Power Cab System Reference. Manual - part 16

ENTER THE ACCESSORY ADDRESS
LINKING MACROS

Enter the Accessory Address that you want to control, and press ENTER. A macro
can be linked to another macro by entering an accessory address of 9999 at this
point. You will be prompted for the macro number to link.

MAC: 000 02:00PM

ACCESSORY #: _

You can chain as many macros together as you like but use caution. If you chain
macros in a ‘circular’ fashion the system will appear to crash (it is busy sending
macros continuously) until you press PROG/ESC on the cab that issued the macro.
If a computer is used the only solution is to cycle the power to the system and fix the
circular reference.

SELECT THE TURNOUT POSITION

Press 1 for Normal or 2 for Route.

MAC: 000 02:00PM

ACC: 001 1=N 2=R

The above two screens will repeat up to 8 times to allow you to enter up to 8
accessories. After 8 accessories have been entered the SELECT MACRO
PROGRAM OR REVIEW screen will be displayed. If you want to enter less than 8
accessories, leave the accessory # blank (just press ENTER).
If 2 is pressed on the SELECT MACRO PROGRAM OR REVIEW screen, the
following screen is displayed.

ENTER THE MACRO NUMBER TO BE REVIEWED

Enter the Macro number that you want to review (0-15), and press ENTER.

REVIEW: 02:00PM

MACRO NUMBER: _

REVIEW MACRO

The Accessory number and output will be shown. Press ENTER to see the next
Accessory in the Macro. If there are no more Accessories in the Macro, the following
screen will be displayed.

MAC: 000 02:00PM

ACCESSORY: 001=N

REVIEW END OF MACRO

After ENTER is pressed, the SELECT MACRO PROGRAM OR REVIEW screen will
be displayed.

MACRO: 02:00PM

—END OF MACRO—

BROWSE CONSISTS

(Shortcut = PROG 9)

This option lets you see what advanced consists are currently in the memory of the
system.

Press ENTER at the “BROWSE CONSISTS” prompt. The LCD will display the
highest numbered consist in the system memory. It will look something like:

CON: 127 10:42AM

LEAD:2190 R:4484

Use the speed buttons or thumbwheel to scroll the next higher or lower consist in the
list. When you get to the end of the list it will roll over to the ‘other’ end. Pressing
ENTER will show any mid consist locomotives of the displayed consist.

Pressing ENTER while the Lead/Rear locomotives are displayed will show any mid-
consist locomotives. (The system will remember up to 2 mid-consist locos per
advanced consist). Press ENTER again to view the next consist.

Pressing SEL LOCO will exit browsing and select the displayed consist for running.

Pressing CLEAR then pressing 1 at the “KILL CON?” prompt will kill the displayed
consist.

Press PROG/ESC at any time to exit browsing.

PROGRAM SIGNAL DECODERS

(Shortcut = PROG 0)

This allows the operator to setup Signal Decoders while they are connected to the
Track (Signal Programming on the Main).

ENTER THE SIGNAL ADDRESS

Enter the Decoder address and press ENTER.

PROG ACC 02:00PM

SIGNAL NUM: _

ENTER THE CV NUMBER

Enter the CV number that you want to program and press ENTER.

PROG ACC 02:00PM

ENTER CV NUM: _

ENTER THE CV VALUE

Enter the value you want in the CV and press ENTER.

PROG ACC 02:00PM

ENTER VALUE: _

HELPFUL HINTS FOR OPERATION

Passing an old style consist: Use ASSIGN LOCO TO CAB to transfer an old

style consist to any other Cab on the system. This causes a swap between the
active loco/consist on your Cab and the active loco/consist on the target Cab.

Nesting consists: Say a heavy freight is approaching a long grade and helpers

are needed. The train’s locomotives are an advanced consist. The two GP9
pushers are also consisted using an advanced consist. The pusher consist is
brought out of the siding at the base of the grade and put in place. An “old style”
consist is now set up using the freight’s lead loco number and the pusher’s lead
loco number. You can now operate the entire train to the grade crest as one unit.
Upon reaching the cutoff siding at the crest, the “old style” consist is killed and the
pushers are selected to move to the siding. The freight consist continues on while
the pushers drift back down the hill.

When setting up an old style Consist, you may want to use a Loco number that

does not exist for the first Loco (Consist address). This will allow you to put the
actual lead loco in recall to operate the headlight, and the sound loco to operate the
Horn and Bell.

· If a cab does not respond after plugging it in, press the ENTER key a couple of

times. This will cause it to exit from any mode it was in when it was unplugged.

When making your own cables using RJ plugs be SURE the connectors are

“flipped” over at opposite ends of the wire. See the illustration on page 21 for
proper cab bus cabling.

Using the Power Cab/ProCab

In DCC there are 2 kinds of addresses (loco numbers), long and short. When

entering the address of the loco you wish to control long addresses from 1 to 127
are entered by preceding the actual number by a zero. Short addresses are
entered without a leading zero. Long addresses in the range of 1 -127 are
displayed on your cab with an asterisk before the loco number. ie: “

042” indicates

the long address for loco forty-two and “042” indicates the short address. Most
modern decoders made since 1997 support long (4 digit) addresses. Older Lenz,
Digitrax and MRC decoders only support the short address.

When entering numbers if you make a mistake there is no “erase” or “backup”

key. If you keep pressing digits the display will clear allowing you to start entering
your number over again.

If you wish to abandon what you are doing when in the middle of entering a

number push the “PROG/ESC” key and you will be returned to normal operation.

During various operations where you are doing something other than normal

loco operation such as “set up consist” or “select accessory” speed control of the
loco is not available, however the Emergency Stop will still work if you need to stop
your loco.

Programming on the programming track the command station first reads the

value of a location (such as “short address” or “acceleration”) and displays it on
your cab. If you wish to accept this value just press ENTER to continue or type in
a new number if you want to change it.

Programming Track

The command station checks for a short circuit on the programming track

before applying power. If your loco has lights or other current drawing devices
wired directly to the track instead of a decoder function output the command
station will probably think is has a short and will say “SHORT DETECTED” each
time you start to program this loco. If you wish you will be allowed to override the
short and continue. This short detection is there to protect decoders from damage
if they are miswired. For this reason we always try a new decoder installation on
the programming track first instead of putting it directly on the layout. If the
programming works the installation is most likely correct.

TROUBLE SHOOTING

Locomotive was running yesterday but today it just sits there - The headlight and

other functions are controllable but it won’t run. - This sometimes happens when you
clear a consist but for some reason the decoder misses the command. Use the DEL
LOCO button to “re-delete” the locomotive. Alternatively use programming on the
main to set CV19 to 0 (same thing as clearing the consist).

Head Light goes on and off as I change speed - You are operating a loco with an

older 14 step decoder in the 28 step mode and the head light is ON only in the even
speed steps.

The programmability of the decoders gives the modeler a lot of flexibility. However,

this can lead to some unpredictable results. Here are a few tips to get you out of
some situations:

Loco won’t respond -

Check that the short/long address bit is set correctly in the CFG variable (CV 29).

The loco might be in a consist - Press DEL LOCO, the locomotive number

then ENTER.

Make sure CV3, 4, 23, 24 are set to a small enough value to allow the loco to

accelerate at a reasonable rate

Loco won’t run on an analog (DC) layout - Check that the DC mode bit is set in

the CFG variable (CV 29).

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