Hello, Im fairly new to the model railroading.
I am building my n scale layout and have Atlas switches with an NCE Power cab. I have a total of 8 swithes on my layout. I am trying to connect them all remotley. I couldn't seem to find the Digikeijs switch 8anywhere is the USA. and was referred to the NCE Qsnap-mk2 which controls 4 switches. I am trying to figure out how to control both decoders(i bought two since I have 8 switches) with my Power cab. prior to full installation. Please forgive me, I am not that technically inclined when it comes to the programming.
I guess my questions is, How do I connect both to my system with easily swithing between the two decoders to acces different switches. Do I need to change the address of one of the decoders, and can the NCE Power cab do this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Happy Holidays!
Welcome to the forum. Your posts are delayed in moderation for a bit.
I have a PowerCab, but was unfamiliar with the Qsnap. It is for twin coil switch machines, The directions are found here
If i was in snarky mode I would say just read the directions, but it's not obvious to me how you configure a second Qsnap. If you don't get any help here, there is an active NCE group on groups.io
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Looking at the instructions, and not too deeply, they say that the device comes pre-programmed with the outputs, or addresses, numbered 1 through 4.
So the second device would need to have its output addresses changed to 5 through 8.
These addresses are called accessory addresses. So with the power cab you would have to select the accessory, or turnout, you want to throw. Once you do that, pressing 1 or 2 will make the turnout move one way or the other.
I believe that you can change the addresses to anything you want so you are not limited to 1 through 8. But you would have to read the 'sturctions to determine if there is any restriction on the possible addresses.
The description provided by maxman is accurate and a good starting point for you.
Here is an excellent tutorial that NCE provides for the QSnap-Mk2:
https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/200679319/QSnap-Mk2-V1_0.pdf
As you can see,there is a range of accessory addresses, 1 to 2044, that can be assigned to the 8 outputs.
The NCE Power Cab supports the QSnap-Mk2.
One other NCE device that may interest you, now or in the future, is the Mini-Panel. This device interacts with the QSnap-Mk2 device(s) and allows the user to "program" routes for multiple switches. This is particularly useful in yards and passenger train stations.
Rich
Alton Junction