This month our Monday round robin group got together twice ouside of Ops Sessions but I was unwell for one and did not attend, I worked to connect DecoderPro with my new NCE system, did some Maintenace, Daz from Model Railroad Techniques published a feature video of tmy layout, I made some car cards for Peter J's ENVGR layout, continued to work on op session paperwork for Session 3, held cancel my operation session (Session 2) but attended two other ops sessions.

NCE & DecoderPro

I purchased a DTECH 3m FTDI USB to RS232 DB9 Male Serial Adapter Cable COM Port with FT232 Chipset Supports Windows 10 8 7 Mac Linux (10 Feet, FT232 Chip) from Amazon thinking it would work Ok..... Fail....

So after consulting the NCE-DCC @ Groups.io I have ordered an ESU - Cable forLokProgrammer which is on the recommended list by Dave Heap. If you are a member here is the link to the article. I hope that this one will work as the other one would not.

Well thye new one arrived and I installed the drivers and guess what - still not working then I read to the last line finding this link. Well I missed that, bugger, my original cable may of been ok anyway..... Looks like I may have come across the first NCE design fault and sunk $70 in the process....

I removed the hexagon Head screws and still did not get a proper connection....

Further investigation showed that the Drivers are not loading correctly or Windows is not doing what it should do - so I posted the issue in the JMRIUSERS Group. I will wait to she what those who know lots more than me have to say.

Well I got told it was a two step provess

HP Support updated the BIOS & Device Drivers

Finally I bought and paid for Advanced System Repair Pro software but that didn't work either so contacted their support and they spent 4 hours on team viewer with me doing what I was told and they could not make it work either.

Frutrated I bought a new laptop and after setup I plugged the ESU cable in and it configured and ran first time.

After replacing the hexagon Head screws I still did not get a proper connection until reducing the length of the hexagon section.

A by-product is the new laptop boots up and loads JMRI much quicker.

I looked through posts on the NCE-DCC Group, found a similar topic and I asked for help:

Hi

I purchased a new Lenovo laptop running Win10 and an ESU cable as suggested and the drivers loaded successfully - both the Serial Converter and the COM Port.

The COM Port (COM3) appears and disappears with USB plug insertion/removal and there are no errors in the Properties>Events for either device.

I am still not able to communicate with the Power Pro.

The JMRI System Console still has the warnings:

2021-11-05 13:27:50,889 jmrix.AbstractMRTrafficController WARN - Timeout on reply to message: AA consecutive timeouts = 0 in nce.NceTrafficController [nce.NceTrafficController Transmit thread]
2021-11-05 13:27:51,005 nce.NceConnectionStatus WARN - Incorrect or no response from NCE command station [nce.NceTrafficController Transmit thread]

Do you have any suggestions?

Cheers Jim

The first suggestion was

Try the loopback test at:
<http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn2/Serial.htm>

large clip

The initial result was:

The Loopbacktest failed...

When I posted that I received further advice:

It's possible you didn't get contact between pins 2 & 3 or had a short to back shell.
Try the test of removing the two Hexagonal Headed Screws from the socket, as per <http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn2/Serial.htm>.
If that fails retry the loopback test. It tests the USB-Serial adapter cable, Windows driver and JMRI connection.

and

I had the same problem and results when I was attempting to connect my Win10 laptop to the NCE PowerPro via the serial cable. I found that the hex screws needed to be in place. I used a Dremel with a cut wheel to shave about a 1/16th of an inch off the female end of the hex mount screws. This allowed the cable to fully seat in the serial port and be secure in the connection. Everything worked after this remedy.
Best of luck.

and

The screws are fine as is. It's the Nuts that retain the "D" socket to the face of the command station. They don't allow the cable plug to make good contact with the "D" socket female pins. Solution is the reduce the Length/ Height of the two two hex Nuts. You only need a small amount (1/16" to 1/8") filed or cutoff. You may have to remove the cover to get access to the two nuts. Do this carefully so you don't get any filings inside the command station. tape up all openings You don't want to remove the PC board the socket is attached to as there will be no support of the socket and hex nuts and you could damage the soldered joints on the PC board

The results of the loopback test and feeback I received was:

I found a finer clip to bridge pins 2 & 3 and got the response "WARN - timeout flushes receive buffer: AA" so I think the the cable drivers are working ok, see below:

Agreed. That's what we are looking for.

