Not all of the scenery on a railway is passive. There are lights, cranes, windmills, waterwheels and such like that add movement and "life" to the scene. These can be left permanently on; but to add even more life, they can operate to a realistic pattern of "daily life".
CML Electronics MSC8 was designed to control this kind of effect. It is a DCC decoder that drives a number of outputs. Each output can be turned on or off, or each output can have an "effect" that turns it on & off automatically. Outputs can control motors, servos or lighting.
Examples of effects that can be controlled include:
- A motor in a windmill that rund periodically to an apparently random pattern
- A smoke generator in a fire scene that is active for one minute every 5 minutes
- Police car lights
- Flashing lights on a level crossing
- A flickering candle or oil lamp
- Lights in a house that turn on & off to a random pattern