Decoder for Atlas Genset

[MudbugnTX]

What decoders both sound and non sound have any of you installed in an Atlas HO scale Trainman plus NRE Genset? Any help would be appreciated. I hear mixed reviews from both Sound not being any good in the sound models to the decoders burning out the ditchlights. Thanks for any help.

 

[diburning]

I've installed Digitrax DH123s in both of my gensets. It requires a bit of minor surgery, but it's not too difficult.

What you'll need:

A DCC decoder - Digitrax DH123 or similarly sized decoders such as the NCE D15SRJ, or TCS T series decoders will work. It MUST be a decoder that plugs into a harness or else you won't be able to plug it in and route the wires.
A 9-pin JST plug to 8-pin NMRA/NEM harness with LONG wires. It comes with the Digitrax DH123P. The harnesses can be bought separately from Digitrax or TCS if your decoder didn't come with one. It needs to be the one with the long wires or else it won't reach!
Phillips Screwdriver
Patience

First, remove the shell, be careful with the wires though. If you break the wires to the headlights, it is nearly impossible to solder them back on due to the tiny pads, so be careful!

Before installing a decoder, notice that there are two wires going into a slot in the frame. Those wires go to a pair of capacitors mounted under the frame. If you do not remove those capacitors, they may cause unresponsiveness on DCC, and may blow your decoder!

So, unscrew the frame weight that holds the two capacitors. Remove the capacitors (they are held in place by double sided foam tape).

Take the harness, and route the 9-pin JST plug sideways through the slot into the area where the capacitors were. Be sure to route the wires with the 9-pin JST plug side, or you'll break the pins off the 8-pin side.

Take your decoder and plug into the harness, and plug the 8-pin part into the 8-pin socket on the locomotive taking care to orient the plug correctly. The socket should have a 1, an arrow, or some other indicator such as a square pad underneath to indicate pad 1, which is where the pin with the orange wire needs to go.

Now, carefully jam your decoder into the housing where the two capacitors were. It's a tight fit, so be careful!

Put the weight back onto the loco, screw it back in place, and put the shell back on. You're done!

 

[Ike]

Brent,
I used a Digitrax DH165IP on mine, no surgery necessary. It is a tiny little thing with an 8 pin plug integrated on the decoder's board and it plugs right in to the Atlas board and fits with no issues. I tried the NCE version first and didn't like the motor control, so I switched to the Digitrax decoder. No sound, but it works great.

Ike

 

[diburning]

And it fits with no problems? Space is tight under the shell. I tried a DN143IP and it didn't fit (too thick)

 

[Ike]

Eric,
Yes it fits with no problems. Here's a pic of my install with an arrow pointing to the decoder (it is tiny). I put some kapton tape over it to secure it to the board.

Jim

 

[MudbugnTX]

Well, I found the decoder the the Atlas Gensets.

Brand: MRC
Item # 0001916
http://www.modelrectifier.com/search/product-view.asp?ID=13021

They have changed the speaker design and added an oval one that drops right into the rear weight. The weight has a small square hole at the top and you can use this to pass the wires through to feed back to the decoder. You can cut a small piece of styrene to fit into the top of the weight that acts as a speaker baffle. I just simply taped over the hole after running my two speaker wires and the sound is great. There are 4 screws holding the decoder in place and you can use two of these screws to hold the speaker in place. I chose to tape all 4 corners of the speaker for now to hold it in place. This decoder does have to be wired into the locomotive using the existing wires. You do not have to solder any resistors in place for the LEDS as they are preattached with the new decoder and just drop into place. Mine were already taped to avoid contact with the front and rear weights. Installation was not hard and instructions are straight forward. I found the sound was of high quality compared to earlier reviews of this product. I believe MRC made some changes based on customer reviews and replies. I did have to switch my sounds on the decoder to get the correct genset sounds. I also had to modify a couple cv values to get the ditchlights working properly. No big deal as the cv list is in the manual. Word of warning. These are listed as drop in decoders but what they mean by that is this. You unscrew the original motor board and drops this one in its place. This decoder is cheaper than the Soundtraxx and installs basically the same way.

 

[Motley]

DO NOT GET THE MRC DECODERS!!! They are bad, very bad. The motor control is the worst in all of sound decoders available. And they blow up/fry on you for no reason. Stay away, stay away!

 

[MudbugnTX]

DO NOT GET THE MRC DECODERS!!! They are bad, very bad. The motor control is the worst in all of sound decoders available. And they blow up/fry on you for no reason. Stay away, stay away!

We have 4 of these in our club that have been running for three years with no problems. We have lost some decoders on locos of all brands but generally it was do to improper wiring or routing of wires under the shell or someone at one time decided to throw a darn DC pack on the mainline while DCC was still on the track and poof! The worse decoder I ever had was an ESU Loksound in a big boy. Nothing functioned properly and it quit working on DCC. I sent it to the factory with the loco and they sent it back with a new decoder and this would fade the sound in and out as you speeded up the loco. It then stopped responding to commands from the CAB. I have put every major decoder brand in my locos and one thing I always do is contact the manufacturer when something goes wrong. That is, if someone in the club did not blow the darn thing. At least this way, they can troubleshoot the group of decoders and make sure QC practices and parts are coming out as they should.

 

[Motley]

Thats odd, I've never heard of a good experience from any kind of MRC decoders. I had one before, and it was aweful, just aweful. Replaced it with a Tsunami.