Restarting this model railroad hobby is quite a search as to which things will work for me, are cost effective, and don’t give too many headaches. So here’s my findings around the DCC decoders & turnout controls.
Turnout controls.
Quite early on I found an Australian company, DCC Concepts, offering an attractive range of products. One of the things I tried and am really pleased with are their Cobalt Digital IP turnout motors. They draw very little current (~5mA idle, up to 60mA when in use) so they could be fed from your expensive DCC source. The build-in DCC decoder is very easy to setup.
This cobalts are also reasonably compact* for this slow-throw type, come with screws, mounting foam, easy wiring terminals and do the polarity switch well. And while fuly digital, still allows panel switches and LEDs! That all made me stop looking at servo or solenoid based solutions! All in one that just works and with little wiring will do just fine – even if it is at a small premium. Still there might be need for other types in spaces that do not have the clearance. A tip for when planning a multiple level layout, make sure to route your tracks away from where these sit above, or make sure you have the ~70mm extra clearance.
A great plain-English turnout/cross over/double slip wiring manual, using the Cobalt, can be found here on the gaugemaster.com website. It’s the best guide I’ve seen and it’s not just for Cobalts either.
* maximum dimensions including terminal, bits for mounting : 39x53x66mm (width,length, depth)
N Scale decoders
On to these little gems. Yes, we N Scalers don’t want much.. just everything but then small 🙂
Having worked with 3 decoders now and wishing to keep it to 1 species as much as possible (so I can just remember one manual), I’ve been looking at many options – and more trials are on the way. Now, there are different decoders for different people, it really depends on your wishes & priorities – rather than that one is just bad or good. So for me these are the priorities (feel free to borrow very selectively):
- Must have complete documentation that is efficient to use
- Must have very good low speed (crawling) driving characteristics (not toy like) and speed changes must look good
- Usually already required with point 2: adjustable back-EMF
- Continues after micro power interruptions
- Allow programming / reading values on main (Railcom)
- Enough features to speed match for double traction
- 1 or 2 extra, powered, ports for things like DMU/EMUs interior lights.
- Allow individual function mapping for lights & light effects such as dimming.
- Affordable and available. Having a function decoder (affordable) with compatible light effects helps keep the price down: would you like it if engine end dims nicely and the steering end doesn’t ?
- Prefer to have DC signal-braking with adjustable breaking (as option for later)
Three decoders I tried this far (on 2 different locos each) are all NEM 651 since the locomotives that I run all have it:
(1) Kühn 45. After adjusting the back-EMF, my locomotives drive and crawl very smoothly. It’s not expensive. It has 2 extra ports + SUSI. It has very well written documentation – easy to look things up (if you can read German, if not the Kuhn 25 manual is in English). The negatives: Lacks accurate speed curve adjustment – not sure why they don’t allow the 28 step-speed setup to work in 128 step mode. Limited braking options for DC signal breaking. Just basic effects & function mapping. Conclusion: If you can do without some features, this a great budget option – it does all basic things well and has 2/4 extra ports. Easily available online from most larger model railroad shops in Germany.
(2) ESU Lokpilot v4 Micro. This one worked and drove brilliantly straight out of the box. The decoder has an unmatched feature-set as far as configurability for anything from lighting/effects, constant breaking distance to 4 parameter engine control.. The documentation on this one is complete, but not easy to use. And unfortunately the 2 extra ports are not amplified – I think they try to sell their expensive function boards + energy storage + programming tool on top of the decoder – which is already in the top price bracket. There’s also no V4 function decoder. Conclusion: Top dog so far – driving and feature wise but I really miss the 2 powered ports and matching function decoder. It’s also definitely the PC of decoder manuals in Mac vs PC. For the rest, I am impressed.
*Update 11 Mar 2015: after entering the recommended presets from the manual for the Fleischmann round motor, the speed control and minimum speed (1mm per 3 seconds or so) has dramatically improved and is now a whole class ahead of the Kuhn.
(3) DCC Concepts Zen. This decoder is more targeted at HO/OO scale locomotives with very little space and for people who just want an affordable decoder to work out of the box rather than extensive configurability. Hardly ticks boxes for me (horses for courses), but it does come standard with a compact stay-alive!
Other decoders that have/are being considered:
– Lenz Silver+/Gold+ mini (no advantages over ESU)
– DZ126T from Digitrax (out of contention too)
– Doehler & Haas’ D&H10C (may still be an option – priced as Kuhn but with limited documentation)
– CT Elektronik decoders (likely to have a closer look at these)
– Zimo decoders
Hopefully arriving soon will be the ZIMO MX622 which I finally managed to source for a good price from Germany – it seems to tick all the boxes at a price below the ESU and may just offer firmware updating without an expensive programming tool using my Z21 too.
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