I'm in N scale and I just got done wiring my bus today and when I put power to the system, the throttle lot up and worked, but the red LED on the panel face was not lit. I am using 18 gauge wire and connected the bus to the feeders using electrical nuts. I was wondering if anybody could help me out?
PAD1717 - Welcome to trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
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PAD,
Did you connect your Power Cab to the LEFT receptacle of your PCP panel?
If you connect the Power Cab to the right receptacle, your Power Cab will light up but the red LED won't. The left receptacle is what supplies power to the track; the right receptacle is for any additional throttles.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Did you read the manual? The cord with six pins gets plugged into the left jack. It is the longer flat cord. \
If that is what you did, is the Cab display lit? if not, there is a short.
Try to give us more in the way of details of what you did.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I did plug the six pin connector into the left jack as said. I got power to the throttle, just none to the tracks at all.
I read the manual and did exactly as it said, I believe it might be my wiring but I am not sure. There were some wires with Knicks out of them but I applied some electrical tape over them. I have color coded feeders and I ended the bus in an electrical but twisted in with a feeder.
Do you have a short? Disconnect the two leads from the back of the NCE panel at the track end. See if the LED lights up. Then use an electrical meter on the AC scale to read across the two leads. See if you read a voltage between them.
And I don't believe any of us will understand what you mean by "and I have ended the bus in an electrical but twisted in with a feeder".
PAD1717 I read the manual and did exactly as it said, I believe it might be my wiring but I am not sure. There were some wires with Knicks out of them but I applied some electrical tape over them. I have color coded feeders and I ended the bus in an electrical but twisted in with a feeder.
We still need more details. Which wires have knicks? Is the copper wire at that spot cut?
Since the display is lit, it is obvious you do not have a short.
Connect your multimeter on the AC scale to the output of the Power Cab where the wires connect to the track. It should read maybe between 12 to 15 VAC.
If no multimeter, connect a common 12 volt auto light bulb to that same spot. It should light up. Many use a common 1156 auto light bulb as a temporary load/indicator for DCC. Auto supply stores even sell the matching socket with a couple wire leads.
You can then use that light bulb to check for power on the rails at different spots on your layout but I would get cheap digital multimeter which I have been using for some years.
I will post a picture of what I did and maybe it will make more sense, I'm not good at explaining it.
I also read that you can take an old mrc power pack to test also, if that will work.
It sound like you have faulty wiring between the NCE panel and the track. The first thing to check is the back of the NCE panel to insure that you have the wires firmly attached at that end. Then check the track end.
If none of these connections are loose, and you used solid rather than stranded wire, you may have a wire with a broken conductor. Replace that wire with a new one and see if this doesn't correct the problem.
I am using stranded wire for feeders and solid wire for the bus.
Also, I'm 17 and new to dcc so someof this stuff is kinda out their for me.
So you think it might be something with my bus wiring? And also, I tried a trick that someone told me. They said to hook up an old mrc power pack, which I did, and ran an engine with just dc and the engine ran, but at certain spots in the layout, the engine died on the track or ran jerky.
PAD1717 ... the engine ran, but at certain spots in the layout, the engine died on the track or ran jerky.
... the engine ran, but at certain spots in the layout, the engine died on the track or ran jerky.
All these are symptoms of dirty locomotive wheels, dirty track, and poor electrical connections at the rail joiners, especially if you have used some type of sectional track and didn't solder the rail joints.
Sometimes the red LED is bad.......I had to replace mine.
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
PAD1717 Also, I'm 17 and new to dcc so someof this stuff is kinda out their for me.
I was wondering about that with just a few post. At least you did some troubleshooting.
DCC is quite sensitive to poor pickup. Good track work, connections, clean track, powered frogs and locos with all wheel pickup is usually mandatory. I have never found any difference between solid or stranded wire for DCC OK, easier to pull stranded when the size is say 14 or 12.
We haven't heard from the OP since July 5th, so he either solved the problem or gave up.