Last year I bought a NCE PowerCab and it showed up with a defective power supply. I was very upset and I was criticized for being upset over something that was not NCEs fault. It took over a month to get a replacement and of course I’m not to be upset. Well it hasn’t even been a year since that happened and I just got tired of all NCEs shortcomings. So I bought a new Digitrax Zephyr that took weeks to get and wouldn’t you know it, the cord to the power supply is bad. I have to bend it 110 degrees before it makes contact. Now this is the 120V AC side and is a safety hazard. Some mentioned in another thread that Digitrax in made in Florida, well I know this cord wasn’t made here. Ok so now that my layout is entirely DCC and I already pulled out all the NCE stuff, how long do you think I’ll have to wait for a replacement cord? Should I be upset? What realy upsets me is that if only the plug on the end was a standard computer type cord I’d be back in business and would not even have to deal with anybody because I must 10 of those other cords lying around. Why can’t anybody do anything standard?
I love my Digitrax stuff, haven't had any issues with any of it. However that being said, I do agree on the fact that they should have used a standard power cord. I've got the old Zephyr and it's just a wall wart with a cord. If I were you, I'd just wire my own. But I'm impatient
Yes I’m sure I will too. I’ve been planning it for a long time. I just have to wait even longer. I went through my junk power supply box and thought I was going to get lucky, but found another one that was different. I wonder how many different types of cords are there.
That would be too easy. Then you would only have to buy one item instead of one hundred different items. We all know that would reduce sales and company profits. As I recall planned obsolescence was based on a similar approach. (Edited) That may not be the case in this situation. So much for quality control.:tb-hissyfit: Jerry
To satisfy my own curiousity: Why did it take a month to get a NCE power supply? Why did it take weeks to get a Zephyr? Who are you dealing with? Local shop or online shop or some other type of middle man?
The on-line store said to call NCE directly and the guy at NCE said he would send one out. But after a couple of weeks I called the on-line store to see if maybe he sent it to them. The on-line store said they did not get it and they called NCE. They were told that NCE was busy and forgot about it and could not remember if they sent one out or not. When I orderd the Zephyr they were out of stock which was unknown to me, so i had to wait for the online store to get ther shippment first. Oh and I ordered them from two separate on-line stores who are both Train board contributors.
What short commmings?-- You had the Power Cab and it took a year to find the dfective poer supply or did I miss something. When you have a product problem i think that you are better off going right to the manufacture of the product- I think that your supplier might have droped the ball on this one.
Sorry, but the Digitrax power supply couldn't be any more "standard". The one that came with mine is a "wall wart" that puts out 15V AC 3A to a standard barrel power connector. (I'm guessing Digitrax is using something different now if you have a cable coming out on the AC side, but the Wall Wart will work.) You don't have to use the Digitrax power supply as long as the replacement meets the specs in the manual. (If you have the Zephyr XL or whatever it's called it probably has differnt specs than the original) You should be able to find one at Radio Shack or Fry's...just take the defective on with you and they can advise.
Have you contacted Digitrax? The new Zephyr uses a standard power supply with a standard power cord. It might not be the standard you think it should be. It is the standard for that type of power supply (laptop). I don't see where its Digitrax's fault because an etailor sold you something that they didn't have in stock. Rich
All to sorry to hear about the trouble you are having. When you buy something new it should come in flawless. This is certainly my expectation. When it doesn't, as in your case it becomes suspect. Was it used by the hobby shop as a demo and they simply pawned it off on you? Was it a return and instead of fixing it, you got it? Is that why you got a discount? It is appropriate to disclose the condition of the merchandise before releasing it to you. To disclose whether or not the sale is final and/or the stores return policy. Things like this test the character and will of the buyer, and test the honesty and truth fullness of the seller. Sorry, to disappoint anyone out there that thinks we should be "Patient" but I'm only patient to a point. I can be long suffering but when I blow, I blow. Shock waves, seismic activity can be felt and measured all the way from Big Bear Lake to Land-Caster. Grin! You certainly have the right to be frustrated and angry at this outcome and to own such. I'd be talking pretty swift and clean in the hopes of getting this corrected..."Yesterday". ***It's no body's business if you are upset or angry. You have a right to be angry and if necessary express impatience to the store you purchased the item from. I do find that when dealing one on one, a smile helps. When dealing long distance civility helps but you have to state your expectations and time frame by which you expect the problem to be corrected or resolved. Old Chinese proverb: Let the buyer beware. Lot's of luck and I do hope this gets resolved...quickly. A fellow customer on your side.
