Ok, I have a couple of really dumb questions. First after taking 15 years “off” from model railroading to raise kids, I have gotten back into the hobby for the last couple of years and made the switch to DCC.
I purchased the MRC Advanced Squared system due to its ease of use - I am not into high tech stuff. As I have been redoing my layout, I got to point this weekend to actually hook up the DCC system and begin testing the section that I had the wiring completed on.
System worked really, really well. No complaints. I must have done something right in my wiring in that my multimeter was within .1 reading at every point I tested and my locos were running well.
My dumb questions are:
I have 1 sound equiped loco and when I turn the system on, even if a different loco is selected, the sound loco “fires up”. Is this normal? If I add more sound equiped locos will they all fire up? Do all systems work this way?
Second question is a personal preference question. The MRC system came with a cord that must be 3’ long to attach to the cab. Does anyone have a recommendation on where I can find a cord that is longer for more range? I cant even find replacement cords on the MRC web site and not sure if it is a generic cord or not.
Any standard computer Ethernet jumper cable will work on your MRC controller. As far as your locomotive problem go did you change your decoder addresses from the default “3”? If not both will respond to “3”
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Your locomotive’s decoder can most likely be muted when you don’t want the background noise. Try pressing F8. If that does not mute the sound check the decoder instructions.
What type of plugs are on the ends? Is the cable flat (like telephone wire), round, etc? Can you determine how many conductors there are in the wire? Answers to these questions should help in determining what cable and connectors you need.
Yes, I changed the loco address from 3 to its road number and it wont run on 3, only runs on the road number. Therefore, I have to select that loco with its road number, mute the sound.
What brand of sound decoder do you have? The Tsunami default setting starts the sound as soon as the track is powered up, QSIs don’t. Not sure about LokSound or TCS Wow.
The loco that I am having issues with is an Athrean with factory Tsunami. So, that leads to my next question, how do I change the settings so that it’s not set to auto start? As I said before, technology is not my strong suite!
Loksounds do not start the engine sounds when the layout is powered up. You have to select the loco and push F8 to get the engine start up sequence and running sounds.
I converted from an old DC layout to DCC, and I left my on/off switches in my yards. That way I could put an engine on a yard track and shut it down while running other locos. That way I don’t get start up sounds from all over the layout. You may want to add a switch or two. Your experience may vary!
Several years ago, someone on this forum provided a link to a site offering longer RJ45 coil cords. Since I use an MRC Prodigy DCC system, I also found I needed longer cords. I used the previously provided link to buy a couple of 7’ long (coiled) cords that will stretch out to almost 12 feet. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the company selling these cords. Although coil cords are pretty common, RJ45 style coil cords are not. I tried to search the forum for the old link but no luck. Can anyone help with the old link or company reference?
Oh Joy! A little snooping and I found that Digi-Key offers these cords. Digi-Key Part Number: A1882R-07C-ND is the RJ45 style in a 7’ length ($6.12). They also offer 5’, 10’ and 14’ lengths. I chose the 7’ length because only a few inches of the cord touches the floor when the cord is hanging from my 34" high throttle bus ports on the lower level of my layout while the cords will easily stretch as far as I need on my layout. I used inexpensive Cat5 cables, face plates and RJ45 jacks to create my throttle bus. Each of four face plates includes two jacks (eight total).
Don’t mean to hijack this thread but I find myself with the same issue as far as being limited by a 6 foot cable. Running back and forth from the yard to the command post is getting tiresome. I am using a first generation prodigy (rotary dial) and was hoping there was a way I could purchase an extension cable and port system so I could just carry my handheld with me up to the yard end of the layout. My fear was that since my system is old and outdated, there was nothing available. My question is that of the cable itself. Are they all the same or do some carry more wires that others?? I keep finding extension kits on ebay for other systems, but nothing for the original prodigy.
I use the MRC Prodigy control system. It came with 6 foot cables. You can also buy the remote panels to place at various parts of the layout, say every 8 feet or so. You can unplug from the main unit and walk over to a remote panel unit all the while your engine is running at it’s last setting. Plug in and you don’t even need to recall the engine. The cables connecting the main unit to the remote panel looks just like the cables used for the handheld. I could be wrong here but I think they are. These are very good systems, easy to set up, I think I have had mine for close to 10 years? Chris
The plastic locks broke off both off the MRC cable connectors early on and I put up with them falling out for several years. I finally ordered new cables off eBay and received them in four days free S&H. I ordered 6’ cables for my controller as well as 50’ cables for connecting my Prodigy controller to my computer in another room. The new cables have a protector to prevent the lock from breaking off.
I don’t know about the original Prodigy system, but all of the Prodigy Advance and Advance2 systems use RJ45 throttle cables and jacks (8 wires). Most electronics supply stores carry all of the various components for wiring up Cat5 computer networks in new houses/office buildings. This is a really flexible and cheap way to go when creating a throttle bus around your layout. Just count the number of wire contacts in the plugs of your throttle cables and purchase the corresponding cables, plugs and jacks. I purchased several finished RJ45 cords in various lengths for my layout as well as four wall-mount face plates and enough jacks to fill each face plate (two per each face plate). I also bought the little wire insertion tool to make wiring up the jack plates easier. I located the jack plates at various positions around my layout and wired them in a daisy-chain manner. The finished ends of the RJ45 cables were plugged into the command station while the remaining cable runs were wired into the jacks. It’s pretty easy as the cable wiring is color coded. The only thing to remember is to wire the cables and jacks up ethernet-style, not telephone-style. This means that the locking tab side of all the plugs and jacks should be on the same side of the flat cable.
Again, I don’t know if true for the earlier Prodigy system, but the Advance systems allow you to run a train as you follow it around the layout, unplugging from one throttle jack and moving to another without the train stopping. If you have enough throttle jacks placed around your layout, even your existing 6’ cords will allow your to move around your layout with ease. However, I have not used one of the original cords since I purchased the longer coil cords because they add even more flexibility.
I recently purchased a pair of wireless throttles but had to send in my early version Prodigy Advance command station for a firmware upd