DistantSignal

The more I get into model railway'ing I can see that I will end up with a lot of cabling to turnouts, sensors, signals, etc etc - much of which will go back to pcb's. All of this would be underneath my layout. Are there any "best practises" for cabling and mounting pcb's? I've sussed using crimp connectors where posible, T-crimps for connecting to the DCC bus. I'd mount pcb's using pillar mounts. I come from the telecoms industry so used to 19" racking etc, which doesn't really work here! RS Components seems to be a good source for the hardware needed. Many thanks

Excellent, it all worked. Forcing the Power Cab to work in Direct Mode fixed the problem. Found an explanation of Paged v Direct in DCCWiki.com - so got some appreciation of the issue as well. I was working in Programme Track mode. Very many thanks.

I'm new and trying out a Hornby loco with TTS. I'm using an NCE Power Cab for control. If I try and read my CV values nothing much seems to line up with the default values they should be set at. For instance, sound CV's are in the range 160-178 - and all should be set at 4 as default. But they are not, some are 004, many are 015, or "Cannot read CV" etc. I'm using "Use Program Track". The same CV's aways either work (return a value) or come back as "Cannot read CV" - which suggests to me that it's not a pick up problem. I've checked with my supplier that I'm doing everything right - he says "yes". I've checked with Hornby to see that I haven't got the wrong sound decoder manual (in case sound CV range differs from 160-178) and they say that Hornby only use the 160 range. The loco control and sound functions all work as they should with the NCE Power Cab in ordinary operation. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Hi All – many thanks for your responses. I have looked at clubs near me, but all appeared to be closed for the moment. This forum does seem to be very good (quick, helpful responses) etc, so I will very much take up your suggestion of using it. The MERG group also looks to be an interesting avenue for me to pursue. Where I’ve got to: I’ve built a 8x4 layout on a 12mm baseboard comprising R2, R3 and R4 ovals, turnouts and sidings (OO gauge). Got 3 DCC loco's, one with sound (steam). Now operating with an NCE Power Cab, upgraded from a Hornby Select. I been tweaking CV’s (sound) with the Cab. I'm not too concerned about era at this stage. Now looking at JMRI and trying to get my head round it. At the end of all this, I'd like to get it all working automatically - so that's my eventual aim. I’m after advice over: Choice of turnouts, turnout motors and decodersLearning sources for Block Control and SignallingPossible help with JMRI if I get stuck with the tutorialsI’ll put posts in (hopefully!) the appropriate thread – and see what happens. Many thanks for your support!

I'm just starting out in model railway'ing, but want to progress fast to a PC controlled layout. So I have a lot to learn. Does anyone know of any clubs that are operating virtually at this time (ie Zoom, etc), please?