Hello: I have a trottle which can send as Motorolla(Märklin) as well as DCC comands at one output to rails. As to me - I use it as follows: I have all DCC locomotives and Motorola + s88 track control (Feedback and turnouts decoders ) If I ll sending commands to Loco - DCC is used, If I ll swiching turnouts - Motorolla packets is used. (i can see it using Oscilloscope) Recently, I've digitized small 14-turnout's test part of my layout. I used some original blocks(Märklin) from official manufacturer. But these blocks are TOO expensive. Now my aim is to make my own Turnout and s88 decoders for all my layout for a couple of Dollars. In Case of Motorolla - these decoders are simply and consist of a couple of TTL chips. In Case of DCC - in addition to the same quantity of elements - i must learn NMRA standarts for DCC, learn assembler, and programm Uc Processors. Therefore i make this CONCLUSION: I think that Motorolla decoders are more simplier for construction and there are no difficulties with learning assembler & NMRA and programming. QUESTION: Is it worth to Combine at one layout DCC & Motorolla format simultaniously (as described below)? Which Disadvantages could i get, doing so? ------ Thanks, Vadim.
I think actually the problem is very few if any N-scalers, including myself, know all that much about Motorola/Marklin control. In the US, Motorola is known for cell phones, not much else, unless there are two Motorolas. Your best bet is to ask this question in the DCC forum.
Vadim, Can you tell me which Motorola Chip you want to program? If you let me know this (I need motorola part number and type etc - e.g. Motorola HC11 ). Quite often you can program in C instead of assembler. You will need some extra devices to accomplish this (not dcc related). Jeepy84 - Motorola is a large American company selling far more than just cellphones, they provide chips to IBM and Apple parts to the aerospace industry - I could go on for yonks mate. Motorola is very well known for electronics components in the USA and around the world.
Being both a Marklin H0 and a American N-Scaler I can comment that mixing Marklin/Motorola format with DCC does work. DCC sees the Marklin/Motorola Trinary as "noise", and so on the whole does not seem to be affected by the packets. Marklin/Motorola, on the other hand, can see the DCC frames as AC and revert to AC running. This should only affect loco's and just the first generation Marklin decoders. I've never heard or seen DCC affect Marklin accessories. ESU, Marklin and Digitrax all make systems that support Motorola and DCC at the same time, so what you are looking to do is definitely not un-heard of. With ESU (and Marklin running ESU software) further support LGB (variance of DCC), Selectrix and M4/mfx, so mixing and matching can be done. The Motorola component comes from the fact that they developed the encoding standard for Marklin and were the manufacturer for the early electronics. Later Marklin devices did not use Motorola electronics exclusively. Chapter #2 of Marklin's "Getting Started with Marklin Digital" (#0308), breaks down both the loco and accessory packet formats in some detail. Probably a bit more then could be reasonably typed up for a messages board. Hope that helps! David
The Uhlenbrock Intellibox supports this. I use DCC for the locos and MM for the turnout decoders. Not a single problem with that. hth Michael
Yes, i mean these chips for simply home soldering of turnout decoders! Why isnt it? It's simply! I have DCC locos and Motorola's turnout decoders for a dollar without any learning assembler and programming Uc's! What do You think about this idea? ----------- Vadim.
