The DCC Project

I have been interested in electronics, especially micro-controllers for a while. The same goes for programming. I have dealt with them professionally too though micros was many moons ago. When I got into model trains, it was inevitable that I try to put the three together.

Objectives

• Use a PC for the front-end
• Use a PIC based DCC command station
• The two communicate using the serial port. Use ASCII to allow testing using a terminal.
• Put as much of the complexity on the PC as possible and keep the command station simple

Components

To have a complete DCC layout, you need several components. In order of increasing difficulty, they are

• Front End Software
  To simplify the design of the command station and to present the user with a user-friendly graphical interface, a front end program has to be written.



• Command Station
  A Command Station together with a few mobile decoders are enough to start a DCC layout. Mobile decoders are the most difficult part. These are easily available and the cost is hard to beat by building your own. The command station, however, is an expensive component and makes sound economic sense to build one.



• Accessory Decoder
  This would be the next component. This would complete the DCC system assuming ready-made DCC mobile decoders are used. The logic used will come in handy if I ever decided to build my own mobile decoders. Unlike mobiles, there are no serious size constraints.



• Mobile Decoder
  This would be the last component. In addition to the higher level of complexity in decoding a DCC signal, there are size constraints as well. This also involves SMD and double sided custom PCBs. In addition, commercial mobile decoders are getting cheaper. However, this a challenging task. Some day...

You can check my progress with the DCC Project.

DCC Links

Here are some DCC related resources that may be of interest to a build-your-own-DCC hobbyist.

Updated on 1 Nov 2000. Feedback to