Monday, December 07, 2015

Why DCC is rubbish #375 - Wheel cleaning

Wheel cleaning

Wheel cleaning under DC
  • Place loco upside down in Peco cradle
  • Attach flyleads to the back of a controller
  • Hold leads against wheels
  • Hold fibre pen on each wheel in turn
  • Wait for a few moments and shiny metal is revealed
  • Take loco away and repeat

Wheel cleaning under DCC
  • Place loco upside down in Peco cradle
  • Realise you can't attach flyleads to the back of the controller
  • Try to find a spot where you can clip them to the track and not destroy some detail
  • Work out which number loco you are cleaning
  • Dial up the number on the keypad
  • Turn up controller
  • Realise you've dialed up the wrong number
  • Dial up the correct number
  • Hold leads against wheels
  • Hold fibre pen on each wheel in turn
  • Wait for a few moments and shiny metal is revealed
  • Take loco away
  • Place next loco in cradle
  • Realise you can't remember the number
  • Decide that the wheels aren't that dirty anyway

3 comments:

Paul B. said...

Carefull now Phil, don't you know that DCC, along with Static Grass and 3D Printing, forms the New Modelling Religion?

I note that its now possible to control your locos from your phone. Perhaps theres a wheel cleaning app on the horizon...

Huw Griffiths said...

This stuff is only likely to work if you can remember what number your controller calls your loco.

I don't know for sure - but it's possible that any "loco controller" Android apps might allow for locos to be selected using avatars (which could, perhaps, be photos).

I'll admit to not really being a fan of DCC, static grass or 3D printing. I'm interested from a technical angle - what's involved - what makes them tick - what the results are like - that sort of thing. However, I'm not planning on buying any of this stuff any time soon.

Despite this, if I build any new model locos, railbuses, or whatever, I'm likely to fit a DIY 8 pin DCC socket. However, there is a reason for this apparent madness.

Running all the wiring in a loco through a neat, standardized, plug / socket arrangement like this is likely to make faultfinding / maintenance easier than it might otherwise be. It allows different bits to be isolated, while I run a digital multimeter over it or do other checks. Colour coding of wiring also helps - as long as a standard colour code is used.

In other words, I'll happily use the bits of DCC that work for me - but I'll give the rest a miss. I hope I haven't upset anyone - but DCC isn't really for me.

Luke said...

Hi Phil, unless you've specifically disabled dc compatability then cleaning is identical for both. Just do the same to the DCC loco as for a DC one. Unless you've not brought a DC supply... If that's the case it's useful to have a bridge rectifier at the ends of the croc cables. Then just connect to the track and go as DC. Hope that helps. Luke