Cab04E/Cab04P

MODELS COVERED (in picture order): CAB04E / CAB04ER / CAB04P / CAB04PR

(Early Production Photos Shown. NCE did not change the label on many cabs to say POWERPRO until much later in production.)

PART NUMBERS:

CAB04E: 524-14 ENCODER KNOB

CAB04ER: 524-15 ENCODER KNOB with radio

CAB04P: 524-12 POT KNOB CAB

CAB04PR: 524-13 POT KNOB CAB with radio

CAB HISTORY/DESCRIPTION:

CAB04 has evolved over time. Originally the CAB04 was just a POT knob. The knob works like your volume control on a old stereo. Physical rotational stops at the stop and full speed points. The knob, all of which have a black line on them, gives you a physical indication of the speed setting. The position of the knob was directly tide to an absolute speed.

Later the CAB04 was offered with a Encoder Knob. An Encoder Knob offered the ability to pick a train in motion and take control without changing its speed when you turn the knob. The Encoder Knob was a RELATIVE SPEED control device. Turning it to the right simply said take the speed your at now and make it go faster. Likewise turning the knob to the left said take the speed your at now and make it slow down.

The introduction of a ENCODER CAB04 being produced along side the POT CAB04 forced a change in the model numbers. The model numbers got a E or a P after the CAB04. So the CAB04 became offered in the CAB04E and the CAB04P version.

Later versions of the CAB04E were offered with a toggle switch on the top called the Address Toggle Switch. It is also known as the "Cab Switch" This toggle switch allowed the operator to control two trains at once. You selected one train with the switch in one position and the second train with the switch in the other position. When you toggle the switch, the train you were running remains running but will no long be under your control until you switch the toggle switch back to the same position you had when you were running it.

Radio was supported and when it was installed, added a R suffix after the CAB04x name.

The Status LED gives you status information about the state of the keyboard and button press action.

1) When the LED was off, the keypad was being used as a function control keypad. Each key number was a function number.

2) When the LED was on, the keypad was setup for data entry of something like a engine number or a macro number.

3) The LED would always blink when a button was pressed. It did not matter if the LED was ON or OFF. This gave you physical verification that your button was pressed.

HOW THE TOGGLE (CAB) SWITCH WORKS

The toggle switch toggle the cab 04 between two cab addresses. This is how a single cab is able to control two trains. It is virtually "two fully independent CAB04s in a single Cab04 cab case. Consequently it CONSUMES 2 cab addresses both which must be unique as any cab address must be. The "cab" that is not selected by the toggle switch simply goes into an idle state but the command station no long sees it plugged in. Instead it see the other cab plugged in. Stated another way, the toggle switch causes one virtual cab to be unplugged while the other virtual cab is plugged in all at the same time.

"TOGGLE (CAB) SWITCH" AND "SHIFT" BUTTON UPGRADE OPTIONS FOR CABS 04 AND 05

The Cab04 and the Cab05 shared a common PCB board and software evolution to the point of being the same exact cab internally. One PCB board and One Software program. The difference were determined at the time of manufacture by only using a Bill Of Material (BOM) list that determined if they installed a knob (encoder or pot) or buttons for speed control. However the coordination between the PCB board evolution and the software evolution and the official released of the cab meant there are cabs shipped from NCE with hidden potential to support options. The gamble comes from the fact that without the software also being updated to support the hardware features, just installing a Toggle switch or a shift button may not work. DO NOT ASK NCE to upgrade the cab software. They will not do it. The cabs were sold with the features advertised in the manual they came with it. Here is a table of what is supported organized by the revision of the PCB board you find inside the cab.

PRODUCTION STATUS:

No longer in production. The Cab06 is the only small throttle option you can buy.

ALTERNATIVE CABS:

CAB05 / CAB06

LED Trivia: If you have a cab with a GREEN LED, you have a old version of the cab that uses DIP switches in the back to set cab address. It cannot be upgraded to support radio. To Set the Cab address, go here: Dip Switch Cab Address

10/22/18

10/25/18