I had my Prodigy Express hand-help controller to go bad, not too long after I purchased it. I sent it back for repair and received it back, repaired. a couple of weeks later. It has given me no more problems. I did purchase a back-up hand-held from Tony's Train Exchange in case of future issues, however.
I just had a decoder for an Atlas S-2 go bad as well and I have decided to simply chalk it up to experience. I have ordered a LokSound decoder to be installed instead. I have had nothing but good experiences with these good decoders. The MRC dedoder would lose its memory now and then and needed to have the CV's re-set. The engine sound was also much too loud, even at its lowest setting. The decoder had only three settings for engine sound but MANY for "bell ring rate." Huh? Why not three for that and several for engine volume? Quality control appears to be an ongoing issue at MRC. I cut my model railroad teeth on MRC power packs many moons ago. Then, they were excellent, rugged and dependable. So much for out-sourcing.
John
joe1965I purchased a MRC1633 decoder at the end of October 09. About a month later it died and I sent it back for warranty service. After a few emails with the tech representative, I am still waiting for my decoder for my Athearn Genesis dash 9. Last email from MRC about one week ago, said that the decoder could not be repaired but they will ship another new one out as soon as they receive a new shipment. My question is addressed to all the model railroaders out there who may have had any experiences with MRC.
Some prior threads on MRC sound decoders.
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/158477.aspx
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/167754/1843078.aspx#1843078
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/164412/1810654.aspx#1810654
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/156146/1722649.aspx#1722649
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Only MRC sound decoders are made in China. SoundTraxx, Digitrax, QSI, and the soon-to-be TCS sound decoders are all made in the U.S. LokSound is made in Germany.
That's why MRC decoders are cheap, worthless junk. MRC apparently contracted with the cheapest possible Chinese manufacturer they could find, who does no quality control testing.
cacole Only MRC sound decoders are made in China. SoundTraxx, Digitrax, QSI, and the soon-to-be TCS sound decoders are all made in the U.S. LokSound is made in Germany. That's why MRC decoders are cheap, worthless junk. MRC apparently contracted with the cheapest possible Chinese manufacturer they could find, who does no quality control testing.
In addition they have substandard features and functionality, when they do work properly.
And one would think, with all the online complaints of thier sound decoders, it would be good business to cut thier losses and get thier decoders produced by another manufacture. I have heard the most current production decoders are much better than earlier sound decoders in the way of not having so many issues. I guess if they dont get the quality issues ironed out, they will get left in the dust as TCS comes online with good decoders at a price that will probably be less than a Tsunami or QSI board. I bought 2 MRC sound decoders real cheap and stuffed them in a pair of Athearn RTR GP60M's So far so good. Cheers Mike
LHS mechanic and geniune train and antique garden tractor nut case!
While we are on the subject of MRC decoders I have some in a few of my Athearn Genesis F units. On on of the B units the sound just quit working but the locomotive would still work. The speaker was making a hissing noise and I just removed the speaker figuring the decoder was toast at least the sound portion.
I was adjusting the CV's on an A unit the other night and the whole thing just quit working. Well I fooled around with it and finally used CV125 for the decoder master reset. That got the locomotive to work but no sound. So I started looking into the sound CV's and upon entering new CV's, low and behold the sound starter working.
So with that experience I dug out the B unit from before and re-installed the speaker and did the same thing with the master reset to the decoder. Then I played with the sound CV's and that one started working again. Kind of makes one wonder. By the way I don't think the sound on these is all that bad and they seem to run ok. Of course they are not up to the level of my Tsunami's but not that bad.