NCE mini-panel on Digitrax Layout

[TerryN@StDave.org]

I have grown impatient waiting for Digitrax to develop a functional equivalent to the NCE mini-panel (3 years now).  Yesterday someone told me that he was using Digitrax boosters with an NCE PowerCab.  His solution was simply a matter of creating a special network cable to bridge between Loconet and Cab Bus.  Anyone have any experience mixing Digitrax and NCE control systems?  If it is just a matter of different pinouts on the network cable, that would be a very simple solution and allow me to automate several functions on my layout with the mini-panel without losing my investment in Digitrax control system equipment.

Thanks for any wisdom or experience that you might have with this.

[John]

Welcome to RW

Had to look up what a Mini Panel was .. but if it's a route controller, then you can do that with digitrax and other loconet compatible equipment .. so unless you just want to move to NCE, there are other alternatives we can help you explore ..

[TerryN@StDave.org]

The mini-panel is actually a programmable DCC scripting device.  While it is advertised as a way to control turnouts, it actually can control any DCC device.  I am trying to automate a trolley line and a coal mine, and with the 31 input ports on the mini-panel, I am hoping to automate 2-3 trolleys (stopping at stations, alternating on a shared track, etc.) and a small shay running in and out of a coal mine.  This can probably be done with the automation controls in JMRI, but interfacing all the required input signals (primarily from block detection) would require a great deal more equipment and programming than could be done with a single device that can interface directly to all the input nodes and send out DCC commands in a timed sequence based on those inputs.

There are lots of demo tapes on YouTube, but one of the best that I know of is several years old, but gives a demo of the capabilities, and then if you are interested will take you through the programming and connections of the demo.  It is at

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So yes, there are multiple approaches to automation, but I am looking for a simple solution that I can actually mount in one of my modules and will be easy to reconfigure as the layout is changed for each show we are in.