I'm just getting started in the hobby and decided to invest in DCC early on with the NCE PowerCab system. So far the system is great however I'm worried I made the wrong choice for one of my longterm goals - I'd really like to play around with JMRI and see how much automation I can accomplish. When I did my initial research it sounded like NCE was fully compatible with JMRI however I just realized there were caveats specific to the USB interface such as "No Turnout MONITORING" listed at the bottom of the hardware compatibility page - http://jmri.sourceforge.net/help/en/html/hardware/nce/NCE.shtml Is this a big deal? I'm assuming it is if I want to automate but I just got the NCE wired in last week and haven't even installed JMRI yet. If this is going to seriously limit what I can do down the road I'd rather get what I need now to do it right and sell the NCE system. If there are workarounds or I'm misinterpreting how ominous that caveat sounds then I'm fine with keeping the NCE and connecting it to JMRI. Thoughts?
The way I read this JT is that the restriction exists if you use the USB interface to the NCE. If you need turnout monitoring you would need to use one of the other supported connection types Serial or Network. I am new to this also but the sheet specifically calls out the restriction as being with the USB connection. I am really glad you raised this. I am going to do the same thing with my NCE Pro and just bought the USB connect. I'll look for a serial or network connect now myself. Russ.
Russ is right. Those limitations are strictly for the USB interface... if you use the serial or network interfaces things will be better. JMRI can also use multiple interfaces at the same time... so there's no reason you can't use NCE for driving your trains, and hook your turnout controls up to a LocoNet interface. or Lenz XpressNet or whatever you like. Or all of them.
Yea, I have the USB interface as well. I'll be running JMRI from a Raspberry Pi and I'm not sure if a serial-to-USB converter will work. Haven't even started looking at stationary decoders for the turn-outs yet.
Setting up a non-control bus LocoNet (for monitoring, signals, switches, etc) for JMRI use is a fairly easy process.
I seen some people have had trouble with converters. Serial can be a pain when it comes to flow control I am guessing the NCE uses out of band flow control and some 3 wire serial connectors may have buffering issues with that... but this is speculation I have yet to try it. If you use a converter, my guess is you would still have trouble with JMRI. If you use a cheap converter you will still appear like USB to Rasperry Pi and therefore to JMRI. If you tell JMRI you are using serial it will look for a COM device driver. You can get converters that give you virtual com ports but this requires the calling app to be able to address the virtual com port. Of course these are OS dependent also. So you may install it and, as some have found, the software does not see it. I am still trying to find out about the Network connection method! Can't see much about it so far.
See this article for details: http://jmri.sourceforge.net/help/en/html/hardware/loconet/StandaloneLocoNet.shtml You will need something to generate the RailSync power and/or LocoNet info. A PR3 is a good choice. Can act like a "command station" for the standalone LN.
Mmm.. that's pretty much it. As long as one of the devices can "terminate" the bus, that's all you have to do. The Digitrax PR3 can be put in the terminating mode with a button press sequence... I'm not sure whether the LocoBuffer-USB can do it or not.
Just double checking: if you are using a PowerCab system (as opposed to the original PowerPro systems with the serial port), you cannot interface to it in any way other than USB. (this is not a case of converting a serial port to usb at the computer end, there is NO serial port on the PowerPro hardware) So you cannot use the monitoring function for turnout control. That's a unfortunate limitation. I'd consider buying a used 5 amp NCE system (just the box, which I think you can find cheap) and use the serial port on it and get full function. You can use the PowerCab as a throttle still. I have both NCE systems, and the functionality in the USB has several limitations, as I can see you already read. I use a 10 amp system with JMRI. Regards, Greg
Quick update - I wired the DS64 directly to the track (did not connect the PS3 LocoNet USB yet at all) and while it can't monitor the turnout initially, once it's toggled for the first time it will correctly report the turnout status in JMRI.
Yes, without some form of sensor circuit, there is no way for any decoder to absolutely know a switch position on start up. You can program the DS64 to always power on in last state (OpSw 06 thrown), which is the factory default, but that isn't always dependable, as in the case where you may have manually adjusted a switch with power off. I have a single push button that executes a cascading route across all my switches, setting them into a "normal" state for the layout, which I can push after turning all the power on
From the question in the OP, there is no wrong choice. If you belong to an NTRAK club, then buy whatever the club is using so you can help set up for shows rather than saying "my home systems is XXX, sorry I cannot help". I use a home Zephyr system and manage the clubs DCS-200 and it is wonderful that everything I learn on one system helps me debug issues on the other system. DCC, especially with radio control throttles, is a deep, rich and rewarding area to explore. It is just a shame that all the tricks and knowledge that you learn with one system don't translate well to the others...
Oh and I love your layout, JT58. It is complex while at the same time compact and somewhat portable. Nice job.
Thanks! I ended up adding the PR3 and connected it up to the DS64 so I get the fun of learning/managing both DigiTrax and NCE.
