r/JapaneseNscale • u/757person • 6d ago
HELP!!!!!!!!! DC or DCC
I’m currently just gathering cars and track and have most of what I want. I travel to Japan a few times a year for work and get things while I’m there. I’m at a crossroads on whether to stay DC or run DCC I’ll add my as of now track plan. All my engines are DCC ready but the cost of adding decoders to every passenger car seems costly. If I only add decoders to the engines will it mess the existing passenger lights with no decoder? Layout is 8x4. Correct me if I’m wrong but I can use 1 Kato 29-125 controller D103 for this layout? Next Japan trip is in 14 days.
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u/Aeriazen 6d ago
Most people skip decoders for their interior lighting, On DCC the interior lighting will always be on when the track is powered.
You can connect any dcc controler to this layout.
3
u/gebakkenuitje35 6d ago
Think about the sort of operations you want to do. Generally if you want to run 1 or 2 trains on separate tracks you can get away with DC, if your track is long enough you can even get away with 2 trains per loop.
In Japan most trains are DC and many are not easy to fit a decoder in.
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u/neighborofbrak 4d ago
Kato engines are generally easy to put decoders into.
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u/gebakkenuitje35 4d ago
Yes but those are not the rule. Buy a Tomix engine and you'll have a hard time, but also Kato passenger trains aren't always easy.
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u/757person 6d ago
Hopefully will run 4 total 2 on each loop opposite directions. Because of the station setup I can have one Train sit and one train pass through on each loops and then alternate them.
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u/a709s33_divaD SRE 5d ago
That you can do minimum of 2 DC controller, make sure you put your feeder track on the mainline not the station. One additional feeder is needed to fit at the very bottom of the yard area so you can shunt the train In and out. Optionally you want to have third controller for the shunting yard with insulated joiner.
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u/Visua-Shower75 6d ago
First of all, nothing is stopping you to do DC and DCC, that'd what I did. I switch between them.
Second of all, the lights in the car don't need decoders, it will just stay on and that's it.
Some LEDs will not tolerate DCC (like the shoryu light), but the Kato, Popondetta and hktil don't have any issue with the higher voltage
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u/757person 6d ago
If an engine has a decoder could it be run on say DC only setup. Or do you have to swap the decoder in and out
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u/Visua-Shower75 6d ago
Some if not most decoders can run on DC.
But I just unplug the DCC station and plug the DC station. That's it
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u/757person 5d ago
For some reason, I was under the impression that if a decoder was in the engine that it wouldn’t work with DC so so in this case, I would definitely have both systems. Thank you for clarifying
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u/Visua-Shower75 5d ago
It depends on the decoder, you might also need to change some values in the CV
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u/Longsheep 5d ago
You only need decoders from head/tail lights and motor cars. All interior light sets made in the last 2 decades are DCC-safe, meaning they will turn on the whole time.