2021-11-06 14:52:48,215 jmrix.AbstractMRTrafficController WARN - Timeout on reply to message: AA consecutive timeouts = 0 in nce.NceTrafficController [nce.NceTrafficController Transmit thread]
2021-11-06 14:52:48,324 nce.NceConnectionStatus WARN - Incorrect or no response from NCE command station [nce.NceTrafficController Transmit thread]
2021-11-06 14:52:48,340 jmrix.AbstractMRTrafficController WARN - timeout flushes receive buffer: AA [nce.NceTrafficController Receive thread]

That's what a loopback should show.

Then...

Since re plugging the connections to the Power Pro the system is not responding - the Radio Throttles Connect to the RB02 but they stay on the second screen screen showing NCE and time (time not updating) and secondline RADIO V1.5B and does not continue on to the Loco screen.

I am now thinking the PH Pro has the problem. The PH Pro status lights are all showing normal indication.

The feedback was:

The connector between the top board and the lower board is temperamental. You need to reseat the top board on the connector.

Biggest issue about doing the upper board reseating is insuring you have the connector lined up correctly. It is possible to shift the board left or right and be wrong. Generally removing and reseating the board a couple of times will remove any issue of possible corrosion on the pins.

So I decided to reseat the board. Here is my reply to the Group:

Gentlemen Thank You!

I removed the Power Pro cover and found that only one mounting screw was present and it was loose - I could see daylight under the washer - and no second screw and the cable tie over the foam block above the connector to the bottom board was firm but not tight.

I removed the top board after removing the DB9 hex scews and the loose boad mountung screw. I coated the male contacts on the bottom board with CRC 2-26 usig a Q tip then reseated the top board and sceured it with the existing and a cover screw (not being the earthing screw), installed the hex screws for the DB9 connector and attached a new cable tie over the foam block, then replaced the case.

Reconnected the cab bus, control bus, power and track plug and the Serial DB9 Cable then powerered up and everything worked properly.

JMRI system console no longer showing any timeout messages and I can run a train using a JMRI throttle on the laptop.

Thanks again for you prompt input and solutions.

I am so relieved that everything is now doing what I expected it to do.

Maintenance Issues

A number of things arose during my ops session that need to be aaddressed:

Fault LED Lights Flintston
Fault LED Lights Hornertown
Hornertown East Plant No.4 Turnout no power
Huntington Point to Siding Power Issue
Jimtown Siding Turnout Not throwing reliably

I hope to get to these within a couple of weeks.

Fault LED Lights Flintston

This has been traced to a blown power supply which I have replaced and everything is working again.

Fault LED Lights Hornertown

After initial and subsequent tests the problem is re-occuring spasmodically. I have managed to trace it to an joint on the LED strip and after some local pressure on the backing adhesive it seems to have subsided.

Remainder

They are still outstanding...

Model Railroad Techniques

Daz has produced a video that you may wish to have a look at.

Here is a link to his Youtube Channel.

Don't forget to have a look at his 3D Printed products too.

ENVGR Car Cards

I offerred to help Peter by producing the Car Cards for him. I setup a shared Dropbox folder for us to share data and he loaded the Car & Loco data from JMRI and images for me to work with.

There were:

12 Locomotives (2 remain but the are with Gerry H for some work)

48 Freight Cars

5 Coaches

8 Cabooses

I massaged the data and mail merged to produce the documents for printing, printed, guillotined, laminated and guillotined again and fitted into pockets.

guillotined cards laminated ready for final trimming

All done and placed in sleeves.

Peter now needs to build come car card boxes to suit the plastic sleeves and Train carriers for a group of sleeves,

Session 3 Paperwork

Thinking about what will be in Session 3 and I have commenced planning and am in the process of doing the train graph to prove the movements work ok. I will need to complete the train graph and job cards by the end of the year leaving only the switch lists to be completed following completion of Session 2.

Ops Sessions

I was lucky to be involved in three sessions this month, mine and two at Wayne's. Unfortunately not enough operators were available for the proposed run of Peter J's Eureka Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad on 8th.

Hallett Cove Southern 29th

Nine of us were to get together and this was to be the second formal session using the new NCE systtem and the second using the new operating regime as previously outlined.

Well that was until three operators ended up having medical matters to deal with.

So 3 hours before the start the session it had to be cancelled.

I will run the session in February now.