I do not have extensive experience with DCC and have accumulated 9 locos over the last few months with Christmas and a birthday. 4 had decoders installed when bought (True Line Trains, Atlas, Broadway Ltd) and 5 were DCC ready (4 Athearn, 1 Bachmann). I installed MRC sound decoders in all 5. I have brand new track & wiring with an MRC Prodigy Wireless system. All the locos with preinstalled decoders run smoothly both low speed and higher. All the locos with decoders I installed (in a Bachmann Acela, 2 Athearn P42s & 1 Atlas B23-7, 1 Athearn F59PHI) run but cut out from time to time and any attempt at slow speed is tough. They are well placed in the shells with velcro. Some are mini decoders, others full size. What is odd is that they all run poorly in such contrast to the preinstalled decoders which run well on my new track. Does anyone have any ideas? Any problems with MRC decoders? I have programmed decoders addresses but nothing else. Any feedback is appreciated, thanks in advance for your assistance. Captwilb
Expect to get quite a bit of feedback on your MRC decoders. I don’t know anyone here that will recommend them. I only have one that was preinstalled and it is about to be replaced with a QSI, when I get a few minutes to do the work.
The MRC decoders are hit and miss with more misses it seems. For the factory installed Athearns, some work great with no problems, others have nothing but problems with them. I have had 2 Athearns with factory sound one worked great, the F45 has issues now. Are the Tsunami and QSI systems better, yes, espicaly in the special lighting effects dept. My F45 does have the motor control glitches and it wont respond to the hand held remote, so it might go back to Athearn and I hope it comes back with a Tsunami in it instead. Then the darn beacon will flash correctly. Mike
I can almost bet you choose MRC for the same reason I originally did the price.Well trust me when I say your problems have just begun. I have had nothing and I mean nothing but horrible experiences with MRC decoders especially their sound decoders. I have heard an occasional happy MRC user but they are few and far between. As mentioned Athearn dropped them in place of Tsunami so whats that do for their credibility. I hate to say it but you made a very poor choice when you decided on MRC decoders.If you want strictly motor control at an affordable price I like TCS but there are others made by Digitrax and NCE for example that are just as good. If you search the threads here just to give you an idea. You will see some guys prefer one brand over another but hardly if at all do you get the complaints and dissatisfaction that you get with MRC so what does that tell you.
I bought the MRC b/c I have an MRC system and thought it would make sense to have everything from the same manufacturer. Plus the hobby shops seemed indifferent when I asked what was best. I should have checked the threads here before buying…
For my ears, the sound in my Athearn F45 is fine and I am happy with it. Its the motor control glitching, espicaly in DCC mode that bothers me. I can keep advancing the speed know and it will be in the high 30’s to low 40’s in the speed range and she just sits there in run 8. Then either by me tapping the shell very lightly or on it own, it will suddenly start to move. From past repair work on Proto 2K engines that use those plastic plug on wire holders for the circuit boards, I have seen those go bad to where the wire is crimped on there tight, but not making contact and the engine looses power pickup points ect. This is in a non sound engine. Athearn uses the same set up on the MRC board, I wonder what soldering all the wires to the board, instead of the black plastic things, would do. I got mine to respond to the little hand held fob, but you have to keep the antenna like 2-3 inches from the locomotive, a new battery in the remote did nothing to help. I have call into Athearn to see if they want me to send it back to get a new decoder installed or what. When they call back I will know if I will be fiddling with this one, or shipping the engine to cali for what I hope is a Tusnami upgrade under warrenty. Pretty sad, MRC was the go to company for solid DC analog throttles for years, shame that quality and follow thru didnt carry over to the DCC line. You would think they would see these issues, say they are sorry for a bad design and bring out a new design to fix the issue, even offering upgrades to the ones with factory installed MRC decoders with issues. I hope Athearn will take care of this one. Both of my blue box U30c’s will be getting Tsunami’s soon, MRC doesnt even offer GE FDL16 sounds anyway! Good luck with your decoders. Mike
the need for a little tap on the loco is maddening! I have exactly this experience you describe here. I had hoped someone was going to give me some magic hint to make them work smoothly but that does not seem to be the case…thanks for the (depressing) feedback
Are the wires to your decoders all soldered to the board, or do they have the little black push on caps that keep the wires on the board? Mike
I am pretty sure they are soldered on
I have about 20 Genesis in a stable of over 200 diesels. All of them had the decoder jerked out and replaced with NCE or Lenz decoders and I just quit buying Genesis all together.
