Using 2 Powercabs together

[kebang]

During the 2013 Bohol Earthquake my home was badly damaged. Over the next few months many skip loads of debris were removed from the site. A couple of years later the railway was rebuilt (My wife insisted rebuilding the house came first!) but several items were missing, including my powercab controller. The presumption was that in the chaos missing items had been accidentally discarded into the skips.

I purchased another powercab.

This morning the old one unexpectedly surfaced in a most unexpected place! . To use them both together is it simply a case of plugging the second one into the spare socket on the power panel using the curly cord?

[SRman]

Yes, but you may also have to allocate another cab address - the main one using the flat cable should be on address 2 by default, so logically, you can assign cab address 3 to the 'slave' unit using the coiled cord.

[kebang]

Thanks SRman, I'll try that tomorrow.

[kebang]

I've been pulling my hair out!
I have the 2 powercabs connected properly, 1 with the straight lead, 1 with the curly lead. The master has cab number 2, the slave has been allocated cab number 3.
I cannot take control of any locos with cab3. Cab2 operates everything as normal.
So I swapped the cabs around and renumbered them. Cab2 (which was previously Cab3) operates everything as normal but I still cannot take control of any locos with Cab3 (which was previously Cab2).
So both powercabs are functioning correctly. I've read & reread the manual but cannot see what I am doing wrong. Any suggestions?

[BromsMods]

Are you using the Assign Cab to Loco function? If not, press SHIFT and 2 together, select the loco number to assign, press ENTER then the number of the cab to which you wish to assign the loco.

If that doesn't work let me know the version of firmware you have installed in both cabs. I assume both are plugged into the same PowerCab panel.

[kebang]

Im popping up to the loft to try that now!

[kebang]

I had tried assigning loco to cab before (although not using Shift+2 to do it). Tried it again now & it didn't work.
On start up one powercab is version 1.65 , the other is version 1.65B (currently Cab2).
They also both show Procab version 1.3 on start up

They are both plugged into the same PowerCab panel. One with the curly lead, one with the straight lead.

[BromsMods]

Keep the cab with version 1.65B as Cab 2. There were one or two issues with version 1.65, hence the release of 1.65B, but I'm not sure if assigning locos to cabs was one of them. It would probably pay to have both cabs using the same version of firmware, then you will have eliminated firmware as the issue.

[mjb1961]

Hi,,,are you sure you can use 2 powercabs ? ,,im sure that you have to purchase a particular type of handset ( NCE ) to plug in and use as a second controller ,,,,,,I've got the powercab also ,I've no need for a second controller so haven't looked into it properly but can recall reading some thing in the manual referring to a second controller but it was not a 2nd powercab if that makes sense ,,,mjb

[kebang]

I had no real need for a 2nd. cab either, but as I'd got them both I thought I might as well use them!
I am very certain that you should be able to use 2 together and if I were wrong I'm sure BromsMods would have corrected me. (I believe he used to sell them.)

Quote from a review "NCE Power Cab DCC System Review. ... The difference is you aren't just holding the cab, but the entire DCC system; cab, command station and booster! Best of all, attached to another NCE layout, the Power Cab can be used as a regular ProCab without any interference."

Bottom line is if I have to spend cash on upgrades to make them work together I will save my money & dedicate the second unit to operating accessories.

[BromsMods]

Kebang, I have just re-read one of your posts above. If I'm reading the post correctly then you MUST change things to have the No. 2 cab as the master - that's the one using version 1.65B firmware - connected using the flat cable. The other cab should be cab 3 and connected via the curly cable. Then you should be able to do what you want.

[kebang]

BromsMods, That's how they have been, and still are, connected. They don't work, still not possible to assign loco to cab 3.
Before your last reply I emailed NCE describing the problem, but no reply recieved (which is a little disappointing )