The company started out as North Coast Engineering. New York regulations required that they change the name to NCE Corporation when they incorporated - New York law doesn't allow Engineering and Corporation in the same company name. Even today, some folks (erroneously) call it North Coast or North Coast Engineering.
Often considered the manufacturer of one of the most user friendly systems, NCE offers a complete line of Digital Command Control products.
PROCAB - NCE's very sophisticated "ProCab" provides user-friendly access to all system features in a single handheld throttle device. The ProCab is available in radio and non-radio versions. The ProCab is one of the most ergonomic cabs on the market.
POWERCAB - Built on the ergonomic ProCab platform, the PowerCab combines a 2 amp (peak) system for your home layout with a cab that can be taken to the club or a friend's layout. The PowerCab can have a radio board installed and be used as a wireless cab.
DUPLEX RADIO - NCE's radio system has been honed to a fine edge and is Bruce's choice for his own use since 2010.
POWER TO SPARE - NCE is renowned for its effortless power:
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The 5 amp system guarantees a full 5+ amps on the track for your S and smaller scale systems.
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The 10 amp systems provide an enormous reserve of power and should be used only with G-scale or exceptionally well wired O-scale layouts. It provides over 10 continuous amps and will deliver 30 amps for 1/4 second for power-hungry locos like the offerings from USA Trains and Charles Ro. Since it is capable of an instantaneous 60 amps - faster than a circuit breaker than react - it is NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANY OF THE SMALLER SCALES!
For each system type, the cab operation will be influenced by the address.
I’ve gone through the documentation I can find and have compiled the following table of what can exist where on what system.
If you find an error in this data, please let me know so I can keep things straight for the NCE fans out there. Click on the link below to download your own PDF version of the chart.
There have been rumors, some of them perpetuated by Bruce, that there was no auto-reverser to work with the PowerCab. Recent testing has shown that the PSxAR, set to 1.27 amps, works flawlessly as an auto-reverser! Out of the box, it won't work, but jumper J6 pin 1 to J6 pin 2 to set the trip current to 1.27 amps and it will do just fine. The circuit breaker functionality will NOT work with the PowerCab - the PowerCab will shut down before the PSxAR will shut off. Bruce recommends jumpering J7 Pin 3 to J7 Pin 4 to activate the low power booster program within the PSxAR.
The external antenna cabs may be older radio versions. The internal antenna version are all V1.5 or later. Some V1.5 boards have connectors for external antennas, as shown here. Some have internal antennas. If you don't know what radio version you have, you can tell by opening your cab and looking at the radio board, which is installed in the upper portion of the rear of the cab. See example below.
Now, in the lower left corner of the board - shown in detail below - you can see some components. If your board is missing a resistor as shown in the photo below, you have Version 1.5 radio - the upgrade that came out in 2008!
If your board has a resistor in this location, you have an older version radio board.