NCE Products/NCE Wireless
NCE Wireless Systems
Radio Base Stations
RB02 Base Station
- 900MHz ISM Band Wireless Base Station
- Two expansion ports for repeaters
This is the second-generation base station.
The RB02 Base Station is not legal for use in Canada.
RPT1 Repeater
The RPT1 has been discontinued (2022).
- Repeaters are transmitters/receivers under the control of the RB02. Each repeater has two expansion ports which are also designed to accept repeaters. See the manual for more details.
- Up to 30 RPT1s can be in use.
Repeaters must be connected directly to the base station.[1]
RB01 Base Station
The RB01 has been discontinued. It cannot be upgraded.
Identifying RB Firmware Versions
Runaway trains can occur with the RB01 and RB02 using firmware versions less than V2.0
- RB01: There was only one version ever used with this model
- RB02: Look on the bottom of the unit for a sticker:
- No Sticker, Version 1.0
- A sticker present will have versions numbers V2.0 to V2.1 printed on it
Known Radio Base Station Issues
The RB01 and non-upgraded RB02 radio base station would have issues when:
- Many radio cabs were in use
- Cab Address 8 would cause a runaway (V2.0 corrected that)
- A combination of wired and wireless cabs in use at the same time
- Radio cab addresses in use.
- Sudden loss of radio operations on power up from a previous operating session where radio operations were normal. (Erratic radio issues)
The Version 2.0 RB02 update corrected:
- Dropped key presses
- Runaway trains
- Several cab addresses (8, 18, and 49) would cause the system to do bad things.
- Loss of correct radio ID in the base station
Other Issues
Throttles
All ProCab radio throttles should be using the same firmware versions.
This is true when a large number of throttles are in use simultaneously, as the ProCab will acknowledge any updates transmitted by the RB02.[2] If no acknowledgement is received, the base station will continue to transmit until it receives one. This can consume a lot of bandwidth when multiple throttles are involved.
A few throttles with the older firmware are not an issue.
The NCE Cab Bus is a serial polled network. Anything that increases the amount of unnecessary traffic will increase latency.
Radio ProCab Addresses 2 to 17
Due to the memory limits of the RB02, only cab addresses 2 to 17 have the capability of refreshing a ProCab display.
Radio Cab04/05/06 & 06P
Due to the RB02 restriction above, with many ProCabs in use at for example, a Club, etc., use cab bus addresses 19 to 49 for Radio Cabs, otherwise the 2 to 17 range can be used.
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