Help w/ troubleshooting Athearn Genesis F7A-B DCC w/s

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Help w/ troubleshooting Athearn Genesis F7A-B DCC w/s

  • This is my 1st posting so I'm still learning. I have a Genesis F7A-B that are each DCC w/sound. I have an Easy DCC CS2B unit and my power is 17vac. My track (unitrack) has R26-3/8" curves.

    When I run them separately (or together), they run fine for about 5 seconds and then slow down with the normal braking sound (as if I had turned down the throttle - which I haven't touched), but then start back up again, then about 5 seconds later the same thing happens again. My non-Genesis DCC engines (Proto 2000 & BLI) run fine.  I bought a single DC Genesis A unit w/o sound. I replaced the original board with a Digitrax DH165A0 decoder. It runs fine.

    When I took the F7A-B back to my dealer, they seemed to run fine. One difference is that the dealers test track is just a straight away but my layout has curves and it seems to happen more in the curves than any where else.  My dealer had no suggestions except to suggest more power and lent me a new power pack. This made no difference. When I check voltage on the track while running there is no drop when this event occurs. Is there any hope for the original genesis F7A-B DCC w/sound to ever run correctly? Am I missing a code set up that will eliminate this slowing down problem? Any help will be appreciated. 

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  • Thanks. Sounds like I need to have a frank talk w/ my dealer
  • Cranky little things arent they?

    Take the MRC out of those engines and you might have engines that run fine. I had one MRC with DCC and SOund and will never buy another. I too use Kato Unitrack.

    If I ever buy another Roundhouse or similar engine, it will be WITHOUT decoder and I will put in a suitable decoder, probably from digitrax or similar.

    IF all your engines run fine except the MRC well.. what can I say? It's junk.

  •  tollway wrote:

    This is my 1st posting so I'm still learning. I have a Genesis F7A-B that are each DCC w/sound. I have an Easy DCC CS2B unit and my power is 17vac. My track (unitrack) has R26-3/8" curves.

    When I run them separately (or together), they run fine for about 5 seconds and then slow down with the normal braking sound (as if I had turned down the throttle - which I haven't touched), but then start back up again, then about 5 seconds later the same thing happens again. My non-Genesis DCC engines (Proto 2000 & BLI) run fine.  I bought a single DC Genesis A unit w/o sound. I replaced the original board with a Digitrax DH165A0 decoder. It runs fine.

    When I took the F7A-B back to my dealer, they seemed to run fine. One difference is that the dealers test track is just a straight away but my layout has curves and it seems to happen more in the curves than any where else.  My dealer had no suggestions except to suggest more power and lent me a new power pack. This made no difference. When I check voltage on the track while running there is no drop when this event occurs. Is there any hope for the original genesis F7A-B DCC w/sound to ever run correctly? Am I missing a code set up that will eliminate this slowing down problem? Any help will be appreciated. 

     You might request help from Athearn or MRC.  I refuse to use MRC in my models and have removed the circuit boards from the Genesis Big Boys and Challengers due to poor operation and eratic happenings.    Sorry to be of no great help, but I have read various problems with the MRC DCC that others makers just don't experience.

     Cheers