Life is much happier.
Bob
The newest issue Genesis from about the middle of 2009 thru present day are all equipted with Soundtraxx Tsunami for sound decoders, so the MRC problem is moot for current and recent production Athearn engines. I sent my F45 back to Athearn under warrenty for decoder problems, hopefully it will come back with something other than MRC under the shell. I will miss my cascade green and black cowl body for the next few weeks till I get it back. Mike
Hi Catwilb, Sorry you had to find out about MRC this way. Their controllers and systems seem to have satisfied customers. The decoders are quite the opposite. Don’t let it discourage you from the hobby. As you get the funds and time start with the worse running loco and change it out with a tsunami. Amazing difference. Also make sure you have a quality speaker to go with it. You’ll have a new outlook on the hobby. Also hold your funds for future loco’s. I find it’s better to pay the higher cost to get a loco with sound pre-installed.
Good Luck
what drives me craziest is that no hobby shop gave me this feedback for MRC decoders. official reviews have generally been favorable-I read the Tony’s Trains review written by the same guy who wrote the Model Railroader DCC book and he liked it. But I never checked these forums…
I checked out the Tsunami and it seems the only ones that come with the 8 pin plug are the newer, smaller model; the “premium” decoders require soldering on an 8 pin connector to install in a DCC ready loco-am I understanding correctly?
Unless you’re talking about a Micro-Tsunami, they do not require soldering. They come with a wiring harness installed, but the decoder can be removed from that harness and you can then substitute a NMRA 8-pin to JST 9-pin harness.
MRC’s advertisements as being the “world’s leader in DCC technology” are so utterly exaggerated that anyone who knows better doesn’t believe anything they print.
LHSs just want your money. Especially in this economy. Even if they sell you sub-par product.
David B
Exactly – a local hobby shop is not going to discourage your purchase of an item that has a high markup for them, they’d just be cutting into their profits. The more they can sell the more profit for them, even if the customer winds up throwing the product into the trash because it’s no good.
The nearest hobby shop to me is an Ace Hardware in Tucson, Arizona, 70 miles away. They have a steadfast policy of “No returns or refunds on electrical items.” They regard locomotives as electrical items. If you buy a decoder or DCC system or anything else electrical from them, you’re on your own if it is defective. And they have no test track or any way for the customer to verify whether an item works.
The next nearest hobby shop to me is a 4 hour one-way drive to Phoenix. They have signs all over the store, “Absolutely NO returns or refunds on ANYTHING!” On my last trip there, they even refused to take back an item a customer had just purchased and wanted to exchange for something else even though he had not even left the store with it. They pointed to the sign and asked if he could read.
And local hobby shops wonder why many people turn to the Internet?
Captwilb
Just read the threads about your problem and wonder if someone is going to offer any suggestions to remedy what might be the problem. Have you checked the speed steps your loco’s are operating at? Check to make sure you are operating the loco’s at speed step 128, that may help with some of the problem. Seems if the speed steps are 14/28 they don’t perform as well. I am not a fan of MRC decoders sound or motor but I have their auto reverser and NCE decoder that works well with my turntable.
Barry
Barry, the only thing that can remedy an MRC decoder is a sledge hammer. MRC decoders are a study in insanity.
David B
David, I am not going to argue that but if he has some working decoders and some not I was trying to help him get what he has working better. I hope that in the future he will replace the MRC’s with better decoders. I am sure your right about the sledge hammer route but I had two sound decoders that I sold on Ebay and I think I sold for $7.50 each. Better than in the trash tho.
Barry
I certainly feel like going to sledgehammer route…I ordered an QSI decoder and let’s see how things improve. still, I have 6 MRC paperwrights now.