MRC AD310 Decoders


jfedorek

New Member
Hello,

I am looking for some advice and I am hoping someone can help me. I have several older locomotives with mrc decoders from an old command 2000 that I no longer have. I wouldlike to bring these back into action. Is there a universal dcc decoder that I could get to use on my nce power cab

thanks

Jesse
 
Digitrax has some decoders that you can hardwire in and they don't take up much space and are only about $18. You can go to the manufacturers website and check out what they offer, the sizes of the decoders and the number of functions they offer. Digitrax and NCE offer good low cost decoders. TCS costs a little more and then you can go for some more expensive ones with more functions from ESU and Zimo. There are other brands that are available and they all are good quality. Some offer sound and some have better motor control. Everyone has their favorites, but you can't go wrong with any I mentioned. MRC has a relatively poor reputation for motor control, but I must admit, I've never used any MRC decoders.
 
Your MRC decoders should work with any command station, but newer decoders, especially non-MRC decoders, would have more features. For non-sound, Digitrax, ESU, NCE, TCS, and Zimo, all make excellent non-sound decoders. For sound ESU, TCS, Soundtraxx, and Zimo would be at the top of my list. Digitrax also makes a sound decoder.
 
the mrc decoder will work with newer controllers, but does have some limitations .. 1/ it's only good for two digit addresses, [1-99] and 2/ they only seem to support a 14 step speed range ??
Consequently something newer would be more suitable, from pretty well any manufacturer....
 
Hello,

I am looking for some advice and I am hoping someone can help me. I have several older locomotives with mrc decoders from an old command 2000 that I no longer have. I wouldlike to bring these back into action. Is there a universal dcc decoder that I could get to use on my nce power cab

thanks

Jesse


I started out with MRC Command 2000 as well and made the move to Digitrax in 2005. You can still keep the same MRC decoders. If you are using NCE no problem. I would use JMRI to navigate re-programing of the decoders. MRC set up at the time was 1 thru 10 using a 3 digit coding address on the Command 2000. The address would read as follows: 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, and so on. At 10 it would read 010. I am not sure why they stopped at 10. Like I said I still have my system but now since re-programed all my decoders using JMRI. JMRI is free to download and very user friendly.
 
the mrc decoder will work with newer controllers, but does have some limitations .. 1/ it's only good for two digit addresses, [1-99] and 2/ they only seem to support a 14 step speed range ??
Consequently something newer would be more suitable, from pretty well any manufacturer....
correct 14 step on the first release than later 28 step
 
Hi Jesse, welcome to the friendliest forum on the planet. I see that you now have an NCE Power Cab. Good Choice. And want to upgrade your present outdated decoders. I presume the old ones are all non-sound and you want modern equivalents, i.e. also non-sound. If that's so and the old ones are of the 8 pin plug NMRA Standard, then why not consider using NCE's decoders. An advantage there is that the instruction manual that came with your Cab is written with their own brand decoders in mind. Here is the page on the NCE website that lists all their types.

If you look at the ones that start with D13, that is their cheapest range and the smallest. Go over to the right hand column and 2nd one down. That shows you the D13WP, which comes with the 8 pin wiring loom, complete with 8 pin plug attached to it's end. Working down that column, the next is the D13J. It is designed with a socket across one end to take the 9 pin plug that some Locos came with, already fitted to the lighting and power motherboard on some brands e.g. Athearn and Walthers Proto, known as NMRA 9 pin DCC "Quick Plug".
Below that is the D13W, not supplied as far as I can see, with an 8 pin plug, intended to be hard wired where there is no motherboard. Looking to the left across the rows you will see the prices for multiple packs of either 4 or 10 decoders, with price reductions for the bulk purchase.

Click on the pictures of the single items to see the technical descriptions.

P.S. for some strange reason I note they don't list multiple buys for the D13WP. Might just be out of stock.
 
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I am looking for some advice and I am hoping someone can help me. I have several older locomotives with mrc decoders from an old command 2000 that I no longer have. I wouldlike to bring these back into action. Is there a universal dcc decoder that I could get to use on my nce power cab
I still have locomotives with MRC decoders I believe are AD310s. They work fine on my other command systems in 28 step mode. But there are only 14 steps. The headlight turns on and off at each step! So odd step headlight off, even step headlight on.... ?!?

For modern generic decoders I am in the NCE D13W and DASR camp. I buy them in bulk because it is cheaper.
 
For modern generic decoders I am in the NCE D13W and DASR camp. I buy them in bulk because it is cheaper.
Hadn't noticed that DA-SR board replacement one before. Good for where height is restricted to put in either the 8 or 9 pin piggy back ones. When I was putting them in, I had a few occasions that stuffing them in was difficult.
 



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