Test track

As a diversion from painting and staining, I added a Sn3 track to my test board. It is just a piece of 2" leftover styrofoam on which I have glued down a loop of N scale Kato track and now also a short piece of Sn3 track. Power is added at the top of the board to the two small wires.

I recently bought a Sprog kit that attaches my desktop computer to the test track. The best part of this is that Decoder Pro, a free open source software runs on the computer and through the Sprog to the track. This enables me to program the decoders in the locomotives as well as see what the settings are, and then make a record of each locomotive's settings. So - if I mistakenly reprogram a loco and screw things up, I can put it on the test track and reprogram to the right settings with one button push. Finally it allows me to run the loco and see the effects of the changes I made.

Also, since Soundtraxx tsunami sound decoders do not have easy one step speed tables, Decoder Pro allows me to set the speed tables with slider switches on screen and do the speed table that way. Rather than programming each step individually. I use the loop track to run in my locos as well as speed match all of them to the same settings. That way I can consist any locos I want together and they run identically at all throttle settings.

If you want use Decoder Pro (and it is a great piece of .software) and are interested in a Sprog, visit their web site.

http://www.sprog-dcc.co.uk

Best of all, it is Mac compatible and is super easy to set up. Even comes with good instructions as well as all the software. incidentally, you can use Decoder Pro with most newer computers and attach it to your DCC system without the Sprog. It is just that the Sprog makes it all so simple.