NCE Powercab protection cut-out

[ITG]

Hi all,

I’m not familiar with the NCE Powercab as I use a GM Prodigy Advance2. I have a friend just starting up in N gauge with a Powercab, and I vaguely recall reading a concern about the level of protection against short circuits in the Powercab, something about it resetting itself without an easily audible signal, and therefore a risk if the cause of the short is not immediately rectified. I’m trying to help him get over the first hurdle of wiring a layout, so I’d like to be sure about (a) is this risk a real concern and (b) if so, what does he need to provide better protection?
thanks for your help.

Ian

[Dungrange]

Might be worth having a read of this thread which asked the same question a few days ago.

 

 

Effectively, yes, you need some form of circuit breaker across the output of the Powercab to protect it from a short on the layout.

[JohnGi]

 

You might find this thread useful. It provides a solution which is cheaper than NCE's proprietary unit (works on same principle), and adds a buzzer.

[BWsTrains]

11 hours ago, JohnGi said:

 

You might find this thread useful. It provides a solution which is cheaper than NCE's proprietary unit (works on same principle), and adds a buzzer.

 

Nearly three years on, I can confirm that my device continues to work very well and has spared my NCE from any short circuit resets. Having young grandchildren as occasional operators, it has provided much peace of mind for me when the occasional mishap occurs and I'm not in the room. They know to hit the cutoff switch to kill the buzzer, this also makes a complete break between NCE and track.

 

The only minor change made to the original design is that my electronics friend has designed in a 0.5sec delay on the buzzer because the odd turnout / wheel-set combination triggers momentary shorts at a certain speed ( timed at <=0.3 sec). It became annoying to have a corresponding transient whine of the buzzer when this happened, now I just get a brief glow on the lamp which copes with the short without interrupting the motion of the train in question. This short problem is soon to disappear as I move to a new layout and better turnouts in 2022.

Edited January 6, 2022 by BWsTrains
addition

[ISW]

On 05/01/2022 at 15:31, ITG said:

I’m trying to help him get over the first hurdle of wiring a layout, so I’d like to be sure about (a) is this risk a real concern and (b) if so, what does he need to provide better protection?
thanks for your help.

Ian

Ian,

 

The PowerCab only gives out a slight buzz and for a very short duration. The screen goes blank and resets (rinses and repeats ...), so if you're not looking at the screen it's easy to miss the short circuit being detected.

 

The solution I adopted was to use a MERG Kit #57, like the one show below. As the name implies, it comes as a kit which you then solder together. At ~£10 each (from a MERG member) they are a cheap ready designed solution. The buzzer is plenty loud enough and sure gets your attention. The speed of detection is variable (using the jumper block) but is still quicker than the PowerCab. Once a short circuit has been removed, things return to where they were before the fault so no need to restart the loco(s) (although the front/tail lights tend to go off). Fairly easy to build, and I've used 8 of them for different Power Districts.

 

Ian