I just set up an NCE PH-Pro 5 amp with 1 Power Cab on a Kato Unitrack test track. I addressed a Broadway Limited ALCO PA loco with Paragon sound decoder, and a Kato ES44AC with their respective long addresses. Both work fine right off the bat for the 10 minutes I ran it. The PA bell, horn, light, and movement all worked. Everything I described above is new out of the box, and I am new to DCC, but have done a fair amount of research. I turned the 5 amp transformer switch off, came back 15 minutes later turned it back on. Now the Kato loco works fine, but PA won't run. The headlight is on all the time, but nothing else. I've tried resetting the address. I didn't create a consist, but I tried delete anyway. The PA feels warm to the touch, but I'm sure it didn't smoke. I also have a Kato FEF 3 new out of the box that won't do anything at all, completely dead. I'm not sure if the problem is related or not. There is no shop with a test track near me that I can go to help troubleshoot. Any ideas?
When you tried resetting the address, did you also reset CV29? Instead of resetting the address, try a decoder reset -- CV8 = 8. Then turn off the power or tip to loco so the wheels on one side are off the rail, hold for a couple of seconds, and then try running it on address 3, which is the factory default.
With NCE, don't enter leading zeros on any address, which, for some reason, a lot of people on these forums seem to recommend based on how other systems perform.
No other systems require leading zeros for short addresses that I am aware of. Since with other systems, and address of 3 is short, and always short, it can be a shortcut to erase the previously used address - say I last was running loco 1234 on my Digitrax system. if I hit the Loco button to select a different address, it displays the last used address (1234) with the cursor under the 1. I can either delete that out and hit 3, or I can hit 0003 and get it right in there. The leading zeros have no meaning. 3, 03, 003, 0003 are all the same. It's the oddity of NCE that allows 1-127 to be long address that make the leading zeros mean something, so the display showing just 3 means short address 3, as normally expected, and the display showing 003 means long address 3, which will never run a default out of the box loco. Where this is a problem is if you program loco 50 as a long address, it won't run on other systems.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy and cacole
To add to the confusion with the NCE Powercab, you have to put in address '3' as you said but the throttle reads back '003'. I think that a lot of the confusion with getting the default address correct on the NCE system is a result of that read-back.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
steamdream I just set up an NCE PH-Pro 5 amp with 1 Power Cab on a Kato Unitrack test track.
I just set up an NCE PH-Pro 5 amp with 1 Power Cab on a Kato Unitrack test track.
With so many locos failing, it sounds like the problem is with the NCE command station.
Rich
Alton Junction