1
1: Automotive taillight
bulbs, wired in series in
a power block feed, indi-
cate short circuits with-
out tripping breakers in
some – not all – DCC
systems.
My EasyDCC installation used older Lenz boosters that reacted
slowly enough to short circuits for the bulbs to work great. You
need a booster that reacts at about 250 milliseconds or longer.
Anything faster and the booster wins, not the bulb.
NCE boosters and Digitrax systems still work great with the
bulbs. Digitrax systems have a firmware OPs switch that controls
short response time, and if you set it to half a second (500 milli-
seconds) the bulbs work great. Lenz systems are too fast, except
for their oldest LV100 boosters. The EasyDCC boosters are the
other way: the older EasyDCC booster cards don't work.
See my two-minute video about using 1156s for short manage-
ment at
– Joe Fugate
Why are we talking about taillights? What's an 1156? An 1156
is a 12 volt incandescent automobile bulb. It generates light by
heating a wire filament.
