Athern Diesel decoder & electrical pick up problems?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I recently bought a pair of Athern Genesis F7A units. Upon opening the boxes at home I was dismayed to find that they were equipped with MRC decoders. Never-the-less, I put them on the layout and did some basic programing. Whie “breaking in”, one of the units began stalling frequently. The decoder would shut down and then start up again. This would happen on curves as well as tangent track. What was maddening was that the stalling did not occur consistantly in the same location or at the same speed. This particular A unit would often sound the horn, make couple noises and ring the bell on its own accord. Now the unit will not move. It makes all the appropriate noises of movement but just sits there. These Athern units have a brass bearing plate in each truck sideframe. Power is transfered from the end of each axle to the bearing plate. A wire secured to a tab on the bearing plate with a plastic clip sends power via the wire to a tab on the decoder. The wire is secured to the

2

  1. Athearn. [:#]

  2. Before you do the decoder swap, I would take the loco apart and look for any loose wires. Yes, throw the caps away…that is a horrible way to have a good electrical connection. Just solder the leads to the appropriate tabs. Also pay attention to and flexing that may be taking place. I have found some Athearn wires actually break INSIDE the insulation. Typically, I will replace Athearn wires with ones that will bend better (the ones supplied with Digitrax or other pig-tailed decoders). Use a Multi-meter to really make sure you are getting good electrical contact.

  3. You can use the supplied MRC speakers, however, take the opportunity to mill down the frame for a high bass speaker/baffle. It will showcase the 567 better than the MRC speakers can.

  4. After the install, make sure the adjust the equalizer to match the speaker. It makes a HUGE difference.

David B

3

Milling the frame and installing a speaker baffle is something I understand and can do. “Adjust the equalizer to match the speaker” is something new to me. It sound like a smart thing to do, but I have no idea how to go about doing such a thing. Could you please supply a brief explanation?

Thanks

Split Reduction

4

Download the Tsunami Technical Reference Manual from their web site and read the section on adjusting the decoder’s equalizer to the size speaker you’re using. That’s what David is referring to.

This information is not included in the basic documentation that is provided with the decoder.

http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/tsunami/

5

Thanks for the information. The equalizer thing had me “baffled”.

6

Your electrical pick-up problem is not uncommon on newer Athearn products - but the fix is simple …

When the metal plates on the truck assembly are painted black at the factory, the paint is getting into the notches the bronze axle bushings ride in. Remove the wheel-sets and scrape the edges of the square notches in the side-frame plate with an x-acto blade to remove the paint. Re-assemble and everything should be just fine.

Mark.

7

I did that, and it made a big improvement.