high frequency AC track power as the communication signal the hardware gets very expensive as amperage goes up.

TMCC/Legacy from Lionel and DCS from MTH use communication methods that make them more affordable for larger scale and higher amperage applications.  TMCC used the DCC command set.  Legacy added commands beyond that to have more features.  DCS has used its own command set from the start.

Both TMCC and DCS conversion kits are popular in the 3 rail O world.  TMCC is the only system suitable for running older trains with AC motors.  Newer TMCC trains along with all Legacy and DCS (Protosound 2 and 3) trains have DC can motors.

The selection of DCC decoders in O has been limited due to the small market size.  Many O scale DCC users use a DCC decoder rated for higher amperage for motor control and second HO sized decoder for sound.  But that loses one of the great features of systems like Legacy and Proto2 and 3, the motor control feedback is used to automatically provide sound and smoke control.

There are some very good sound decoders available in HO, at least for diesels.  HO sound decoders for steam lack the absolute speed feedback used by Legacy and Proto 2 and 3 unless more hardware is added.  That makes sound and smoke synchronization with speed problematic.

You might want to search this site, especially the command control forums, for past discussions of smart phone, tablet and PC use for train and layout control.  There have been some cool posts already on this rapidly advancing area of interest.