N scale layout. Would like to run up to 3 DCC & 1 DC locomotives at the same time. Could not find anywhere in the manual for the NCE Power Cab if this is possible or not. Found one of these at a real right price if it will work this way.
Hi 11290 (would be good if at least you put your first name in the post) PowerCab does not run DC trains at all. On my layout I put a DC controller on one of the tracks if I want to run DC, which is not often these days. Just plan on putting a decoder in the non DCC loco. Regards,
NCE didn't opt for the legacy path of zero stretching to run DC on their systems. As John suggests, a separate DC controller can be configured into the layout wiring so you can run either DCC or DC locos but not together.
I know it is nice to see your non DC units run here and there, but you won't miss the lack of functionality.
For anyone interested in the NCE I was looking at, it is in the Louisville Craigslist for $125 or offer. I offered $80 and he was willing to take it and he would ship it for actual cost of shipping. I declined to buy this afternoon so it should still be available.
Get a Zefer then later on you can use it in the yard as a separate power district and control the all the turnouts and/or other neat things you can think off. Also if you do this you won't have to trouble shoot the whole layout just the yard or whatever the Zeffer has powered up. And yes it will run DC AND DCC at the same time. Alan C.---------P.S. If your going to buy off the C list make sure its in your town and the unit is up and running before you put down the cash.
You can only control one address at 00. That could be one DC engine or multiple DC engines coupled together. They will all run at the same time. Personally, I'd have grabbed that $80 Powercab and used the money saved to buy a decoder for the DC engine. Martin Myers
Aha! Never knew that the Zephyr's "00" address was not available on the excellent NCE system. To stretch this thread a bit, does the MRC or others exploit the "00" address? I use my Zephyr regularly to run "00" engines. I keep the "00" engines on staging tracks w/o power until I park the active, depower its staging track, and pull the desired waiting units out. I do run MU's of "00" engines, but most traffic is properly decodered. Seems I can run 1 or 2 more engines if they're decodered than if I mix a "00" address into the active operations Zephyr poops out from 5 to 7 engines running. I have, regrettably, fallen behind in the decoder installation project because I'm having a lot of fun running trains. Have 8 DCC, 8 DC and 4 TCS Z2's waiting on the workbench. To the point of the thread, if its only one DC engine now, reccomend do it DCC and use NCE. But one never knows what will show up in the future. There's always some neat purchase, and they may come in bunches.
Some other systems do support running a DC loco, but not all of the ones that do use address "0". MRC's current systems do not support a DC loco, although the Command 2000 and original Prodigy systems did(both of them used address "1"). Lenz supports a DC loco using address "0". None of NCE's current systems support it, but the Power House Pro did at one time. When NCE did support it, it did not use any address, but instead used a potentiometer hard wired to the serial port to control the speed and direction of the DC loco. Bachmann's EZ Command will run a DC loco on address 10. You can plug a DC power pack into the EZ command and the DC power pack will take over control of the DC loco freeing up address 10 for DCC use. Bachmann's Dynamis will not run a DC loco. I believe EasyDcc used to run a DC loco on address "0" but no longer will. Zimo can run a DC loco, and you can select any address from 1 - 127 to be the address for running DC locos.
Appreciate your thorough response; it'll help those who need to know but don't ask; been there, done that.
