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
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.
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.
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.
Thanks Gary, but this applies only to the older NCE unit tht burned out on me
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?
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
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
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
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
Yes, I meant SB5, I have went back and edited my post.
I can run 4 DCC locomotives with sound and a set of PRR heavy weight passenger cars with lights when I was using an NCE CS01 unit. I don’t know if that was overloading it , but I can’t see where it would have. I also have a “surge” protection power unit hooked up between the wall power outlet and the NCE power supply to the NCE CS01 unit, so I would think a surge would not get through. It’s a very high quality surge protection unit.
I decided on the surge protection unit before I ever built my layout.
With my background in electronics egineering and also my background in military radar and missilke guidance systems development, I am wondering if any or perhaps many of the elctronic components used in the CS01 units were imported from China or elewhere and were not of the highest quality that they could have been. The tolerances we used in military systems were almost always of + or - 1 percent tolerances.
I also own some quite expensive Pioneer and other high end stereo equipment and have had components fail, usually capacitors or resistors in the audio circuitry and I have replaced them with higher quality capacitors and resistors they no longer fail.
Ed aka “TheK4Kid”
K4 or anyone I looked at documentaion for the CS02 and it only shows output for a program track nothing for the mains The diagram in the pdf from NCE shows a PB100 connected to the CS02 and the track power coming from the PB110
Just curious
That’s correct.
The SB5 unit is needed, and after you add an SB5 , you can add DB5 units to the SB5.
The only output of the CS02 is is the track programming.
There is not a “track” output on the CS02 unit. I myself did not relaize this until I received the CS02 units I purchased. This is why I was wondering about the use of an MRC Power Station 8 unit with the CS02 .
However lacking a schematic diagram of the MRC unit, I can not figure out how to wire it with the CS02.
I may have had to design and build some circuitry to mate the CS02 unit and the MRC unit and that would not only take some time, but I’d have to order parts, etc.
And there would have had been some cost to it also.
I saw the SB5 unit add on as the quickest and easiest way to solve my problem.As far as the MRC unit producing 8 amps of track power, I could hace designed a circuit to cut it down to 5 amps.
But yet again, it would require time and parts and some cost.
So I decided to spend the extra money on the SB5 unit, which is required to make the the CS02 unit work to run DCC trains.
The NCE PB110 unit is a 10 amp power unit designed to be used “only” with O gauge and bigger G gauge trains, not, I repeat not HO scale!
Hello All,
When I was trying to “Franken-bash” (upgrade) my dead-end DCC system with NCE components, I contacted them:
Even though what I was attempting was not possible, the great folks at NCE provided me with the information and schematics I requested.
After reviewing the materials they sent I decided it would be easier to upgrade the entire DCC system to NCE and avoid the hassle of piecemealing.
Reach out to them before doing any more damage through trial and error.
Hope this helps.
No, you do NOT need the SB5 with the CS02. The DB5 manual is not clear on this because it was written for the Power Cab (The SB5 and DB5, “Smart” Booster and “Dumb” booster, were designed primarily for the Power Cab, though they will work with the other systems). The “smart” part of the SB5 is a built in command station with a control bus output. The Power Cab does not have a separate control bus output so you need the SB5 to be able to add additioinal dumb boosters. The CS02 does have a control bus output for connecting to boosters so you do not need the “smart” part of the SB5. In fact, to use the SB5 with the CS02, you will have to disable the “smart” part.
The MRC Power Statin 8 is expecting a DCC track output as it’s input. The contorl bus output fro the CS02 is just a low power version of the track output, so it most likely would work as the input to the Power Station 8.
Actually, you could just get a Digitrax booster. Nce has instructions for wiring the CS02 to a Digitrax booster here:https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200590769-Digitrax-and-Lenz-Connections
Several years ago NCE completely redid their website and ever since some information has been hard to find on it.
K4Kid and all,
To clarify:
I hope this clears up any confusion.
Erik Fiske, Tony’s Train Exchange
We NCE users can frame the prior reply from Tony’s Train Exchange and hang it on our layout wall. Thank you, Erik Fiske!
Rich
Erik Fiske
If I have an NCE SB5 power booster, then would I even need a CS02 command station?
My understanding is the CS02 was the updated replacement for the now retired CS01.
But what I am reading about the SB5 unit is it is both a command station and booster in the same unit.
So I won’t even need a new CS02 unit?
MY layout is built on three tables, each 6 feet wide by 8 feet long with two side by side main lines and and one long figure eight with two side by side main lines and several sidings around the entire layout.
I am still working on my layout. I can run 4 DCC powered trains at once on the layout. So will the S
Ed,
The NCE Smart Booster (SB5) is a 5A command station/booster. When you plug a Power Cab into it, it overrides the command station/booster of the 1.7A Power Cab; essentially turning it into a ProCab throttle.
You can plug an**y NCE throttle - i.e. Power Cab, ProCab, CAB-06 - into an SB5 and control your layout. What you don’t get with an SB5 is a dedicated programming bus. But you don’t need one, if you a Power Cab. You would need the Power Cab’s PCP panel separately for programming. This you could use at your benchtop w/o needing to have it connected to your layout.
As mentioned, the SB5 gives you 5A of total power. If, for example, each sound decoder uses 0.5A, that will allow you to operate 8-9 locomotives w/sound with a little buffer leftover. That should be quite sufficient for your needs, I’d presume.
BTW, what are you using as a throttle? You keep talking about the CS01/CS02 command stations but I missed any mention of how you are controlling your locomotives.
Tom