MRC 1663 Decoder For Atlas S2/4′s

Ok, so we’ve had some problems with our sound decoders since we installed them a few weeks ago.  If you missed that post – here it is.

Anyway, Derwin’s loco lost all engine noise, but other sounds like horn and bell worked.  Both of mine were fine until Derwin ran one of them during an operating session.  The result was no engine noise, but bell and horn would work.  The commone denominator – Derwin – as usual!   HA!

I reprogrammed my loco (thank God for DecoderPro) and it worked fine.  The same fix didn’t work for Derwin unfortunately.  Then I got an email from Daniel Watkins thanking me for my post on installing these decoders.  After an exchange of a few emails we discovered his loco had a very similar problem.

So, the power of the public press came to the rescue.  I sent an email to MRC on Saturday.  I did not expect a reply until Monday or Tuesday.  However, when I turned on my computer Monday morning there was an email from Frank waiting for me.  Wow – I was impressed.  Here is Frank’s response…

Scott,

if you have horn and bell sounds but nothing else it is possible you inadvertently shut off the prime mover sounds

did you try double clicking the headlight button, [F0] as we use this as a mute, and also F12 is the sound on/off mute or try playing with CV # 49 to see if you can get the sounds back onif all eles fails send me the decoder, [no money] and i’ll check it out for you.

Frank

I asked Frank what value to set for CV49.  His next email suggested setting it to “1″.

Since I had Derwin’s loco here I tried Franks suggestions and a double-click of F0 did trick. Daniel had a similar response on one of the groups and it solved his problem.  Unfortunately there is no mention of this F0 feature in the documentation that comes with the decoder and no mention of what CV49 does.

This problem is resolved, I think.  I’m still not completely happy with the decoder – the lowest volume level is still too loud and the speed adjustment is coarse,  but I don’t think you can beat its price when you get it on sale.

Scott

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