Ya woodone, you missed something. The PowerCab power supply was DOA and it was over a month before I could even use it for the very first time even with it in my hands. The short comings for me is 1 Amp Power and no LocoNet. And yes I can buy a boster but why do that when I can have Zephyr with 3.5 amps and LocoNet for a little more the booster costs. Oh and Doug the PS314 Power supply is far from standard. The only thing standard is the DC plug on the end. It comes in two pieces, the 13.8V 3.5Amp REGULATED power supply and a 120 V AC cord that plugs into the power supply. I happened to have a bad 120VAC cord that has no AC power coming out when I put it in. If cord were standard I could run over to BestBuy and buy a cord for probably under $2 or look in my junk computer parts box and pull out a standard AC cord which is a lot less then shipping the whole thing to Florida. Anyway I’ve had this discussion about power supplies too many times. Just review some of my old posts in this very DCC forum. The GOOD NEWS is that I sent Digitrax an email about my concerns with the cost of postage and handling for a cord that could not be more than a couple of bucks and they immediately responded to say they are going to send me a new cord and I don’t have to send the entire Zephyr back. So how’s that for customer service! YEA
Glad you had a good, quick resolution with Digitrax - and hopefully your cord will be arriving in short order. From my experience both NCE and Digitrax have excellent customer service, I'm sorry you had a bad experience with NCE before. I can certainly understand the frustration when you just want to get your trains up and running.
I am glad to hear that Digitrax has you up and going. Back to your orginal NCE Power Cab. The Power Cab is a 1.7 Amp system, hand held unit. When looking at a Digitrax. The Zephyr xtra is a 3 Amp system, I will guess that is the one you now have. It is a bench mount system, to use a hand held throttle you will need a seperate hand held unit of some sort. Have fun with the DCC, it is great stuff.
Sounds like you have a lot of hidden anger and found an outlet. Dude, this is 2011. All the differences are because of competition. I have a Power Cab for two years and the display went bad. I sent it to NCE and got it back repaired in three weeks. No charge as I had sent in the Warranty card. I had emailed NCE first and they told me it would probably be fixed for free if there was no evidence of mis-use. I find many people just seem to flat refuse to email the company and spend all kinds of time ranting in forums. I sometimes think some just want to Rant. The subject is not important. For me, being seventy, I just get some cheese to go with my Whine. Does wonders. Rich
As far as power supplies are concerned, I don’t know what to believe anymore, but my PowerCab trips every time I have more than 5 locos running at the same time. I’m usually running at least a couple of consists and It’s constantly resetting. I also have sound and lighting in my Passenger cars which also play into the scheme of things, although I’m planning on replacing them with the "Easy Peasy" Light Kit so that might help. One site I went to said 1.1Amp with 2 Amps peak for the NCE, but now that I’m reading the back of the DP-15 it does say 1.35 amps and the label of my PS314 says 3.6 amps, so I don’t know what any of this is supposed to mean. Anyway I’m done with the PowerCab, not because I don’t like it because I do think it’s a great system and I know there are a lot of people who love their PowerCab, but it’s just not right for me. I bought the PowerCab because originally I had a small layout and there was no room to place a controller except with building a shelf or something. When I received my Zephyr the other day, I was astonished at the size of it. It’s almost the same size as the PowerCab. This is the first time I ever actually saw one up close. I always thought it was the size of a DC controller. One other huge problem that I have with the hand held is the cord. As I’m moving it around, the wires in the connector came lose from all the bending. I had to have friend build me a new cable out Cat 5 cable by cutting off the extra two wires and installing a RJ12 connectors. Plus I finally got my DecoderPro working with an on screen switch control panel and I love it. I do everything from my cordless mouse and the throttle just sets under the table. I can see the position of all my switches on the wall mounted screen and no more accidental shorts from running into points. When I get LocoNet in operation I’ll have feedback.:tb-biggrin:
What! Are you kidding me? This goes to show how people see what they want to see. I started out talking about what a coincidenceit was to have two separate purchases of two different manufactures at two separate venders, with the same outcome. What are the odds? laugh:
Although he didn't say who he was addressing he might be responding to my 2 cents worth. Perhaps thinking I have pent up anger. And...... don't doubt it for a minute. Hurrumph...well, it's back to anger management. Grin! ***It's ok to be angry...for the right reasons. The key is to act responsibly with your anger and not act out. I think that's the point I was making... among others. I was beating a few tom, tom's in my last post. Now, I don't much care to hear someone "Rant on". I never saw that in any of the posts in this thread. Glad to hear the problem with your power supplies, is being resolved. Now on to bigger and better things.
I guess I have to go back and read the posts because I was never angry, maybe disappointed that I was not going to be using my new toy this weekend but never angry. I was just blown away that the same thing happened twice is all. I don’t know how it turned ugly. Actually I was hoping for an easy solution, but I guess I don’t need to worry about because I got a new cord coming. Anyway after woodone got me to actually look at my NCE and Zephyr power supplies I realized that the NCE works on the Zephyr so I connected it up and it works. Only I just found out that the Zephyr Xtra does not work with DecoderPro according to the folks on the JMRI site. .
