Made the Jump to DCC Today

[Charlie B]

Holy cow - I guessed right and it worked!

Thanks to a suggestion on the Bachmann Forum stating I should add more resistance, I increased the length of the programming track and added a Bachmann lighted Amtrak passenger car along with the HHP8 engine. I went through the programming steps to change the engine's address to the engine's road number - and it worked! I still don't understand why adding resistance allowed the Zephyr to "see" and write to the decoder...but it worked. Go figure.

Herc, if all you did was put a put a lighted passenger car on the track, you dropped the resistance in the circuit and increased the current. That is why it worked. If you add a resistor in series you increase resistance. Now I understand what they were telling you to begin with which was probably to put the resistor across the rails. Anyhow, glad you got it running and I'll keep that advice in mind for when I have trouble.
Charlie