Digital Tester of the DCC Signal Reception Quality

Abstract

DCC (Digital Command and Control) is an operation standard for digital model train networks. By means of the DCC signal, broadcasted throughout the entire digital railway system, every item performs like its real-life counterpart. Despite the hardware and software safety measures, the extent and shape of large railway systems and the contacts between the rails, wheels and pickup collectors of model trains can impede the reception of the DCC signal, which may lead to the malfunction of their digital decoders. Thus, it is important to assess the quality of the DCC signal that reaches the digital decoders of model trains. The authors designed a DCC quality tester, which counts the valid DCC packets per second collected from the tracks of a digital railway system. It is built around a custom-programmed microcontroller and shows if the tested model train receives the DCC signal within an acceptable error rate that its decoder can handle properly. A high error rate warns that the model train and/or the tracks have problems. Thus, this digital DCC tester certifies the adequate operation of the tested digital model train, proving itself to be a useful quality-testing tool for model railroaders.