Hi, I have a question for the 2-railers. When a DCS locomotive is sitting on an isolated siding and you want to power that siding to run the train, is there the issue where that locomotive will immediately start-up? This happens in 3-rail and GRJ has developed the watchdog solution, but I am wondering if this issue occurs in 2-rail as well.
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I am guessing it will. The only difference between 2 rail and 3 rail electrically is where the contacts are. 3 rail uses 2 outside rails for one contact and the center rail for the other. 2 rail uses one outside rail for each contact. Once past the contacts/pickups, it should be electrically/electronically the same.
This type of behavior was quite common with early DCC decoders. DCC decoders have the option of turning straight DC off through programming CV 29. So the solution for DCC was/is to just turn off the decoder reponse for straight DC/AC.
I run DCS in 2 rail. There is no difference in how it operates. You need the watchdog signal, otherwise your loco will immediately come up in conventional as soon as you apply the power. In other words, awake and ready to go!
As John says, DCS is DCS whether on three rails or two rails and in any size it's offered. The exact same board is used in O-gauge and G-Gauge, and even the HO smaller board has the exact same behavior.
DCC is apples and oranges, it's a totally different animal.
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