128 as a two digit address

[ncrc5315]

Why under DCC, is 128 considered a two digit address, but not 129, what is the reason for the dividing line?

[Mark R.]

It's actually 1 to 127 can be considered 2-digit. This page explains it all for you ....

dccwiki.com/Address_Range

Mark.

[ncrc5315]

Thanks Mark, interesting reading.

[edwardsutorik]

It's been cautioned to refer to these as "short adress" and "long address".

Mark Gurries has a very nice article on the subject:

sites.google.com/site/markgurries/home/technical-discussions/decoder-addressing/address-confusion

Note, for example, with NCE you COULD assign one loco an address of 50 (a short address), and that you could assign another loco with 50 (entered as a long address). Unwise. But possible.

I assigned my GN #1 an address of 0001, and it ran nicely on my NCE equipped trackage. When I tried it on Digitrax: NOPE. So I changed the address to a short one (1). Now it will work on both systems.

Thing is, Digitrax (and perhaps NCE) uses the short addresses for consists, I believe by starting down from 127. GN 1 is a LONG way down from 127, so I doubt it will ever have a problem on a Digitrax system. But I DO have RF&P 126. Oh, my, a problem. Which I will have to deal with when I install a decoder.

So. If you only run on NCE systems, I recommend a long address for everything. Even Ole #1: 0001


Ed

PS: I don't know that I HAVE to enter 0001 for the long address. It just feels "right", though: ALWAYS four digits.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

My mileage has varied on NCE. We have some 2 digit units on the railroad at Andy Keeney’s Nashville Road* and generally have them so that at least you enter Zero-X-X when acquiring the loco making it a “Long” address rather than X-X, a short address. Andy uses NCE/Radio control as that seems to be majority use in our part of the model RR world in Michigan.


*See the Dec MRH for an in depth look at the Nashville Rd., Yours truly in pic 75 in a red cap.