As stated in the general forum I installed a new NCE power cab last night. So far I love it. But what I did is extremely temporary. My layout was wired for block and terminal control. I unplugged the B powerpack and plugged in the NCE power cab into this power feed. I set all of my selector switches to B. My DC A power pack (turned off!)is still wired into the selector switches. I know about not mixing the two and burning up decoders and all. My question is this. When I do the permanent install, can I keep using the selector switches and the existing wiring. Or do I need to run a bus with feeder wires? Basically redoing the whole layout, not a fun proposition. Or can I just change out the switches and install the fuse protectors I've been reading about? Do I need to wire in a programming track or just use the mainline, one engine at a time on the track. I only plan on running three at the most as the layout is not that big. I am also thinking about installing some kind of toggle switch and keep my DC power pack installed. I have several old DC engines (over 25 yrs old) I don't plan to convert but I would like to run them for sentimental reasons. Any feedback on any of these questions would be welcomed and greatly appreciated.
You can just leave the wiring as is. If you run any DC only loco's on DCC using 0 you will have someplace to store them with the power off. You may need to rewire if you have common rail wiring now. Some of the DCC systems don't recomend common rail wiring or require the booster to be configured for it.
I have a common rail system with six blocks. So just forget about the DC switch for now, and stay DCC100%. Do I need to rewire the the track? Install Isolators on both rails and a wire to each section? I have an NCE powercab. Got some money invested in this thing, don't need to fry anything.
Nope, just hook the PowerCab in place of you old power pack, and turn all the block switches on. If you only have one feed for the entire layout ont he common rail side you might need to add more to make sure you have solid power everywhere on the layout. Forget DC, you'll never want to go back now.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
As noted earlier you should just hook it up and connect the blocks. You should of course do the quarter test to make sure that the wiring was sufficient. While the DCC is hooked up take a quarter and short out the rails at the farthest point on each block. It should trip the protection circuits on the CAB. If it doesn't then your bus isn't large enough. If it does you're good to go.
It's important that shorts shut down the layout. Otherwise you can damage decoders or cause potentially cause other problems.
Good Luck
Springfield PA