NCE Power Cab - 'Recall' function?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I’m using NCE’s Power Cab system. I enjoy it, easy to use yet still fully functional.

One minor annoyance has cropped up though. I have 3 DCC equipped locomotives
(8180 & 3154 - Digitrax decoders; 8439 - MTH)

When running 2 locomotives at once and I press the ‘recall’ button to go back to the previous loco, it always recalls address 003. I can still enter the loco # using the ‘select loco’ button, but that gets annoying after a while.

What can I do?

Acela

2

I believe that original PowerCab had only a recall stack of two locos/consists. This may have been expanded with some of the upgrades.

If you select loco and enter 8180 and press enter, that should be put into one of the cab slots. Then press the recall button. At that point enter the 3153 and press enter. That should put this loco into the second slot. If you push recall at that point, you should get the 8180 on the screen.

Loco 3 should not come up again unless you select loco and enter 3.

If something other than that happens, then a call to NCE would be in order.

3

When you first call up a locomotive (say 8180) and run it them want to run the second (3154) press reccall to store 8180. The dispay shound now show 0000, enter the 3154 unit to run it. To recall the 8180 press the recall and it should bring up the 8180 unit. You can only store two units in the Power Cab, so you can now toggle back and forth on these two.

4

Acela,

What’s the OP of your Power Cab? V1.28 or the never V1.65? If the former then you only have a maximum of two addresses in your recall stack. If it’s the newer V1.65, however, you can set your recall stack slots anywhere from 2 thru 6 - i.e. 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. (Personally, I don’t run more than 2 locomotives simultaneously so I keep the recall stack short and set at 2 or 3.)

FWIW, to increase the number of recall stack slots of your V1.65 Power Cab, do the following steps:

  • Press PROG/ESC 5 times – LCD screen will display “SET CAB PARAM[eter]S”
  • Press ENTER – LCD screen will display the number of recall slots programmed into your throttle (Default: 2)
  • Press 3, 4, 5, or 6 to change the recall slot number to a value other than “2”
  • Press ENTER
  • Press PROG/ESC to exit Programming Mode

The other posters are correct in regards to how to correctly enter locomotive addresses into your Power Cab.

Tom

5

Thanks, everyone! This [D)] has got it figured out [;)]

Tom, mine is the older v1.28. But on my layout, I will really only be running a max of 2-3 trains at a time. 2 can be a fair challenge at times, 3 is really hectic. I haven’t tried 4, but that is probably the max.

Thanks for the help!

6

I may have 3 addresses in the recall stack (Power Cab w/Smart Booster combination) but I only run two locomotives at a time - max. Two is plenty enough to keep my full attention on my modest 4 x 8 layout.

Tom

7

Once again, Tom knows what he’s talking about. I just did the same thing with my friend’s PowerCab (the one that won’t control locos on my layout as a second throttle). He now has six addresses to call up, and he loves it.

8

Hi Acela

I just received the new chip from NCE in the mail last week for the new version. Kind of funny as I have the newest booklet for the Power Cab ver 1.65 with the original package.

The instructions were good and it was very easy to install the chip. I like using the recall button and use the full 6 positions (got used to it from my MRC PA2) Obviously I do not control 6 locos at a time but I find it easier having the popular locos in my Cab.

Cheers! [:D]

Brian