I have the NCE interface and would like to hook it up dirrectly to my SB3 using one of the six wire cab bus cables. Is this doable? The photo in the literature with the interface shows one of the four wire coil cords hooked up through the facia, but I am attempting to use it with the SB3 and there is no pics for it.
Also, I feel a bit dense here, I have a Rail Logic fast clock that only gives me "Co 1.0" and will not show the clock. I attempted hooking it up to the SB3 with no luck and also attempted to run it off a back of one of the panels, but no luck. Am I to impatient? Does it take a few minutes to calibrate or something?
Thanks in advance for any help?
John
Which interface do you have? The USB one? That woudl connect to one of the three cab jacks on the SB3. It's a 6 wire cable, not 4. The 4 wire cable on the PowerHouse is the control bus to connnect additional boosters.
Rail Logic fast clock? Do you mean Logic Rail Technologies? If it never displays time that means it is not getting a fast clock signal on the cab bus. You either have it turned off or it is not supported by the SB3 - but since it's in the PowerCab the SB3 should also support the clock.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hey Randy,
I stand corrected, it is a Logic Rail fast clock. I left it plugged into the SB3 and unplugged the 2 extra cabs I have but left the Powercab plugged in and it came to life. I don't think thats how its supposed to work but I can deal with it.
Yes I was refering to the USB interface. I was thinking of running it off a Windows XP computor but its in the kitchen away from the garage layout and would make it difficult to deal with. I have a Windows 98 system that I could utilize but need to hook it up to the internet to obtain the proper driver and any updates. Do you think the 98 system will be ok or should I scrap that idea and go for the XP. If I go with the XP I cannot move it so I would have to have some long cables. I have a 25 foot bus cable, would this work?
You may have some software issued with 98 since it's so out of date. I wouldn't think a 25 foot cab bus cable would be too long for reliable operation.
I read the instructions for the fast clock but it makes no mention of a cab address, but since it works when you unplug the two extra cabs it would seem you have two or more set to the same address. As I understand it, each cab in an NCE system has to use a distinct address, and also the SB3 only supports cabs with certain addresses - it's mentioned in the manual which ones are allowed.
The SB3 allows cabs 2-5, but the clock literature does not mention an address. I do hope it does not take the place of one of the throttles, then again that would still leave me with the powercab plus two 04p's.
I intend to hook up the older 98 system to the internet to see what I can make of it first as it is next to the layout. I will post results here.
Another option, and my kids may not like it, is to grab one af thier newer Vista laptops to use when programming. I don't intend to use it to control the layout rather gain better lighting effects and speed matching, so my use may be minimal.
Well, I used the 25' bus cable to connect the USB to the layout, in the garage, via a fascia panel to my desktop in the kitchen. I ran into a hiccup in that I kept getting an error message in decoder pro, so I went to a couple yahoo groups to search for answers and no matter what I searched for it did not seem as though anyone ever had this question. One guy, Jim, answered with a few suggestions. One was to remove jumper 4 on the interface so decoder pro would think it was talking to the power cab and it fired up no problem. I was able to dial up a loco and off it went. I hope the rest of the features work ok too.
Now all I need to do is catch one of the kids laptops sitting idle so I can program while next to the layout.