Girls Weekend

Playing with the NCE Power Cab

After the antics in A different type of scratch building and heading to December 2025, not much happened with the layout, there was a range of challenges on the work front trying to motivate a small team to various results and outcomes, which was draining me by the weekend so I only tinkered during spare time between other commitments.

One weekend, I decided I would try and learn how to consist my 3 locos on my baseboards, I located this video Simple Consisting with NCE Powercab and it helped alot, the NCE has many control functions I am still to learn. But while trying to learn, I found myself getting very irritated by the sounds from all three locos and 1 of the locos speakers was crackling every so often. 

Long story short, it turns out the locos are set to the loudest setting out of the box to make them sound the best for the model railway clubs, but after 20 minutes in a confined space I was getting a headache. A bit more research and it turns out the NCE can adjust the decoders settings through Configuration Variables or 'CV'. 

All my locos have LokSound Decoders and to adjust the sound you have to use the programming function. I would recommend you do 1 loco on a single piece of track so you don't accidentally program other locos. The procedure to adjust the required CV is the following:

1. Press the PROG/ESC button on your NCE throttle.
2. Press ENTER to select Program on Main (My main is single piece of track).
3. You will see Prog Loco, enter the locomotive number and press ENTER.
4. Select Option 2 (CV programming).
5. You will see Prog CV Num, Type 63 for the CV number and press ENTER.
6. Enter the new volume value and press ENTER. (the standard range for LokSound 4 and 5 decoders is 0 to 192, with 192 being maximum volume and 0 being silent)
7. Press PROG/ESC to exit back to the main running screen.

It is important to note, that the above method you cannot view your existing values and I would suggest you follow the detailed instructions for using program track option in the NCE if you need to understand your current settings. How to read or change a CV - Program Track Mode / Service Mode Method

I found setting the volume to 50 was the best for my layout and I did not get irritated with the noise volume. I also noticed the one loco with the crackling speaker was producing a cleaner sound. However, it was now apparent something was really wrong with my 1460 loco as it was making an internal clicking noise when moving that I could hear over the sound, I popped down to my local shop and had a chat and the owner offered to send both locos back to the supplier which I was grateful, but I didn't want to go down that road with everything else going on. While at the shop I couldn't resist and purchased some more PECO SL-1400 - Flextrack, Left Hand Points SLE-1496, Insulated Rail Joiners SL-111 and PECO SL-110 - Rail Joiners.

1460 tear down

A little time rolled on into October and Mrs Shunter was having a Girls Weekend away, so I decided I would revisit both locos. The first loco with the crackling speaker demonstrated no issues which was good news. I was a bit bummed 1460 was the one making internal noise given its significance. The good news is I fixed it, but it took hours to pinpoint the issue. Here are some photos of the procedure I went through to resolve the issue.

The tools of trade, the pencil
was to make notes as I went.

1460 on its back, you need to remove
the tank and the side frames near the wheels. 
The side frames come of very easy with a Flathead 
screwdriver between the motor bogies. There are
2 lugs which you need to press these 
back onto when reassembling

There are 6 screws in total.
2 near the coupler boxes need
to be removed as well as the
couplers, plus remove the 4
body mount screws.

Now instructions say the body 
shell will just lift of, yeah right.
I found an old credit card
 and bit of styrene was
best to separate the frame
 and shell, be very careful.

1460 without its shell, I just needed
the Mission Impossible theme
playing in the background, was so
 worried I would break something

I found the issue eventually,
turns out the DC motor would rattle
as it wasn't secured, which I
accidently found by sticking
a sheet a styrene into the gap
where you can see a small pad.

Here is a better shot.
This is a PC heat sink pad.
I cut down to size which eliminated
the no noise. Lifting the metal weight up
and getting pad into place took patience.
1460 was nice and silent on first test run.

Let's Go Shopping

Having success fixing 1460 early in the earlier part of the day, I decided I would go down to Jaycar to investigate options for wiring. I must have been lucky this day, no one was in the shop, and the young manager was more than happy to assist me, He mentioned alot of the local club members come in and purchase products, so he had a fair idea what I needed. I did know Australia didn't use American Wire Gauge (AWG) but metric cross-sectional kept coming up in my google search's. I wasn't really sure what to buy so took his guidance. I walked out with the following:

Bus Wires: Cable 24X0.2MM RED (3M) &  Cable 24X0.2MM BLACK (3M)

Baseboard Connections: Terminal Strip Block Plug/Socket 12 Way 10Amp

Feed Wire Connections: Terminal Block 12 Way 6Amp

Feeder Wires: Cable 13X0.12MM RED (25M) & Cable 13X0.12MM BLACK (25M)

Soldering: FLUX Paste ROSIN 560GM & Solder 60/40 0.71mm 200G Roll & my first ever Soldering Iron 30W LED Weller

When I got home, I needed to go to the loo and heard alot of water rushing out from the side of my house, thankfully it was not in my house, but it was my neighbours hose tap running full noise and there was water everywhere. 

I tried calling my neighbour and he was about an hour away. I offered to climb the 6 foot fence, but he was worried I would fall as there was a drop between our properties. Anyhow, I realised I wasn't 16 anymore and got over slow, steady, safely and turned the water off and called him back and told him it was all sorted and to not rush home and enjoy his day.

Two hours later and a knock at the door, 
there was my neighbour with his child in one
arm and a six pack of pure blondes in the other.
For you, he said, I offered him to come
in and drink them with me, but he replied
no, these are for being a good neighbour.

FYI, I don't normally drink beer, but these went down very nicely.

Until next time, see you at the next blog!

Little Shunter

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