Monday, October 17, 2016

Another reason to hate DCC...


Needing to chip a locomotive, I stuck a note on a forum asking for recommendations. Since I know little of the world of in-chuffer electronics, it seemed the sensible thing to do. 

A suitable device was suggested and I place an order. £13 still hurts when you are a skinflint, but this is the future I am told so I better get used to it. 

Which makes it super anoying that the thing won't plug in. Wrong pins it seems. So I'll have to go and buy another. I'm sure many of you will be smugly laughing at me. I'll learn to check more closely in future but at the moment I'm much more a gods own DC fan!

4 comments:

Leigh said...

Not laughing, sorry you got dud advice. But I recommend you ask the suppliers for advice. They are always well informed and very helpful. I have used both digitrains and costal dcc and highly recommend both.

Bill said...

You seem to have got away lightly Phil. Talking to one of our (009 Society) members at a show yesterday, one of his chips cost more than the loco! And he needed a speaker as well.

Huw Griffiths said...

Would it be possible to get / use an adaptor - or a different socket?

Failing that, a number of people have been known to hardwire "chips" into locos - wiring schemes and wire colour codes usually being standardized.

Clearly, there's also the issue of whether the loco and "chip" are to be long term fixtures on the layout - or have just been loaned - but I don't need to tell you that.

Still, this sort of stuff is yet another reason for me to stay "analogue DC" (even if I'm likely to fit homebrew 8 pin sockets to any locos I build (could be useful for fault-finding).

Anonymous said...

I'm with you Phil: DC all the way, mind you I build tiny layouts so I can keep things as simple as possible...