I have the MRC Prod. Adv. 2 SQ. DCC system. It is a 3.5 amp system. A couple months ago I bought the MRC power station 8 booster. I have a lot of sound locos on the layout, and the Prod. Adv. manual recomended a booster if the fan in the controller was comming on. at foirst all worked great with the booster.
Her is the problem, it started last Friday. when I turn everything on the power booster overload light comes on and it does not send power to the track. At first I thought I had a derailed car, bad loco, or the weather is hot here again and the rails expanded and closed a gap, But after checking all that all seems good.
If I connect the track wires to the Prod. Adv. system and bypass the booster I get no short or overload. I can do the quarter test and all works fine. I do have the recommended amount of feeders, maybe more.
But what I dont get is why is everyhting working with 3.5 amps, and when I connect the 8 amp booster everything shuts down, or wont power up the rails.
Is the circuitry more sensitive in the 8 amp booster then the original 3.5 amp controller?
And please no bashing I would like help with my problem, I do not need to know how superior other systems are.
I’m not familiar with the MRC booster and how it connects to the Prodigy Advanced and track, but my suspicion is that something is not connected right or, if you’re using stranded wire, a stray strand is touching an adjacent terminal.
My first troubleshooting measure would be to connect the booster to the Prodigy without being connected to the track, and see if it shorts. If it does, then there’s a problem with the booster and you need to contact MRC.
If it shorts only when you connect the output to the track, then look for stray wire strands.
I’d also go back and double check the DCC command signal connecitons between the Prodigy and booster – you may have the wrong type of wire or one end miswired (cross-wired if it uses crimp-on telephone type plugs).
The Prod adv. has the output to track terminals[ 2 wires] the booster has input from command and output to track pretty simple.
All my buss wires are solid only the feeders are stranded wire.
I connected a 3 foot section of track with a sound equiped loco on it to the outputs on the booster bypassing the layout and it worked fine.
I am wondering if the booster’s circuit braker is more sensitive than that on the command station, and that there may be a little short circuit on the layout some where.
I am still troubleshooting. Thanks for the suggestions though. Truck.
The original system and the booster cannot be connected to the same zone of the track. The two segments must be gapped. Both rails at both ends. The polarity must match at the time the train moves from one zone to the other. Have you checked that?
If you look at the picture, the wires on the left come from the command station that used to go to the track, and the wires on the right go to the track. Pretty simple. I boosted the whole layout, My intentions were to but curcuit breakers in different sections of the layout incase there was a problem the whole thing wont shut down.
And after extencive trouble shooting I figured out why the booster is in overload when I first turn it on. I just have to figure out why it is doing this with Tsunami decoders. if I bypass the booster the command station works fine. even with Tsunami locos on the layout.
Here is what is happening, with 2 or more locos with Tsunami,s, and the booster hooked upto the layout the locos with the Tsunami’s have a light ticking/buzzing sound coming from them. if I tilt them so one side of the loco looses power and set them back on the track the overload goes away and all is fine.
It is not doing it with QSI, Loksound, or MRC sound decoders only with the Tsunami’s. And if I bypass the power booster all the Tsunami,s work fine no overload on the Prod. Adv. system by itself. So why are the Tsunami’s causing an overload at initial start up with booster? You got me.
The original system and the booster cannot be connected to the same zone of the track. The two segments must be gapped. Both rails at both ends. The polarity must match at the time the train moves from one zone to the other. Have you checked that?
If you look at the picture, the wires on the left come from the command station that used to go to the track, and the wires on the right go to the track. Pretty simple. I boosted the whole layout, My intentions were to but curcuit breakers in different sections of the layout incase there was a problem the whole thing wont shut down.
And after extencive trouble shooting I figured out why the booster is in overload when I first turn it on. I just have to figure out why it is doing this with Tsunami decoders. if I bypass the booster the command station works fine. even with Tsunami locos on the layout.
Here is what is happening, with 2 or more locos with Tsunami,s, and the booster hooked upto the layout the locos with the Tsunami’s have a light ticking/buzzing sound coming from them. if I tilt them so one side of the loco looses power and set them back on the track the overload goes away and all is fine.
