SECTION 5: TESTING AND PROGRAMMING

Now we need to connect the panel to your system and make it work. Let’s deal with the LED control board first. This just connects to your track bus or accessory bus via two wires, directly to the mimic board. Once connected, turn it on using the switch on the board. It will light up showing ‘0001’ on the screen before going blank. Now turn the panel over and you should see of each pair of LEDS illuminated. Don’t worry if they don’t match your point position yet.

The encoder connects via a six-way RJ12 cable to your system, either directly if you are using NCE’S DCC system or via Alpha Box or Alpha Sniffer if you’re using other systems, or 12V analogue.

It should come up on the screen ‘0004’ and this means its cab address for NCE is Cab 4. This can, as with all NCE products, be changed if needed, but for this purpose we don’t need to do this. Now set up the switches and LEDS (we can also set up any of the self-learn point motors). Switch 1 on your panel can be operated in one position – let’s say up – and when you let go it will return to the centre. By operating the switch, you have told the encoder to send out the command to the system to change the point motor in one direction. Your point, however, may or may not have moved.

If it did, move the switch to the other position. The point blades should now move again. If it moves the incorrect way, either rotate the switch 180º or swap over the L/R connections on the encoder for that switch.

As you operate the switch, the LEDS will also change. If the incorrect route is shown then swap over the two LED cables on the corresponding Mimic output terminals. Both encoder and mimic are numbered 1-12, so Input 6 on the Encoder will operate Output 6 on the mimic – and so on. If you have more than one of each control board that’s not an issue as they can be connected in groups of four – that’s 48 inputs and 48 pairs of LED outputs. If your layout is so large that you need more than 48, don’t worry – you can!