DCC Simulator Project

I spend a lot of time at my workbench when my Arthritis pain prevents me from working on my layout.  One of my main things is restoring old clunker locomotives that I find at our local train show and off eBay.  As part of the restoral process I wire all my locomotives for DCC operation.

I needed a simple way of insuring that my rewiring is correct so I put together a DCC Simulator making it super simple to check for errors.

I came up with a circuit that fully tests the DCC functions.  I bought a 4" x 2⅝" x 2" plastic enclosure that the parts would fit in.  The little box is very durable and will withstand banging around.

I made a label CAD drawing that would fit under the clear plastic top so that it wouldn't get beat up under heavy use.

The circuit above will allow the locomotive to be fully tested as well as having the ability to test a DCC decoder for proper operation.

With 12 DC connected to the red and black wires on the right and the locomotive connector connected to the locomotive connector and placing the toggle in the Locomotive Test position the simulator will operate the locomotive motor, headlight and taillight as well as Function 3.

With the red and black wires connected to DCC track power and the toggle in the Decoder Test position and a decoder under test plugged into the decoder connector the Locomotive connected to the Locomotive connector will function along with the LEDs will operate from the DCC command controller.

After banging the tester around I found an error.  The Male connector (Locomotive connector) pins were continually bent so I replaced it with a female connector and made a male to male adapter that can remain in the test cable.  That keeps the test cable male to female so that it can be used a DCC extension test cable.