Dcc for dead rail?

D

Davidbross

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I have a dead rail large outdoor g scale layout with no access to power. I’ve tried Blunami, which is a decent system but the range is too limited for my railroad. I currently run Railpro.

But I’d like to be able to run some engines with Wow sound decoders. Is there a viable way to run such dcc decoders without power or signal going to the rails?
 
I used to run track power with primarily Zimo decoders. I then decided to go battery power (dead rail) but kept the Zimo decoders and added AirWire control. It worked perfectly and had a reasonable range.
 
US wise as Martino says you have AirWire but also Crest, there may be others. UK wise we have Fosworks both Crest and Fosworks systems have conversions and reviews by me in the Battery Power Forum in here. Range-wise the Crest is probably in the order of 50 feet, Fosworks at least 200 feet.
 
dunnyrail said:
US wise as Martino says you have AirWire but also Crest, there may be others. UK wise we have Fosworks both Crest and Fosworks systems have conversions and reviews by me in the Battery Power Forum in here. Range-wise the Crest is probably in the order of 50 feet, Fosworks at least 200 feet.
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I have tried the Precision Electronics 'Revolution' DCC (Crest) and its range is quoted as over 500 feet. Revolution DCC Transmitter - REVOLUTION DCC - Products
 
dunnyrail said:
Hm not in my garden, I guess it is possible that my concrete mountains with wire mesh half way down the garden and my 3 metal bridges could have some effect on range but there is a big disparity here.
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Yeah, I can see that with your structures, but I have tried it in my garden and not had any probs. But to be fair, although I have a lot of wooden or plastic structures ( some large) and plenty of miniature live trees and larger bushes, I do not have metal structures large enough to cause issues with the signal, ( except if I go into the front garden at the drive entrance and then try to blast the signal through the house to the layout ).

Has anyone else on the forum tried the Revolution DCC ‘dead rail’ system in their garden?
 
I would think John's system might be an earlier generation of equipment?

The Crest system only has a short aerial on the receiver electronics pcb.
Placement in the model, and what it is constructed of, may have a greater effect on the range.

PhilP
 
PhilP said:
I would think John's system might be an earlier generation of equipment?

The Crest system only has a short aerial on the receiver electronics pcb.
Placement in the model, and what it is constructed of, may have a greater effect on the range.

PhilP
Click to expand...
That could well be correct my Analogue Crest are indeed over 10 years old, my DCC system is more recent but I have only tested it on the bench and locally as I have not installed the system permanently in any DCC locomotive as I prefer the Fosworks offering.
 
I've been running an CVP Airwire receiver with a Bachmann 3-truck Shay for some time now and am very happy in that it gives me the same sort of control over the ESU 5XL decoder that I have with my Powercab for 1:48 modelling.

I've just finished a similar installation into a Bachmann Mallet (custom battery was the saga here) and now just have to paint, weather and reassemble.

The Shay was a "clean" install in that it came with no internals (motherboard and track power ripped out) whilst the Mallet install is using the existing motherboard with the decoder attached via the adapter plug in. The Airwire feeds the track inputs to the decoder and the Bachmann motherboard is switched to battery.

Yet to be tested on the club track - is currently running on a non-powered rolling road.

This is the receiver installed in the bunker - socket on the left is for battery charging & the RCA plug for programming the decoder. Either of these functions are available when the switch toggle points to the charging socket - when switched to the other direction the battery is connected to the Airwire which in turn feeds the track inputs of the decoder (squeezed into the side tanks along with the custom split battery pack & PCM)

20240806_222003.jpg

The center terminals of the 4-pole double throw switch have the battery connections at the top in the image with the feed to the decoder at the bottom.

20240620_215822.jpg

If interested I can put up the schematic of the wiring after I have cleaned it up (hand drawn).

Cheers,
 
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