My club was going to order a number of MRC DCC sound decoders. I wanted one for my KATO AC4400CW. Does anyone have any expericen installing this particular decoder in the KATO? Any thoughts or insite would be appreicated.
Wish I could help you but I’ve never used one,How mush do they cost??I’ve gone to the MRC site and can’t seem to find out?If some one on here answers I’d like the info also?Some one should chime in?
JIM
I have a KATO AC4400CW also. Mine is suppost to be the sound friendly one. I also have some of the MRC DCC Diesel sound decoders to put in it. But I am so busy working on my layout (phase 3) that I have not had the time to put the two together. I am kind of waiting to hear the new Brilliance Line from MRC before I install the other Diesel sound decoder I have in it. Sorry, I could not be of any help.
ennout
MRC sound decoders are very generic in nature – only one type of horn and one type of bell; and a fixed duration horn that does not sound as long as you hold down a controller button like other brands of sound decoders. Press one button and you get a short horn blast; another button gives you a long horn blast; and that’s it – there’s no in-between. That’s why they’re so cheap.
I end up getting my decoders from ebay or trainworld (.com). Standard steam sound goes for about 46.00 (they come with the speakers). Diesels are about 5.00 more at Trainworld.
An ebay seller has the Brilliance Line for 79.99.
ennout
I used that decoder in one of my P2K F units. It was pretty bad, as mentioned the sound was very generic, plus it has some problems. During normal operation it got to almost 250 degrees F. I had to insulate it with foam in order to not melt the shell. Plus, if you hit a dead spot on the track, it wont cut out and then back it, it just cuts off and the only way to restart it is to pick the loco up off the track and put it back on. The motor control was not very good either. I put up with all this for a total of 4 months, then it just quit altogether. I would tell your club not to order these decoders. For the Kato I would suggest either Soundtraxx or LOKsound.
Here just for laughs. Its my old MRC sound decoder!
You can see the shrink wrap shrunk from the high temp. By now I have used most of the wires for other things. I tried to send it back to MRC when it quit about a year ago, but they wouldnt take it, i cant remember thier reason.
