Wiring an MRC Power Station 8 power booster into an NCE CS02 DCC system

[tstage]

TheK4Kid

But lacking the availability of any tech information on it, I decided to go ahead and purchase the NCE DB5 unit.

I presume you meant "SB5" unit, since you acknowledge earlier that the DB5s can only be daisy-chained to an SB5.

[Edit: Looks like you edited your post at the same time I was posting this.  Never mind.]

Tom

[TheK4Kid]

Since there is very little technical information available on the MRC Power Station 8 , I ordered an NCE SB5 power booster unit. It comes with its own DC power supply and will hook up to the CS02 unit. It is differerent from the NCE power units I have for the CS01 units.

The NCE DB5 unit will not work with the NCE CS02 unit unless an SB5 unit is hooked up to the CS02 unit. The NCE SB5 power booster units are in very short supply.

NCE is out of stock , so as I searched the internet for them I found only one supplier on Ebay carried them and had only 2 left, so I ordered one.

As I searched many of those who carry them as a regullar item, all of them were out of stock and were quite high priced on them anyway.

My only other alternative was to completly change over to a Digitrax system, but I already have the NCE CS02 brand new, so I decided to see if I could find the SB5 unit it will work with.

Fortunately I found one and the price was quite reasonable.

I have been quite displeased with the CS01 units, I started off with one when I was building my layout. It lasted about one year, then sent out a puff of smoke about a year later.

There were no short circuits anywhere on the layout. I sent it in to NCE for repair.I got it back about 6 weeks later, and once again, a year later it burned out again. I purchased a second CS01 unit, and it lasted less than a year and failed. I sent it back to NCE for repair, and this time it lasted only 6 months before failing.

I have two local friends who also were using NCE CS01 units and they too both had their units fail in 8 to 15 months.

On the NCE website I read where NCE retired the CS01 units and developed the CS02 units using some of the same technology Digitrax was using.

I took it to mean that the CS01 units were not as reliable as the newer CS02 units, and the CS02 unit and the newer Power Cab units have upated technology over the older ones.

So I decided to set my older CS01 units on a workshop shelf and purchase the newer CS02 units. I purchased two at a reasonable price and will keep one as a backup unit.

At the time I purchased the CS02 units I didn't realize I would need a power booster unit and thought siunce I alkready had a brand new never used MRC Power Station 8 , perhaps I could use it.

But lacking the availability of any tech information on it, I decided to go ahead and purchase the NCE SB5 unit.

I will probably purchase a second one at a later date as a backup.

Being that it is the Christmas season and I have already spent quite a bit on other things, I will wait.I did however purchase two Menards HO buildings at a local Menards, one being the Cripple Creek Engine Repair shop and the Red Church for my layout and had Menards rebate certicates for almost $50, I decided to add the new buildings to my layout.

So thanks for the replies and Merry Christmas to all!!!

[richhotrain]

gregc

isn't the NCE CS02 a comand-station/booster?  

No, the CS02 is a command station only, no booster or power supply.

My suggestion is that the OP contact NCE tomorrow morning or sign up on the NCE DCC site on groups.io and ask his question there. 

Rich

[gregc]

i'm curious, maybe someone can help me understand

isn't the NCE CS02 a comand-station/booster?   this means besides power it has a cab bus connectoin for the controllers, a track connection and what NCE calls a control bus for additional boosters

it sounds like the CS02 is no longer working.  does this mean the command station part still works, the controllers still seem to work, but there is no track power because the booster is damaged?

looks like MRC doesn't have a separate control bus, secondary boosters are just tied to the track output of the primary unit.

so if the track outputs from the CS02 no longer work, the MRC can't be connected to them and it's not clear if the MRC unit will work with the CS02 control bus output

[maxman]

According to the NCE website the CS02 requires a 1 amp power supply and implies you can purchase one of these inexpensively.

What type of power supply were you using for the “burned out” units, which I presume were CS01?

[TheK4Kid]

Thanks Gary, but this applies only to the older NCE unit tht burned out on me

[garya]

TheK4Kid

Does anyone have any idea of how I can wire an MRC Power Station 8 booster into a newer NCE CS02 system?

I've searched for several hours on the internet and came up with nothing?

The MRC Power Station 8 is an 8 amp booster  with an "N" scale and "HO" scale adjustment knob on it.

My alternative is to spend about $240 on an NCE SB5 smart booster

Thanks in advance

 

I found this document:

https://www.modelrectifier.com/v/vspfiles/resources/dcc/power%20station%208%20AD501.pdf

Page 3 has diagrams.  Figure 1 is a wiring diagram.  Apparently you take the leads that would go to the track on your current DCC system and attach them to the DCC input screws on the Power Station 8.  

Figure 2 shows an alternate, where the command station powers part of the layout and the booster another part.  Note the track sections must be insulated from each other.

[TheK4Kid]

I've had this setting around on workshop shelf, and it is still new and unused, I purchased it for a song at a swap meet, and figured if I could use it, why spend almost $240 for an NCE SB5 unit which I need to power my rather large layout.

My older NCE unit burned up the other day while running 4 trains. the second one to do this in 6 months. Both times I had no shorts, they just gave up the ghost.

I have two of them , one as a backup, and my back up unit burned out also, only used it 6 months. I contacted NCE and they have retired the original units I have , so I bought a new CS02 but  need power for it.

[Mark R.]

My knee-jerk reaction is .... why do you think you need 8 amps ? On my layout with four operators each running two or three unit consists, I don't even approach 3 amps.

Mark.

[TheK4Kid]

Does anyone have any idea of how I can wire an MRC Power Station 8 booster into a newer NCE CS02 system?

I've searched for several hours on the internet and came up with nothing?

The MRC Power Station 8 is an 8 amp booster  with an "N" scale and "HO" scale adjustment knob on it.

My alternative is to spend about $240 on an NCE SB5 smart booster

Thanks in advance