NCE PowerCab - 4 digit & 3 digit loco addresses

[Martin S-C]

Hi all

 

I have several locos programmed with 4-digit addresses and want to change to 3-digit addresses, The problem is my NCE PowerCab doesn't seem to like this. Any 3-digit address I plug in is accepted but the loco fails to respond. Does anyone know if this is a known issue? Thanks.

[Nick G]

All my locos are 3 digit addressed no problem. When programming I put the 3 digit address in short & long but don't add a 0 in front.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Nick G

[Suzie]

Use a leading zero for a long address, and don't for a short address. You can have either for addresses 100-127 (short) and 0100-0127 (long)

Edited July 2, 2019 by Suzie

[Martin S-C]

Thanks for the replies, but maybe I wasn't clear.

 

I have locos with 4-digit addresses. I no longer use 4-digits and want to use 3 digits. However the system does not seem to be able to change a 4-digit address to a 3-digit one. Putting in a leading 0 makes no difference - the loco does not respond.

 

I have a loco currently numbered 2309 and want to change it to 114. This seems to be quite impossible unless I use 1114 or 1140. 0114 does not work. Has anyone else encountered this weirdness?

[Nick G]

12 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

 

 

I have a loco currently numbered 2309 and want to change it to 114. This seems to be quite impossible unless I use 1114 or 1140. 0114 does not work. Has anyone else encountered this weirdness?

 

On a programming track select on handset >Prog/Esc > Use programme Track > 1= STD > Set up Address 1= yes > Short Address 114 > Activate this address

Edited July 2, 2019 by Nick G

[Martin S-C]

A 3 digit address is the short address? Not the long? Interesting, I will try it. Thanks.

 

I have locos with the short address as the default 3. I can type in a NEW 3-digit LONG address on these.

 

My question really stems from why a 4-digit long address cannot be changed to a 3-digit long address.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Suzie]

Short address (set in CV3) should be 114, long address (set in CV17 and CV18) should be 0114. Make sure that CV29 in the decoder is set appropriately for long or short address.

[Nick G]

4 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

 

My question really stems from why a 4-digit long address cannot be changed to a 3-digit long address.

 

 

I can do it...

[ColinK]

I think there is a problem with a small range of short addresses with three digits (something to do with consisting/doubleheading).  I use the class number as the address, but my bubble car did not like being short address  ‘121’, so I had to set it to long address ‘921’.

[Martin S-C]

I can do it...

 

I'm happy for you!

 

I cannot.

Perhaps you could let me know your step by step process. I'm following the manual exactly and its not allowing me to do it (no leading zero). Try giving a loco a long address of 2309, saving it, then changing it to long address 114. I would really appreciate it if you can actually do it and what steps you used EXACTLY. I have been trying for about 2 hours and it really won't allow me to make this change.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Martin S-C]

3 minutes ago, ColinK said:

I think there is a problem with a small range of short addresses with three digits (something to do with consisting/doubleheading).  I use the class number as the address, but my bubble car did not like being short address  ‘121’, so I had to set it to long address ‘921’.

Thanks Colin, I don't have classes but a range of steam locos from a fictional railway company numbered from 101 to 120; 201 to 220; 301 to 320; 401 to 420, etc. These are their cab numbers and it would be great if I could use these as the addresses.

[Sol]

https://dccwiki.com/Address_Range#Primary_Address_Range    may help

It seems numbers upto 127 are classed as 2 digit/ primary addresses  and above that is an extended address  so address 114 is classed as a primary 2 digit address.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Sol
spelling

[Martin S-C]

Thank you very much Ron, that explains a lot. The magical 128 addresses! I should have guessed. I wonder how Nick G can do the change I cannot? I hope he gets back to us with more information.

In the meantime my 101-120 range will have to be 1010-1200 it seems.

[Suzie]

NCE automatically assigns consist addresses (always short addresses) starting from 127 downwards, so perhaps you have a lot of consists?

 

Are you programming your locos as long addresses or short addresses?

[SRman]

The NCE consist addresses are used but not specifically reserved: you can use addresses in that range for individual locos, just don' confuse them with any allocated to consists.

As to using address 114, when you go through the steps to reprogram your locomotive to 114, you will be given the option to activate the address. 114 is an address that falls within the 'normal' range of short addresses (1 - 127) that NCE systems can address. If you activate it as a short address, you should be able to simply 'Select Loco', type in 114 and 'Enter'. 

However, the NCE can also treat any address from 0 to 9999 as long addresses. If you program and activate 114 as a long address, you will have to enter '0114' with the leading zero when you wish to select that locomotive. The display will have an asterisk (star, if you prefer) in front of the number to indicate it is a long address.

In other words, NCE systems can have two parallel sets of addresses in the 1 to 127 range.

Edited to correct the long address range: address 0 is also valid in the long addresses but not the short ones.

Edited July 3, 2019 by SRman

[Martin S-C]

Thanks SRman, that helps a lot. I got the *114 address enabled now as a long address, so that solves the problem. I am not sure what was happening before when I couldn't get "0114" to be recognised but its working now.

 

Thank you to everyone for your kind help. Case closed!

[SRman]

There is one advantage to using addresses 100 to 127 as long addresses rather than short: if you take your locomotive to someone else's layout with a different DCC system, it will probably work, whereas a short address between those values may not be able to be called up, because many systems only go up to 99 for short addresses, then automatically 'assume' that anything 100 or over is a long address.

[Nigelcliffe]

5 hours ago, SRman said:

There is one advantage to using addresses 100 to 127 as long addresses rather than short: if you take your locomotive to someone else's layout with a different DCC system, it will probably work, whereas a short address between those values may not be able to be called up, because many systems only go up to 99 for short addresses, then automatically 'assume' that anything 100 or over is a long address.

 

Its a 50-50 gamble whether they'll work.   So, my view is stick to "safe addresses", which are short 1-99 and long 128-9983.  And don't use 100-127 (except as consists within the NCE system's consist manager). 

 

There are systems on sale which treat 100-127 as short (eg. Digitrax), and others which will treat them as long (eg. Lenz).

[Corbs]

I’m not sure if this has been answered already Martin, but the way we’ve found works for us is this:

 

-Set all locos with number above 100 up with long address even if the number is only 3 digits long (just put a 0 at the start)

-Go into the loco settings and put ‘long address’ as the default address on locos above 100

-Now you can call the loco up using 3 digits even if it has a long address as it ignores the 0 at the beginning anyway

-for locos numbered under 99, do the same but set default to short address and set the loco number as a short address 

 

We are using a home setup

with an NCE powercab too