Model Railway Forum

Having done all the checks suggested here (and elsewhere) and reaching the reasonable conclusion something is wrong with the Powercab, contact the seller.

As it was bought new then it will be under warranty and they should accept it to return as long as are within a reasonable period since you bought it. (30 days in my view).

To clear up the MM diddlysquat bit.
DCC is a bi-polar square waveform that cannot be directly reliably measured with a standard MM. what you can get is an approximation of the roughly 15 bolts seen on a DCC track by using the AC Volts range. The exact voltage you send will depend upon the sampling rate of the meter, some meters can read as low as 9 volts and others as high as 20 volts. To get an accurate reading you either have to use an RRAMP meter or add additional circuitry to produce a DC voltage that can be accurately measured.
As stated by others I reckon the controller is toast.

Sorry if I offended you. I am just a bit stressed.
I have found something in the NCE Trouble shooting article "Powercab will not run a locomotive, LED on Panel blinking or not lit at all" that is confusing.
This point.....

4. Is the LED on the panel blinking, or is it not on at all? Is the Power Cab display and the PCP- Power Cab Panel LED flashing? You might have a short. Remove the two-pin track plugTwo_pin_plug_pic.JPG from the back of the panel, and leave it unplugged.

5. Remove and restore the AC wall power to the system and see if the LED comes on. If the LED comes on solid with the track wires still removed, you have a short in your track wiring, a problem with a locomotive, or something on the track. Could you remove everything way the track and try again?

In point it says Remove the two pin track plug.........and leave it unplugged. Then in 5 it says Remove and restore the AC wall power to the system and see if the LED comes on then it says If the LED comes on solid with the track wires still removed, you have a short in your track wiring, a problem with a locomotive, or something on the track But if the two pin track plug is removed how can how can there be a short wit the wiring as the track wire is unplugged.

This is confusing me Should the red light on the panel be solid or blinking it all connections are good, In my case with everything connected but no loco on the track the red light is solid.
I will take this back to NCE for an explanation.

All those instructions are doing are telling you to isolate the Powercab panel from the track then conduct a ‘hard boot’ of the panel and handset by switching it off and on again.
If the red light was blinking before and has now stopped blinking (with the connection to the track still unplugged) then the fault can be isolated to a short somewhere on the track.

Steve M is quite correct. Removing the small Track plug will isolate the PowerCab from the track. If the PowerCab works after a power supply reboot then the problem is somewhere after the PCPs Track plug - In the wiring or the rails configuration or something on the rails that is causing a short!

To Note: The PowerCab itself has no Short Circuit protection built in. Shorts are managed by the power supply plug-in wall unit cutting out. Hence the red LED goes out completely due to complete loss of power from the unit, or it flashes - Flashing = the wall unit is self-resetting and applying power then tripping out again and so on. I did ask about the red LED in my post #6.

Brian wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:04 am Steve M is quite correct.

It happens occasionally.

I am sorry if I react in an inappropriate way to people trying to help. I am rather impulsive and react inappropriately too quickly. I am frustrated and disappointed at my own ability. Suffice to say I do read and re-read your posts to see if I have missed something. To all those who have come in at the low level of have you tried this have you tried that. Of course you should do that and I am a fool for criticsising ( BTW I can't spell) you.

So to recap on what I have done from your comments / requests.

1. I have tested the wire from panel to track and the contact is good.
2. The track wires are soldered to the track
3. The panel always shows a solid red light when connected to the rails and the controller is on.
4.The display on the controller is always clear and appears to show responses to manual contact.
5. I have not removed any decoders from factory fitted locos and I know a recent purchase has been reset to code 3 and tested.
6. I have tried a DCC Ready locomotive on a DC track to ensure the loco runs. I have then put a decoder into this locomotive and tested it and again it did not respond.
7 I can assure you the controller cable is the flat cable and it is positioned in the left hand socket (Red light below).

So in summary I have confirmed the basics are all as they should be.

My own assessment is that the individual components - controller, panels, track wire - are all working.

But I have no confirmation yet that the controller can communicate with a decoder.

So I need someone with Powercab experience to suggest to me what I can do to test this out.

I tried to do this on another forum site and I was asked to provide photographs. When I copied my jpg photos into the message, they didn't appear in the post. So I have left that forum to find a forum that has a more understanding view on the people who choose to post on their site.

I do not want to give up and go back to using DC. I might be long in the tooth - and a bit stubborn - I hear you say, but I would really like my new layout in my new railway room (8m x 4m) to be a DCC layout.

Photographs are always a huge help, they can answer a lot of questions.

By the way there are quite a few long teeth on here. I’m sure you will get it sorted.

OK, you have covered the basics but let’s just take that a step further.
Have you changed or attempted to change the loco address on the decoder?
If no, have you tried to run the loco on the default address of 0003?
If yes, is it possible that you have mistyped the address number?

In either case, I would suggest doing a factory reset of the decoder ( write value 8 to Cv8). Although I have the PowerCab on one of my layouts, I am not as familiar with that system as I am with the GM Prodigy so it’s best to follow the NCE instructions.

If you complete the reset, try running it on 0003 and report back.

Here's one very simple test ... Remove all stock from the rails. Power up the PowerCab and ensure the display is showing correctly.
Now take a coin and dab touch it across the two running rails, making a momentary short On then Off across the running rails. Does the PowerCab display go out and possibly the red LED go out or flash? If so, you have power reaching the rails correctly. If not then look for a disconnected wire somewhere.
Please report back