It is not doing it with QSI, Loksound, or MRC sound decoders only with the Tsunami’s. And if I bypass the power booster all the Tsunami,s work fine no overload on the Prod. Adv. system by itself. So why are the Tsunami’s causing an overload at initial start up with booster? You got me.
I also know nothing about your MRC 8 amp power booster but I notice in the pic it is good for N/HO and G scale. Doesn’t G scale require more voltage than N/HO? Like is there a selector switch on the Booster to switch from N/HO to G ?
If so maybe the extra voltage is screwing something up?
There is a knob on the back of the unit that allows you to adjust the voltage, I have it set for 14.5 volts. I have turned it up to as high as 16volts to see if the extra power would help. Thinking that maybe the capasitors in these decoders were sucking up to much juice at start up. It didn’t.
I will contact MRC and if they cant figure it out all this MRC stuff Interface, Booster, and command station are getting auctioned off on Ebay at a $40.00 opening. Even though the Prod adv. 2 has worked flaulessly for over 5 years. maybe it is time for a new girl freind. I am not affriad to bite the bullet on the loss. All of their decoders[ MRC] I have owned are slowly dying off and getting replaced with either Tsunami for sound, and TCS for motor control locos. I am thinking the NCE wireless system may be the way to go.
In my experience of over 50 years Model RR’ing I’ve found MRC was the king of DC with their power supplies etc.( and probably still are ) but when DCC came along…OK, no bashing.
That is not the way that Digitrax boosters work, so I am afraid I am unable to help you. I have never seen a booster that goes in series between the command station and the track…
I looked up the instructions for your booster but I cannot find an answer to your problem.
The documentation that Maxman referred to seems to indicate that the booster is designed to work with the Command 2000 which was a rather limited system. Is it possible that the circuitry in the Prodigy unit is too advanced to be compatible with the booster?
I know that you have things connected correctly, but since you didn’t show the connections at the back of the command station I’ll ask anyway. You do have the booster connected to the correct two terminals on the back of the command station, right? (i.e.: not the program track terminals)
Out of curiosity, does the overload light on the booster come on and stay on steady initially, or does it blink on and off? The booster instructions seem to indicate that the internal breaker will trip and then reset itself until the short goes away. To me this means that the light will flash as the breaker trips and resets. If it stays on steady it might mean that there is an internal breaker problem.
When you get the booster overload light, do you also get a short indication on the command station?
You might also ask MRC what the trip point for the breaker is, and if that is adjustable.
One final straw to grasp at…the booster instructions indicate that it is necesssary to check the different power sections for phase diference. I’m wondering if there is a possibility that you also need to check the phasing between the command station and the booster. Did yo
And after extencive trouble shooting I figured out why the booster is in overload when I first turn it on. I just have to figure out why it is doing this with Tsunami decoders. if I bypass the booster the command station works fine. even with Tsunami locos on the layout.
Here is what is happening, with 2 or more locos with Tsunami,s, and the booster hooked upto the layout the locos with the Tsunami’s have a light ticking/buzzing sound coming from them. if I tilt them so one side of the loco looses power and set them back on the track the overload goes away and all is fine.
It is not doing it with QSI, Loksound, or MRC sound decoders only with the Tsunami’s. And if I bypass the power booster all the Tsunami,s work fine no overload on the Prod. Adv. system by itself. So why are the Tsunami’s causing an overload at initial start up with booster? You got me.
Truck.
Out of curiosity, does the overload light on the booster come on and stay on steady initially, or does it blink on and off? The booster instructions seem to indicate that the internal breaker will trip and then reset itself until the short goes away. To me this means that the light will flash as the breaker trips and resets. If it stays on steady it might mean that there is an internal breaker problem.
When you get the booster overload light, do you also get a short indication on the command station?
You might also ask MRC what the trip point for the breaker is, and if that is adjustable.
One final straw to grasp at…the booster instructions indicate that it is necesssary to check the different power sections for phase diference.&n
It’s impossible to tell from your photograph, but having the Prodigy Advanced 2 track output connected to the same track section as the output of the booster is NOT right – if you have them connected this way you need to go back and rewire the layout…
The only connection between the Prodigy and booster should be the command signal through the telephone type wire.
