@stan2004 posted:I think the O Gauge Companion will address your questions.
BTW, I believe it also addresses yet another "manual" alternative to the PBW-DCSRC. That is, as long as you send ANY valid DCS command to a newly powered DCS engine, it will start up silently in the shutdown mode. So. There is a 2-step process to power up and siding.
Step 1. Flip the SPST switch to power up the siding and presumably a DCS engine.
Step 2. Within 1 sec (or so) of Step 1, press a DCSRC remote button so that the DCSRC receiver sends a DCS command on the track to the engine. That is, a DCS engine will power up in the silent shutdown mode if it sees ANY valid DCS command. It does NOT have to be the watchdog bark.
I believe this is the first instance of a pair of DCSRCs in this configuration. All previous OGR discussions have been with a full-blown TIU augmented by a PBW-DCSRC.
So if you only have 1 DCSRC at present, I guess one way to look at it is you need at least 3 DCSRCs. If you end up converting the 3 DCSRCs to PBW-DCSRC and pony-up the cash for a full-blow DCS/TIU then so be it. Otherwise, from what I can tell using eBay as a metric, you should probably be able to re-sell any extra DCSRC units with a small profit! I'm not sure I've seen a PBW-DCSRC on eBay, but then again that too may be an avenue to at least breaking even on your experimentation!
Thank you for the info Stan,
I really do appreciate that you appreciate what I am trying to do.
It may be a bit out of the box, but again, even if I do go full DCS, I will need three PBW's anyway.
Roger