Do anybody know if the MRC decoders are getting any better, I know they were pretty bad. dowop 62
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Some people with the Roundhouse steamers that are DCC/sound equipped have issues with the MRC decoders.
No clue about the diesel versions.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Last night at my club, a fellow member told me that 3 out of his 6 MRC Atlas S-unit sound decoders are dead.
Also, another member of my club tried to reprogram the address on his MRC-powered Athearn 2-6-0. It's now dead.
Stay away from MRC decoders as if they were radioactive, 'cause they are that bad.
Paul A. Cutler III************Weather Or No Go New Haven************
thanks guys it looks like it will be a big NO NO
thanks again dowop62
To add to the fire, one of the Genesis SD45-2 units I bought was sound. Ended up removing all the decoder and sound equipment, will eventually rewire and make it a silent runner. I was underwhelmed by the MRC sound.
Bob
Sound quality is a bit subjective - what sounds OK to me might not sound OK to you - so that can be hard to comment on accurately. I recently installed an MRC steam "Sounder" (sound only decoder) and I think it sounds good, maybe not quite as good as my QSI equipped engines, but on the other hand it offers a variety of choices in "chug" sound, whistle and bell type etc. that QSI equipped units don't offer.
I've heard that a lot of the problem with MRC sound decoder equipped engines have been problems with the "regular" decoder part (speed control, lighting etc.) so maybe having the sound only one avoids some of those issues??
wjstix,Personally, I think the MRC decoders don't sound too good. The air and steam sounds are more like static rather than actual recorded sounds. But that's not the reason why I dislike them so.
It's because they don't program, they don't scan, they lose their programming with alarming regularity, and they have a poor feature set (functions can't be remapped, etc.). But most importantly of all, they don't work. As I said above, 3 out of 6 MRC Atlas S-unit sound boards that belong to one of my fellow club members are dead. That's a 50% failure rate, which is awful. That's why MRC decoders are J-U-N-K, and are best avoided if at all possible.
If the decoders are garbage, how are their actual control units? I am thinking of getting into the MRC Prodigy wireless, and if their as bad as their decoders sound, I am staying well away from them!
alexP
Niagara Railroader wrote: If the decoders are garbage, how are their actual control units? I am thinking of getting into the MRC Prodigy wireless, and if their as bad as their decoders sound, I am staying well away from them! alexP
Well and there's the rub...MRC is one of the oldest and most respected names in things like power packs. Not unusual for a MRC power pack to last 30 years with no problems!!
Their early DCC control systems worked fine but (it seemed to me) geared more towards beginners, their more recent Prodigy Advance2 and Wireless system (reviewed in the Jan or Feb 2008 MR) etc. have all been generally considered to be excellent from everything I've heard. As it happens, I've been thinking of trying their wireless system, rather than upgrading my Digitrax Zephyr.
Niagara Railroader wrote:If the decoders are garbage, how are their actual control units? I am thinking of getting into the MRC Prodigy wireless, and if their as bad as their decoders sound, I am staying well away from them!alexP
The general concensus on MRC DCC systems prior to the PA2 (PA squared) product line is that MRC DCC systems were for smaller layouts and were not as feature-rich as the big four systems from EasyDCC, Digitrax, NCE, and Lenz. Without a computer interface, a major component of a serious DCC system is missing, and MRC systems haven't had that.
The MRC PA2 has announced a computer interface as coming, but the price point hinted at has been $200, which is at least double the price of the big 4 system's computer interfaces.
If you want a serious DCC system, IMO, a computer interface is not optional. The computer interface lets you take advantage of the free open source program DecoderPro for doing very powerful things with decoder configurations.
The other concern is the MRC PA2 does not yet have a long-term track record of how it holds up in the long haul. The other big 4 systems now have 15 years of history and it's known the systems do hold up well for larger layouts with heavy use. MRC is still a big question mark.
If someone is interested in the MRC PA2 system for a serious DCC installation, then maybe *you* will be the one to find out for the rest of us if the MRC PA2 will cut the mustard. But be aware, you're going on faith -- there's just not enough history yet to know if the system will stand up over time.
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
Niagara Railroader wrote: If the decoders are garbage, how are their actual control units? I am thinking of getting into the MRC Prodigy wireless, and if their as bad as their decoders sound, I am staying well away from them!alexP
Alex:
MRC control systems are getting lots of good reviews and their wireless is a duplex radio system with excellent range and response. I have the wireless and love it.
However I must say that I had a problem with my handheld throttle and have sent it to MRC for repair (no charge). I'm not too concerned about this as I'm confident that their Tech Support will get it fixed. These things happen with all systems. I follow a lot of Yahoo system user groups and notice that everyone has problems like this from time to time.
Some will say....there you go, MRC is just not reliable. But, I have always had confidence in their DC controllers and don't doubt their ability to achieve the same in DCC. So, each person will need to user their own judgement as to going with MRC. Maybe my judgement isn't so good, but I have used other systems and studied many of them in detail and can't find anything that I like as well as my MRC system. When my throttle developed a problem, I thought....wow maybe I'd better change systems....but just couldn't bring myself to do it because my Prodigy is just too great in comparison. Of course this is for my method of operation and your requirements may dictate something different.
I'm a huge fan of Digitrax as they offer such a complete package of coorinated products and also like NCE very much. But, considering all factors for me, MRC works best, and costs less to boot.
For your info, I recently posted a detailed list of Prodigy Advance Squared features on the FORUM CLINIC: Picking the best DCC system thread on this forum. I think that starting with the PA2 and then adding the wireless conversion is a good way to go if you would like to have more than one throttle, and this would give you a backup should you ever have any problems with the wireless handheld like I did.
I'm in no way trying to talk you or anyone else into MRC but just want to present facts to help in your decison making.
Jerry
Rio Grande vs. Santa Fe.....the battle is over but the glory remains!
If you want more info concerning MRC DCC, go to the below link and sign up. There are about 1,200 members there. I use to belong there but left when I stopped using MRC decoders. There will be helpful info there.
http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=mrc+dcc
Thanks everyone!
My first layout will be fairly small... A shelf railroad, around an 8 by 12 room. However, I would like to run 6 or 7 locos on it. I will be joining that yahoo group, as well as researching other systems. For my (student) budget, the MRC is still rather attractive price wise.
Thanks again!
You did not say what system you are controlling with but Yahoo groups has NCE DCC, Digitrax DCC, and others. Search Yahoo groups using DCC with the name.