I'm new to the board, but have been watching it since I started this six months ago. When my son was small we had a DC HO system, but now I don't have room and have built an n scale door based DCC system.
2 weeks ago I spent 3 days soldering connections onto a PM42. I made a mess. I just got the breakout board from Accu-Lite, which made an amazing difference.
I had a zephyr express a week ago that I thought I needed to change the op sw. I returned it. It was a mess with what I'd already put together. I DID use it to try to program the PM42 op sw, but I don't think it worked. I, at one time changed the board address, but I THINK I put it back.
The rest of the system is the NCE powercab. It works. The connection to my laptop works. JMRI works.
Now I don't know how to change, or make sure the op sw, and the address of the PM42 are changed. I've spent forever on the internet and I'm just confused.
Can somebody tell me if I need some new hardware to make the PM42 opsw and addresses change, or confirm they're changed? I've heard JMRI can do this. Anybody have idiot proof instructions on how to do this? Do I somehow set up two interfaces, what do I do with the buttons on the PM42 etc.
Any help will be GREATLY appreciated
You need a Digitrax throttle to set the OpSw settings on the PM42. JMRI can do it but you need a Loconet interface and you need to set up a Loconet.
If you have just a door size layout with just a single PowerCab, you really don't need an external circuit breaker. The default settings on the PM42 won't work with the low current of the PowerCab. If you must put something between the PowerCab and the rails, the CP6 would be the thing. There's little need for anything else. The usual reason for other circuit breakers is so that on a larger layout, someone derailing and shorting on one part of the layout won't shut down people running trains on other parts. If you're only running one train, the breaker in the powerCab is sufficient.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks so much for the help!!! With the DCC and computer and electrical, there are many places that could be at fault when 'it just won't work'. My biggest revelation recently is that DCC is alternating current and that the reversers switch the phase, rather than switching positive and negative. I have learned MANY lessons since starting this. Probably the best one is that it is never finished. I like it like that.
The reason for the pm42 is for the autoreversers. I have two reversing sections. I had a pair of AR1's and they stopped working. I had a spaghetti mess of wires, so I rewired it into blocks and made it much prettier (and labelled all the wires this time). Eventually, if I ever get to that point I will maybe do some block detectors. I'm using my laptop now with it, but I have a raspberry pi with a touchscreen ready to commit to it. Just harder to enter data.
Thanks again!!!