What decoder is this???


WC3026

Member
Got a nice Athearn loco off ebay and it came with a decoder but have no clue what kind it is cause there is no marking on it.....


 
athearn? oh its hardwired, may have to check athearn what they throw in it, its not hooked to the DCC plug.
sound? no sound?

may explain the no return on cv 8, usually thats used for reboot.
 
It's not hardwired - it's using the 9-pin plug Athearn provides for a 9-pin decoder. It's a non-sound decoder and not a factory install.

You say every loco comes back "err" ? You should be able to read the value in CV8 as it's used for manufacturer ID. Does your system have the ability to read back ANY CV's ?

Mark.
 
I'm trying to think other ways to identify it, some decoders the 9 pin is shrinkwrapped with the decoder and you have to cut the shrink to separated the plug. Do you see a lit LED when it is on (on the decoder) Soundtraxx does this. That list of decoder makers is more huge than I knew there were makers of decoders.

it just might be the soundtraxx non sound MC2H104OP. Looks like the wrapping is cut to access the connector.
95051367776569.gif
 
Looks to be just a DC/DCC ready lighting board, so no, you won't get any reading off it on DCC.
 
that would make that decoder just a function decoder or a light operation dc, which I doubt. I presume it runs on DCC fine I just wonder if soundtraxx put an identifying code on the decoder, or its just a super basic decoder, it has no sound and would not read back anything on cv 8
 
The reason I said that is 'cause I've just taken 2 DC/DCC ready boards out of Athearn dash9's. Apart from the shrink wrap they look identical, with the hard wired gismo at one end and the quickplug at the other.
 
The one in the pic looks just like one of the digitraxs ones i use (dh123, dh163) besides the purple wrap.
 
I believe that the decoders with purple wrap are all Soundtraxx. The one you have looks like one of theirs, and they are the only decoders wrapped in purple, that I've ever seen. TCS has some wrapped in the light blue shrink wrap like Digitrax, but they also have their name stamped onto the shrink wrap as well. Its either the decoder that was mentioned earlier in the thread, or one very similar.

What system are you using to read the decoders with? I'm not sure of other brands but the only current power station that Digitrax has that won't read back CV's is the DB150, found in the Super Empire Builder. Also if you're trying to read on the main, and not a programming track, you'll get the error as well.
 



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