G Scale Manufacturers - Voltage & Decoders

homestyal

homestyal

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My layout has all LGB track and locomotives i.e. 45mm and 24v with DCC but I'm not familiar with other manufacturers specifications.
So therefore my question is........

will other manufacturers locomotives and their DCC run on this power and operate via my LGB handsets (55015p)?

Cheers all
 
Which version of MTS are you running?

Whilst my experience is with an NCE system which is set to around 18V output, I would say in general you'll be ok as large scale decoders are designed for 24v. As I understand it, LGB's MTS system is effectively a slightly more limited but compatable version of NMRA DCC.

The only problems I've heard of are some of the Bachmann factory-fitted DCC sound decoders don't like more than about 18 volts - people have got round this by adding reverse-parallel strings of diodes between track pickups and the decoder to drop the voltage that the decoder "sees".

Oh, and I think a few folk have blown up motor supression capacitors on certain Piko locos by running them unchipped on LGB DCC using the zero-stretching option.

Given that you mention having a 55015p, are you actually using the parallel mode? Some other decoders don't understand MTS's original and peculiar serial pulse mode for sending function commands.

It will be interesting to hear what folk who run LGB MTS have to say.
 
Certainly ESU, ZIMO, Phoenix and QSI large scale decoders work fine on MTS. I've had three ZIMO's which have a cv setting to set them up specifically for mts so all functions work exactly the same as mts chips. The ESU chips also work fine without any alteration but it's useful to have the programmer to bring the main sounds within the 8 functions on the mts handset if you go with their sound decoders.
 
I have decoders in Z, N and HO most with sound. Now I have a garden layout with Piko and LGB I was horrified to see the cost of some decoders with sound seemed to e almost the cost of the bl.... loco! I will be wishing to run a ROCO Z21 system so can anyone tell me from their own experience what ESU decoder will be best or even what I can get away with at say 18v please?
 
Chris Wright said:
I have decoders in Z, N and HO most with sound. Now I have a garden layout with Piko and LGB I was horrified to see the cost of some decoders with sound seemed to e almost the cost of the bl.... loco! I will be wishing to run a ROCO Z21 system so can anyone tell me from their own experience what ESU decoder will be best or even what I can get away with at say 18v please?
Click to expand...

I use ESU decoders and it does really depend on what power (amps) draw, your loco will need.
I tend to use Loksound XL as I run US outline and some of the locos are fairly power hungry. The XL is pretty expensive so I did find some older used XL V3.5 or V3.0 for about £60 a pop (the current version is V4).
The smaller Loksound L V4 can go to 3 amps (so all LGB locos would be fine) and it costs about £115 so not too expensive and the sound is great.
 
I run my NCE system at around 18v.

I have experience of older ESU LokPilot XL decoders (but not their sound decoders), they've been really good. For sound decoders I have a couple of old QSI Magnums, also very good.

Generally assume you will need to purchase the large scale versions of decoders, unless it's a small loco with low current draw. It's not just the continuous power use you need to consider, but also the stall current which can easily rise to a few amps.

I've used "high power HO" decoders (1.5 - 1.8 amps) from Zimo and TCS for a couple of little'uns and "got away with it" so far!
 
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