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NCE Powercab not reading loco decoder


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Hi all,

 

I brought my son a Hornby TTS Class 47 for his birthday and he was very happy but when I have tried to program it into our NCE power cab I get an error "Can not read CV"

 

post-31637-0-83216500-1498236561_thumb.jpg

 

I have tried a few times without any luck.

 

The Class 47 works under the address 003 so we know it isn't a fundamental issue.

 

I have managed to program another Hornby J83 Jinty without any issues.

 

Has anyone else seen this issue?

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I have a feeling that I have read elsewhere that the tts chips prefer programming on the main with the nce powercab. Something to do with the voltage being higher - but i am sure someone will be along to correct me if not.Hope that helps

 

Best regards

 

Chris

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Hi Chris,

 

Thank you for your message looks like I will have to keep the class 47 on address 003 for now the other issue is that I can not play any of the sounds above no 6 I assumed this was because the loco needed to be programmed.

 

This is a little annoying as I choose the NCE as it seemed to be the most compatible

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Hi Chris,

Thank you for your message looks like I will have to keep the class 47 on address 003 for now the other issue is that I can not play any of the sounds above no 6 I assumed this was because the loco needed to be programmed.

This is a little annoying as I choose the NCE as it seemed to be the most compatible

Hi Nick, the loco should not need programming to allow you to access sounds above function 6. I would be tempted to try it on a friend's layout or get the shop to test it. It might be worth looking on Hornby web page forum to see if anyone there has had similar issues. I did Google powercab and tts chip problems but the only things that came up were programming on the main and making sure you are on 128 speed steps. I have just bought myself a powercab for the same reasons so hopefully in the next few days I will get some practical experience with my tts locos. Good luck.

 

Best regards

 

Chris

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Hi. I am not an NCE powercab user but do have a few tts sound chips. I have found that, even though sometimes my dcc system can't read the chip, I can reset the address on programming track and then run the loco on the new address as normal. Another fix that sometimes works is to move chip into another loco just for programming and then move it back. However, as above post, access to sounds above cv6 should not require any programming - I haven't had that problem with any tts chip.

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Don't blame the Powercab. I've used it to programme the following sound decoders with no problems in reading CV's

 

Soundtrax tsunami

QSI

ESU loksound V4

TCS wowsound

Broadway Paragon

 

 

You can add Zimo to that list.

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Thanks for the response. I agree it isn't the NCE at fault.

I will try to somethings tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

Quite right, the NCE is one of the best and easiest programming systems. If you look at other threads on here the fault clearly lies - yet again - with the Hornby decoder.

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Just a thinking out loud..... My PowerCab was supplied with a 12 volt DC output power supply. I understand some more recently sold are supplied with 13.5V DC units.  Is this a sufficient voltage for a TTS decoder??  All Hornby DCC control systems  - Select, Elite and eLink are powered at 15volts DC.  Does this make any difference?  I would certainly try to programme it on the Main which should proved full current to the decoder even if at a slightly reduced voltage than Hornby use!

Edited by Brian
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Just a thinking out loud..... My PowerCab was supplied with a 12 volt DC output power supply. I understand some more recently sold are supplied with 13.5V DC units.  Is this a sufficient voltage for a TTS decoder??  All Hornby DCC control systems  - Select, Elite and eLink are powered at 15volts DC.  Does this make any difference?  I would certainly try to programme it on the Main which should proved full current to the decoder even if at a slightly reduced voltage than Hornby use!

 

Off  the top of my head you can use up to 15v 3amp power supply. (check the manual).

 

I use a 15v 2amp

 

The Powercab puts 0.5v less to the track than the supply rating.

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Yes I agree, but my post wasn't really about what upper limits could be used with a PowerCab, it's was suggesting that if a 12volt one is being used it may not be sufficient for a TTS decoder?

Of course adding a higher voltage power supply might help?

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One thing that's not been mentioned so far is a reset of the chip.  I once lost all the sound on a TTS Chip but had full control of the motor, resetting CV8 cured the problem 

 

Writing 8 to CV 8 will reset the chip to factory setting whilst writing 5 to CV 8 resets all the volume levels but leaves all non sound related CV's untouched.

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Hi all thanks for the reply's I must admit that I haven't had 10 mins to get out to the garage to test some of these.

 

I don't think it is a voltage issue as the loco does work motor and sound functions under address 003 the issue is that I can't programme the decoder to a new address!

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Hi 

That reads positive. I thought somewhere in the past I had read that TTS decoders like more current, hence the main programming remark.

Yes, on the PowerCab you need to press the Shift key to access higher 'F' numbers.  The PowerCab can access all functions up to to F28.

 

Use the Option key when set as per below... 

EXTENDED FUNCTION CONTROL (F10 - F28) Control of functions F13 through F28 has been added. To access these function numbers program the OPTION key to a value of 122 (see CAB SET UP, below). Pressing OPTION will display “F10 through F19 on the bottom line of the cab. Pressing a digit will toggle that number plus ten. For example. pressing 6 will issue an F16 command. Pressing OPTION a second time will display “F21 through F28” on the cab. Pressing a digit with this display will toggle that number plus twenty. Pressing OPTION a third time will return to the F10 through F19 display. Pressing Prog/Esc at any time will abort the operation

Edited by Brian
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Although I don't use that system I find any programming easier using JMRI, as it's all visible on screen and the most important thing is you can save the files to reload if you have problems.

Simon

I prefer JMRI too, but this communicates with the command station (in this case the PowerCab). If this cannot read from the decoder then JMRI will not be able to get anything from it....unless you get another system (& in this context a sprog counts as a system).

 

When changing many parameters, it is useful to read the CVs first to know what you are changing them from.

If a TTS decoder cannot be read from an NCE programming track, then this is really another deficiency, not a fault.

 

I don't think this is of any use to the OP if reading CVs was the original requirement, but it may have put some more readers off buying TTS fitted locos.

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