Switching from DC to DCC soon. I have a lot of the more recent locomotives like Athearn Genesis and Proto2000 manufactured the last 7-8 years "DCC Ready". A few of these I will put sound in and intend to use the same decoder/sound that the manufacturer used as original equipment just to make things as safe and easy for me as possible. In the rest will install less expensive non-sound decoders.
Any recommendations/critisizem as to decoder manufacturer/product to use?
It's really a matter of personal preference. There are various pros and cons that may be more or less important to each individual. Here's my personal philosophy, but it's by no means a "one-size-fits-all" answer for everyone:
1) Stay away from MRC decoders. At least the early ones lacked CV readback and had dismal failure rates.
2) Standardize on a "favorite" brand.
3) #2 not withstanding, don't shy away from a different brand if it has a decoder that works better in a particular application (but do keep #1 in mind).
4) Get the proper computer interface device for your DCC system, download and install JMRI, and learn how to use it's DecoderPro application. It will make decoder programming WAY easier, and it will also store the configuration of each of your locos. VERY handy when you're setting up multiple locos of the same type with the same decoder (see #2 above), or if a decoder needs to be reset for any reason. Just reload your stored config and you're good to go!
http://jmri.org/
Note that in many cases you can;t just drop in the same sound deecoder used by the manufacturer for the sound versions. Atlas is one of the few that when they offered a Gold series with sound and a Silver series without, the Silver series units have the same chassis with the speaker mounts, but not everyone did this.
Do consider standardizing. I've gradually moved all my sound locos to Loksound, because they have great sounds available for every type of loco I need, and their motor drive is better than the others. I've been using TCS for non sound because they too have very good motor drive, and they have a wide variety of sizes to fit different locos. They used to be fairly inexpensive, but lately they've cranked up the prices. I've since stopped using special fit decoders in most cases and just get the plain wired ones and hard wire all installs, tossing any factory light boards - too many times those light boards have weird wiring or outright faults that can damage the deocder if plugged in to the "dcc ready" socket. Once you doa few, it's pretty simple to just connect the wires yourself, and then you know that the various decoder wires go where they are supposed to because you can follow along the wire and see that it does, because you put it there. No getting lost in some factory board designed to gie some special effects to the lighting when used on DC. All locos with incandescent bulbs, like the Protos and AThearns, get LEDs. No heat and a good long life.
Since TCS decoders are a bit pricey any more, and since I use Loksound for my sound locos (making the investment in the Lokprogrammer to load my own sounds well worth the cost - if I had 4 different brands of sound decoders I'd need 4 kinds of programmers - THAT would be expensive), I may start using ESU Lokpilot for non-sound. Same great motor drive as the Loksound, just no sound. They don't have as many form factors as TCS, but since I hard wire them all anyway, I don't need that.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
You may find that each engine calls for its own solution. Some will have plugs, and some will call for swapping an existing circuit board for a decoder-equipped board. In recent years, some manufacturers have offered both DCC-with-sound and DC versions of the same loco. With luck, you may find that your engine is not only decoder ready but also has space for a speaker.
I like the idea of standardizing, too, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. All DCC decoders will run together, though, so you don't have to worry about compatability issues. Everybody uses the same function keys for the basics - lights, horn and bell, but after that you'll find yourself scratching your head to remember which decoder's have "coupler clash" on F3 and which put it on F6.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.