richhotrain Also, you mentioned "too much bad product". Not necessarily. A lot of repairs are the result of customer handling of the product. Rich
Also, you mentioned "too much bad product". Not necessarily. A lot of repairs are the result of customer handling of the product.
Rich
"A lot"? I'm going to say "most". I have yet to get a bad decoder out of the box (haven't fried any myself, either). Or a bad piece of DCC equipment out of the box - including the stuff I bought used.
In none of these cases are you dealing with a big company. In the Rapido video where they visited TCS - they run that in the guy's basement, and there's maybe 5 employees. NCE isn't much bigger. Digitrax doesn't have much more than 20 or so either.
Also, lots of newcomers this time of year, bet repair turnarounds in the middle of Summer when the seasonal modelers are out doing other things are much faster.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
woodone I don't expect instant repairs or any thing close to that. I do expect a reasonaly amount of time to repair or replace some things. 'The time I was told by Ed at NCE was 4 to 5 weeks. There are 4.3 weeks per month so they are taking over a month to turn things-has I said earlier, they don't have the man power or too much bad product is getting out the door. I have spent way too many years in the service field to buy into a 4 or 5 week turn-that is just my opinion. When work loads start to back up you change some thing to fix that. The COVO is getting too much blame for way too many things.
I don't expect instant repairs or any thing close to that.
I do expect a reasonaly amount of time to repair or replace some things.
'The time I was told by Ed at NCE was 4 to 5 weeks. There are 4.3 weeks per month so they are taking over a month to turn things-has I said earlier, they don't have the man power or too much bad product is getting out the door. I have spent way too many years in the service field to buy into a 4 or 5 week turn-that is just my opinion. When work loads start to back up you change some thing to fix that. The COVO is getting too much blame for way too many things.
Alton Junction
Everybody expects something instantly these days. They probably can only have one person working at a time because they don't have a giant shop to allow for proper social distancing.
Per their web site, they are currently returning items received the week of 1/25, so pretty much exactly 4 weeks.
Frankly, I'm glad they, and Digitrax, actually repair things instead of tossing them and sending a new one (though if too fried, they do send replacements).
For the OP, if installing that turnout caused a steady short, it may have damaged the SB5,. You might want to also order an EB1 breaker and install that between the SB5 and track when the SB5 comes back from repair.
Big Daddy- That may be true. You are comparing federal works with privet works. I think privet company's can do much better.
You are problem right with the number of repair workers.
Thats why I said they need more help. Hard to measure the work load and see which products are causing the back log.
woodoneWOW-- 4 to 5 weeks for a repair?
Sounds like a deal that's hard to pass up. I mailed a check to my mother's nursing home on Jan 28th and it took 3.5 weeks to get there.
How many guys do you think they have doing repairs? My guess is one.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I just read the NCE repair page listed earlier.
WOW-- 4 to 5 weeks for a repair? I have always been happy with NCE, I have two Power Cabs and a older SB-3 Booster. Seems like they need more help--OR Heaven forbid some faulty product is getting out.
but I guess good help is hard to find.
NCE instructions from July 2020 about handling a dead SB5:
https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203688815-SB5-Smartbooster-not-working-?mobile_site=true
Are there any strands of wire across the output terminals of the SB5?
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.
Not knowing anything about electronics, I would not open it up.
Did you register the unit?
When I bought my Power Cab I registered it. The back light stopped working. NCE repaired it for free.
Good News, Bad News. The good news is I do not have a short in my track. The bad news is that it must be in the SB5 unit. I completely disconnected the SB5 and set up my original connection for the Power Cab system and everything works. My layout is only about 14 x 18 and I really ionly run one or two locos at a time so I don't need the SB5 for power. I really only got it to allow more flexibilty for when my grandsons come over and want to run trains at the same time. I don't understand how the SB5 could develop a short. It has not been dropped or even moved around. But like I said, I know nothing about electronics. Is there any chance I can open up the SB5 and find the problem? Thanks
wdcrvr
Just disconnect the power source before trying to use a buzzer like that. It may be OK with the buzzer limiting current or the low current source of a multimeter, but why take chances? Feeding power back in the booster's output drive is generally not good. It's why the DCC equipment takes a hit if you accidently mix DC and DCC on the same track.
Some years ago I picked up a buzzer from Radio Shack and connected a 9 volt battery. With a couple wires to the track the buzzer would go off with any short when laying track. Some ohm meters have that option.
Sounds like a short to me. What type of turnout is it?
Disconnect the track wires at teh SB5 and turn everything on. If it powers up normally, definitely a short in the track somewhere.
I was working on a turnout to set it up with a switch that would power the frog in accordance with which way the turnout was set. I have removed all wires that were temoporarily attached and cleaned the area to make sure there is nothing causing a short there.
What did you do to railroad between now and last time you ran? Perhaps left something across tracks, or possibly derailed something?
Turned on my system today (NCE power cab with an SB5 booster) Power cab contoller flashes on and off and the red STATUS light on the booster flashes on and off and beeps. Where do I start?