Gentlemen,
Having retro-fitted my 1st DCS Layout I learned that using the Star wiring does have its advantages for DCS, and Legacy & Conventional run well with it also. However the myth that all the wires in a star wiring pattern, must be of equal length, I disproved very quickly, on that particular 1st retro-fit multi level layout. I also found during my 2nd DCS Christmas layout, that the DCS signal deteriorated due to track joins, not just length of track, this along with the Magic Lights MartyF found about that time, increased my DCS signal big time, and the layouts started to run with all 10's thru out. Now that the Rev L TIU increases DCS signal, the Magic Lights are needed a lot less. Lots of different factors determine how to set up a DCS/Legacy layout. The DCS O Gauge Companion provides great instructions for engineering a DCS/Legacy layout, however if you start to engineer in a different manner, some of the things tested will work, and then some will not. IMO the O Gauge Companion gives the owner/builder exacting instructional information that will work every time, when followed. If you take the engineering further altering it as I do, you learn some of these engineering alterations work well at times, some don't work at all.
PCRR/Dave
