OK, I’m now down to 50% success rate on my MRC decoders. Of the two I own, the first one I installed just failed. It was an old AD 350 that I got for free and lasted one and a half years so I wasn’t too bummed out. I think it got a short from a wiring error I caused with a pinched wire.
Just wondering, with this lasting as long as it did and my first NEC lasting 6 hours before it smoked, anybody have a guess at a “typical” life span of these things? Should I just be expecting to replace these things after X amount of time regardless of manufacturer??
If the decoder is a good one (Soundtraxx, LOK, QSI, or other GOOD decoder (not MRC)), and it has been installed correctly with no exposed bare wires, they should last almost forever.
If you are having trouble with your decoders smoking after you install them, you may be doing something wrong. If you can’t find out what, it may be worth having them installed professionally.
Both of the MRC decoders (non-sound) that I tried both smoked within half a day. I’ve had good service from other decoders I’ve installed, included a second-hand Bachmann decoder that’s been going for about two years now.
I have installed nearly 100 non-sound and sound decoders over the years, and MRCs are the only ones that I have ever had a problem with. The very first decoder I ever installed was a Digitrax and it is still going strong, just like the Energizer bunny. I have used Lenz, Digitrax, NCE, TCS, and SoundTraxx and LokSound with not a bad one in the batch. MRCs struck out with 4 out of 5 bad ones.