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Thought I'd post this for reference for anybody setting this up.
On the original firmware in the PowerCab V1.1 if you had a short circuit the screen would go off and come back on with the screen showing scrambled characters, to clear this you had to remove the power then plug it back in again.
To stop this happening it was suggested to me by NCE to fit a light bulb in series with the track wires.
This did indeed prevent the screen from becoming jumbled.
To make a neater job of this I bought the CP6 which has 6 light bulbs on it, this means the output from the PowerCab or in my setup from the Smart Booster(SB3) goes into the CP6 and I can then have 6 outputs or power districts each one protected by a light bulb, using different wattages of light bulb gives me more or less track current.
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This worked fine with the PowerCab connected but not when the SB3 was connected, the SB3 would shut down quicker, before the light bulbs would come on.
I did a quick calculation and put a 10ohm resistor in series in one of the wires feeding into the CP6, this made everything work fine, if there was a short circuit the light bulb would light up preventing the SB3 from shutting down, all sorted...I only used a 0.25watt resistor, it smoked somewhat but it did prove it all worked!
I contacted NCE who did say this was fine but use a higher wattage resisitor, I believe the SB3's have had an upgrade since I bought mine so that they work fine now, probably just added a resistor inside, oh well mines on the outside but works fine, fitted a higher power resistor now.
The CP6 has the Festoon type bulbs fitted, I have fitted 21w and 10w bulbs to give different current limits.
So the bulbs are 12v 21w or 12v 10w this gives a current of 1.75amps and 1amp respectively.
I have connected up each of my layouts to one of the circuits on the CP6.
I have also used a seperate circuit on the CP6 to power the points decoders that I use so that in case of a short circuit the points will still operate.
I have found this place to be the cheapest to buy the festoon type bulbs from and they have the best range to choose from.
Festoon bulbs
Hope this helps!
On the original firmware in the PowerCab V1.1 if you had a short circuit the screen would go off and come back on with the screen showing scrambled characters, to clear this you had to remove the power then plug it back in again.
To stop this happening it was suggested to me by NCE to fit a light bulb in series with the track wires.
This did indeed prevent the screen from becoming jumbled.
To make a neater job of this I bought the CP6 which has 6 light bulbs on it, this means the output from the PowerCab or in my setup from the Smart Booster(SB3) goes into the CP6 and I can then have 6 outputs or power districts each one protected by a light bulb, using different wattages of light bulb gives me more or less track current.
This worked fine with the PowerCab connected but not when the SB3 was connected, the SB3 would shut down quicker, before the light bulbs would come on.
I did a quick calculation and put a 10ohm resistor in series in one of the wires feeding into the CP6, this made everything work fine, if there was a short circuit the light bulb would light up preventing the SB3 from shutting down, all sorted...I only used a 0.25watt resistor, it smoked somewhat but it did prove it all worked!
I contacted NCE who did say this was fine but use a higher wattage resisitor, I believe the SB3's have had an upgrade since I bought mine so that they work fine now, probably just added a resistor inside, oh well mines on the outside but works fine, fitted a higher power resistor now.
The CP6 has the Festoon type bulbs fitted, I have fitted 21w and 10w bulbs to give different current limits.
So the bulbs are 12v 21w or 12v 10w this gives a current of 1.75amps and 1amp respectively.
I have connected up each of my layouts to one of the circuits on the CP6.
I have also used a seperate circuit on the CP6 to power the points decoders that I use so that in case of a short circuit the points will still operate.
I have found this place to be the cheapest to buy the festoon type bulbs from and they have the best range to choose from.
Festoon bulbs
Hope this helps!
