Athearn 8 pin, MRC 9 pin

[BLVDBUZZARD]

I just opened the big box the brown truck left for me today. I am checking out my new F59 PHI and see it has a nice DCC plug all ready for my MRC decoder with sound. Well looks are not always right. The Athearn has an 8 pin plug and the decoder has a 9 pin plug. Does this mean I have to romove the old wiring and then solider this new harness in place? From the color of the wires, they are not in the same order, so from first glance, it looks like I will be doing some solidering. The directions are a little sparce on the matter.

Thanks.

Dru.

P.S. The MRC Prodigy Advance sure comes in a small box.

 

[Harold Cole]

If you could post or send a pic of both the Atherns socket and the MRC plug we might be able to lead you in the right direction.

 

[Nick8564]

Which decoder did you get. I have a couple of the MRC syncronized sound decoders the sereis right before the Brilliance, and they all came with a 8 pin DCC plug.

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Digitrax, and probably others as well, use the 9 pin(in one row) connectors on a lot of their decoders, and have the 8 pin(in two rows) connector on the other endof the harness. In fact, Tonys sold them in two lengths, I would think they still do. You can contact Tonys at
www.tonystrains.com

 

[BLVDBUZZARD]

Sorry for the delay in posting. This has been the first day I have felt good enough to sit at the puter desk. I have a serious case of the horrible terribles. I feel right up there with death warmed over.

I will try to take a couple of pics. May have to wait until I get to work to post them because of my ultra high speed dial up woul take 30 minutes a pic.

In looking at the decoder again, it has a 10 pin connector on the board where the harness plugs in. Seven wires go to a small board with 8 pins and 3 wires are loose.

I apoligize if this does not read very well. I will try for the pics tonite because a picture is worth more then I could type in a day.

Dru.

 

[Harold Cole]

The MRC plug should just plug in to the Athearns socket witn out any Mods.The extra wires are for extra functions or the speaker.Shouldn't have to make any Modifactions.

 

[BLVDBUZZARD]

I may be just trying to over think all of this. The pic of the DCC board in the loco came out blurry but you can sort of see the 8 holes (2 rows of 4) at the bottom. The small board attached to the end of the harness drops right into the 8 holes. There are only 7 wires attached to the small board.

Dru.

 

[Nick8564]

It almost looks like the brown wire has came a loose from the 8 pin board maybe. I know on most of the decoders I have gotten with a 8 pin board only had the green and violet wires loose if it had them. The rest where hooked to the board. You may have to solder it back on or send it back.

 

[Gary Pfeil]

OK, looks like no problem! Plug the decoders 8 pin plug in to the locos socket, the other three wires are just extra functions you can wire to ditch lights, a strobe, etc. Or trim them and tuck them out of the way if not used. I like to put a dab of liquid tape or similar insulator over the wire end to make sure it doesn;t contact something.