Railmaster/elink with analog loco

[Davelg]

Can I use Railmaster in conjunction with eLink to run an analogue loco?  I can't work out how to get an ID of zero into a loco setting?

[Woody52]

Hi Dave, no you can't run an analogue locomotive using Railmaster.

Peter

[Fishmanoz]

Nor would you want to, you'd burn out the motor in the loco in no time flat. See heaps of advice in the DCC forum on this.

[Chrissaf]

Dave,

Just to put a bit more fat on the bone in support of Woody's correct reply. A DC loco doesn't have a decoder in it. So you can't put a Zero address in the loco because there is no decoder in it to be configured. The 'zero' feature you are referring to is used to put the controller (it has to be a controller that supports this feature - I believe e-link is not one of them but others may confirm this to be fact or not) into a special operation mode. This mode uses something called 'zero bit stretching'. Basically it modifies the DCC digital signal to provide a pseudo DC signal. Although thoretically the 'zero bit stretching' controller mode allows you to run a single DC loco on a DCC layout. General consensus is 'don't do it'. There are many other threads on this forum relating to the topic of running a DC loco on DCC track, they all give the same advice - don't do it. If you leave the DC loco standing still on the (always live) DCC track you have a high probability of damaging the loco electric motor. You can pick up a basic DCC decoder quite cheaply (less than £20). It's not worth taking the risk of not fitting one.

 

EDIT. Fishmanoz got in with his reply whilst I was still typing.