Athern Diesel decoder & electrical pick up problems?

[Split Reduction]

I recently bought a pair of Athern Genesis F7A  units. Upon opening the boxes at home I was dismayed to find that they were equipped with MRC decoders. Never-the-less, I put them on the layout and did  some basic programing. Whie "breaking in", one of the units began stalling frequently. The decoder would shut down and then start up again. This would happen on curves as well as tangent track. What was maddening  was that the stalling did not occur consistantly in the same location or at the same speed.  This particular A unit would often sound the horn, make couple noises and ring the bell on its own accord. Now the unit will not move. It makes all the appropriate noises of movement but just sits there.                                                                                                                                                                     These Athern units have a brass bearing plate in each truck sideframe. Power is transfered from the  end of each axle to the bearing plate. A wire secured to a tab on the bearing plate with a plastic clip sends power via the wire to a tab on the  decoder. The wire is secured to the decoder with a plastic clip. This seems to me to be a rather unreliable method. I plan to junk the MRC decoders  and install Tsunami decoders and solder the pick up wires to the bearing plates. Have others had these problems with Athern Locomotive? The other F7 unit is starting to behave like the first....   

Split Reduction- modelling the Milwaukee Road in Western Wisconsin

         

[Split Reduction]

Milling the frame and installing a speaker baffle is something I understand and can do. "Adjust the equalizer to match the speaker" is something new to me. It sound like a smart thing to do, but I have no idea how to go about doing such a thing. Could you please supply a brief explanation?

Thanks 

Split Reduction

[cacole]

Download the Tsunami Technical Reference Manual from their web site and read the section on adjusting the decoder's equalizer to the size speaker you're using.  That's what David is referring to.

This information is not included in the basic documentation that is provided with the decoder.

http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/tsunami/ 

[Split Reduction]

Thanks for the information. The equalizer thing had me "baffled".

[Mark R.]

Your electrical pick-up problem is not uncommon on newer Athearn products - but the fix is simple ....

When the metal plates on the truck assembly are painted black at the factory, the paint is getting into the notches the bronze axle bushings ride in. Remove the wheel-sets and scrape the edges of the square notches in the side-frame plate with an x-acto blade to remove the paint. Re-assemble and everything should be just fine.

Mark.

[hobo9941]

When the metal plates on the truck assembly are painted black at the factory, the paint is getting into the notches the bronze axle bushings ride in. Remove the wheel-sets and scrape the edges of the square notches in the side-frame plate with an x-acto blade to remove the paint. Re-assemble and everything should be just fine.

I did that, and it made a big improvement.