Peterborough North

[great northern]

9 minutes ago, 30368 said:

 

Not another ASLEF strike*..... sorry I've been out of the UK for three weeks so I may have lost the thread even more than usual. I don't think I have seen this view before?

 

Kind regards,

 

30368

 

* Up the workers!!

I've done similar ones, but nothing quite like this.

[great northern]

The 5.23 stopper from KX now comes in behind Robert the Devil. From London to Hitchin there were 10 coaches , a reasonable load for a Pacific, but six came off there and went to Cambridge, so Robert has only had four to contend with for the rest of the way.

[New Haven Neil]

I do like a 'GN' tender on an A3.

 

Hopefully the electrickery box can be restored to health without a holiday to the US.  Or buy a Lenz.....  (declaring bias, it's 25 years old and still fine!).

[Oldddudders]

I know zilch about NCE, having used Digitrax since 1998, but a new "CS02 POWER PRO COMMAND STATION" is about £300, which is hardly small change, but the time taken for a unit to go back to the US, be assessed, fixed, paid for and returned through greedy UK customs is not trivial. 

[great northern]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

I do like a 'GN' tender on an A3.

 

Hopefully the electrickery box can be restored to health without a holiday to the US.  Or buy a Lenz.....  (declaring bias, it's 25 years old and still fine!).

 

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I know zilch about NCE, having used Digitrax since 1998, but a new "CS02 POWER PRO COMMAND STATION" is about £300, which is hardly small change, but the time taken for a unit to go back to the US, be assessed, fixed, paid for and returned through greedy UK customs is not trivial. 

This command station is only a few months old, so abandoning and replacing it is not really an option. I'm not sure I'd be up to learning new tricks either, as I've had NCE for twenty five years now, and I'm used to how it all works. This is the first time there has been any real trouble with it. Timara is going to visit in a couple of days time, and we will do a reset, which I'm pretty sure NCE will tell me to do anyway.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

I know zilch about NCE, having used Digitrax since 1998, but a new "CS02 POWER PRO COMMAND STATION" is about £300, which is hardly small change, but the time taken for a unit to go back to the US, be assessed, fixed, paid for and returned through greedy UK customs is not trivial. 

Not sure whether the UK is the same but there is at least one accredited NCE repairer in Australia which saves having to send stuff to and fro across the Pacific. He lives about 20 minutes drive for me, too, which has been very handy on occasions!

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, great northern said:

 

This command station is only a few months old, so abandoning and replacing it is not really an option. I'm not sure I'd be up to learning new tricks either, as I've had NCE for twenty five years now, and I'm used to how it all works. This is the first time there has been any real trouble with it. Timara is going to visit in a couple of days time, and we will do a reset, which I'm pretty sure NCE will tell me to do anyway.

A new battery would be my starting point.  If that fixes it, you'll save the hassle of recreating any route-setting macros, etc. that would be lost in a reset.

[great northern]

So here we are in the hotel garden, hopefully pointing our camera straight into the sun to get this shot of the station frontage.

[great northern]

10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

A new battery would be my starting point.  If that fixes it, you'll save the hassle of recreating any route-setting macros, etc. that would be lost in a reset.

I have thought about that. When this new unit arrived a few months ago Timara helped set it up, and to programme 122 macros. Two days later, all macros were empty! Timara came again, and we discovered that the battery in the unit was almost completely dead. Replaced it, and all was well, except for having to redo all the macros. We decided it must have been a duff battery.

 

Now, I have started to wonder whether this battery has gone too, though it should last five years, which all others have done in the past. If another new battery solves the problem, we then need to query why the unit is running them down so quickly. However, this time the problems that have arisen are far greater, so it may in fact be something more complex than just battery replacement. Timara is coming on Thursday so we shall see then, and I may even have had an e mail from NCE by that time.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, great northern said:

I have thought about that. When this new unit arrived a few months ago Timara helped set it up, and to programme 122 macros. Two days later, all macros were empty! Timara came again, and we discovered that the battery in the unit was almost completely dead. Replaced it, and all was well, except for having to redo all the macros. We decided it must have been a duff battery.

 

Now, I have started to wonder whether this battery has gone too, though it should last five years, which all others have done in the past. If another new battery solves the problem, we then need to query why the unit is running them down so quickly. However, this time the problems that have arisen are far greater, so it may in fact be something more complex than just battery replacement. Timara is coming on Thursday so we shall see then, and I may even have had an e mail from NCE by that time.

Ah, I'd forgotten you'd already replaced the battery. In that case it is probably something else, possibly an internal PC card fault. I think you'll need to wait for NCE's response.

[great northern]

I've had an interesting couple of hours. NCE e mailed me very promptly, but bad news, as in "send it back, needs a new PCB, which is being worked on now, but I don't have an ETA."  I asked if it would be measured in weeks or months, and wasn't there anything we could try. Again a very quick reply, saying try a command station reset, here's how to do it, but it won't work long term.

 

While this was going on, I was on the phone to Timara, initially to cancel her visit on Thursday, but then to say it was back on again! I'm really impressed with how they dealt with this, and now fingers crossed for Thursday.

[great northern]

Robert the Devil at journey's end, watched by the nice lady, who has seen it many times before.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, great northern said:

I've had an interesting couple of hours. NCE e mailed me very promptly, but bad news, as in "send it back, needs a new PCB, which is being worked on now, but I don't have an ETA."  I asked if it would be measured in weeks or months, and wasn't there anything we could try. Again a very quick reply, saying try a command station reset, here's how to do it, but it won't work long term.

 

While this was going on, I was on the phone to Timara, initially to cancel her visit on Thursday, but then to say it was back on again! I'm really impressed with how they dealt with this, and now fingers crossed for Thursday.

That's what mine needed a couple of years ago after similar symptoms. Regarding the "new" design PCB, I believe I now have one but that might have been a pre-release version. If Digitrains can't help, it might be worth asking Coastal DCC or DCC Supplies. At worst, they might have a spare "old" design PCB that could be fitted.

 

I suspect that the reset won't work but it's easy enough to try.

 

Usual disclaimer regarding NCE and all the other firms named.

[great northern]

Just a look along the forecourt.