Simon G

I fully accept that they need a fair margin as they are doing it as a business. My earlier comment was based on a couple of instances where dealers offered approximately 10% of the RRP, not the much more reasonable one-third as suggested elsewhere in this thread. The purpose of my post was to let the OP know that there is another way of disposing of items other than by dealers or auction sites etc.

I have sold quite a few items via Facebook selling sites, without any problems or hassle. The main advantage over ebay is that you dont pay 10% or whatever in charges. I have used two sites, Model Railway Trading Group being the most suitable for your means. In my opinion, most dealers will only offer rip-off values!

I dont imagine that the problem would lie with the brushes and springs, as I have never had issue with them. The first thing that I would look at is how freely the driving wheels spin with the Ringfield drive cogs disconnected. In servicing a number of Ringfields, I have found that a common issue is that the axles spin inside a brass sleeve and they can get a little stiff. The solution is dead easy - remove a wheel from the axle and then pull the axle out of the sleeve. I then rub the axle with a very fine emery to clean it, oil it lightly and reassemble.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions - issue now sorted! I first tried connecting one of the units to my Powercab, but couldnt read any CVs, so I then connected the required DC voltage as well and found that I could read the CVs. CV1 read as 2, but didnt work on accessory address 2, so I tried 5 as per Nigel’s suggestion that it might be a block system. That worked perfectly with a Peco solenoid point, and accessory address 6 worked with the next output etc. Sadly, the second unit hasn’t responded to being powered up, as the power LED doesnt light and I cant read the CVs, so something in the unit has failed. At least one of out of two is better than none! Thanks again for all the help.

My MRC has been left a couple of Tawcrafts DCC Point Controllers by a deceased member. They come with a single page of instructions, which are helpful in themselves, but do not address the issue of the base address and how to change it. I am familiar with loco decoders, but not with accessory decoders, so it is all rather new to me. I am trying to find out what is the base address (presumably in CV1) and how to change it. I have read that some accessory decoders have an on-board switch to put them into programming mode, but these dont seem to have one. The units seem well made and with 2 4700 microfarad capacitors, will presumably throw multiple points with ease. Picture of the decoder and one of the instruction file attached. I have tried the email address and mobile number shown, but both now do seem to exist! Any help gratefully received! Thanks, Simon

In my opinion, the main thing to work out is exactly how you want to operate your DCC layout. I have a Powercab system with the USB adapter and it gives me the choice of using either JMRI on the computer or the NCE throttle. They work very differently. The advantage of JMRI is that you will have a roster on the computer with all your DCC locos, making it very easy to select and then operate them. If you have DCC Sound locos, using JMRI can be easier to select all the function “buttons” than on the NCE. I would avoid having a Sprog and NCE connected to the same system. Without having tried it, it sounds like a recipe for disaster!

I dont know about resetting the decoders, but I guess that it cant do any harm, unless of course they are sound locos, where I believe that it is possible to lose the sound files on some non-factory fitted locos. If you give it a go, please let me know how it goes!

I have encountered a similar issue with my Powercab. It successfully reads the information off nearly all my locos, with the exception of a Bachmann Class 37 with factory fitted sound. It gives a different value for the same CVs as Lukas every time I try to read them. In order to try to get to the bottom of the issue, I read the Class 37 CVs on both a Lenz LH100 system and a Hornby Elite, and they were read correctly and consistently. I then tried a different Powercab to my own, and the misreading continued. From this, I can only conclude that it is some sort of glitch with Powercabs. Despite this, it runs perfectly OK with the Powercab, so just seems to be an issue with reading back some CVs.

I have used an E-Link with more than one computer loaded with Railmaster (not at the same time obviously!) You can also use the E-Link with JMRI, if you are not a fan of Railmaster.

I have finally got JMRI operating on the model club Windows 10 laptop. It hadnt been updated for ages, so took hours for all the updates, then finally loaded the drivers for the NCE USB adapter. After that, I discovered that I needed to install a newer version of Java to run JMRI, only to find that JMRI doesnt work with the latest Java, so I uninstalled Java version 20 and installed version 11 - eventually!! Having done all that, it agreed with everyone on this thread that the 37s are V3.5 and V4. It recognised the 47 as an ESU, but came up with a list of about 12 potential matches, including the V3.5. It has all been an interesting learning curve for me, and thanks to everyone for the help and advice.

Thanks for all the help on this. I hadnt noticed the LS4 on the class 37 21 pin chip! Looks like the first 37 and the 47 are V3.5. The speaker is a 4 ohm 1.5W one, so the second 37 is a V4 or later. The class 47 was run on a club layout yesterday with the club NCE Powercab, and it was also returning different values for CV8 every time! I am not too worried as the main thing is that it works OK, so I wont be messing about with it too much! My efforts to read them using JMRI arent proving too successful yet. The club laptop had JMRI loaded, but the laptop didnt appear to have the NCE drivers loaded, so I have followed NCE advice and uninstalled JMRI, and it is now doing countless updates. When they are done, I will see if the laptop can load the drivers and then I can reinstall JMRI.

Phil, thanks for the offer, and here are the photos: 8 pin Class 37: 21 pin Class 37: 21 pin factory fitted Class 47: I was quite surprised to see a load of blutack around the speaker in the Class 47. Is that normal practice for Bachmann? Thanks, Simon

Thanks Nigel for the reply. I have tried using JMRI via my NCE Powercab to see what the two class 37 chips are, but it gives a long list of possible ESU chips. It could be because my version of JMRI is ancient as my old laptop is only running Windows Xp, and so wont run recent versions of JMRI. I will get hold of the MRC laptop tomorrow as that runs on Windows 10 and will take the latest JMRI. The factory fitted class 47 is rather puzzling! I am sure that you are right about the ESU sound chip being misread, as every time I use the Powercab to get the CV8 value, it comes back with a different figure. We have both a Lenz and Powercab system at the MRC, so will try them tomorrow and see what values they can see.

I have recently bought a job lot of 3 locos at an auction, knowing that one was DCC Sound fitted. To my surprise, all three locos were equipped with Sound, but I am not sure exactly what the Sound chips are. The first loco is an 8 pin Bachmann Class 37, D6826, and CV8 is 151, ie ESU. CV7 is 059. I suspect that it is a Loksound V3 or V3.5, but am not sure which. The second loco is a 21 pin Bachmann class 37, D6984, and again CV8 is 151. This time, CV7 is 255, so is probably a Loksound V4 or V5, but again I cant tell which. According to online sources, both these Class 37s were not factory fitted sound locos, so they were added by a previous owner. The third loco is a Bachmann Class 47 with factory fitted sound. CV8 is 035, which according to the NMRA list is Elektronik and Model Production, about which I know nothing, and cant seem to find anything online. CV7 is 059, which is the same value as the first loco, so I am wondering if it might be a rebadged Loksound V3 or V3.5. Can anyone please help in identifying these decoders, or at least advising on what make and type of decoders Bachmann use on their Sound equipped Class 47s? Many thanks!

That is an impressive layout! I wish that I had the space (and funds!) for something like that. As you say, by using chocolate block connectors instead of vero board, it does away with the need for soldering and makes replacing any bits much simpler. As the MRC has a load of used chocolate block taken from a dismantled layout, I might use that instead.