I just purchased an Athearn Big Boy. Upon reading Mark's (Spookshow) review on it I noticed that Athearn said the package includes a "handheld DC controller". My box did not include this controller. The brochure that came with my loco also says that there is an operational coupler included to replace the "dummy" for the front pilot. Mine did not have that either. Could anyone who purchased one of these from the latest run please tell me if yours included this controller & extra coupler? Mark, if you read this, maybe you could set me straight on this. Thanks to any and all.
Did you buy the latest release? What is the part number? I thought the handheld went away with the MRC decoder (very first run).
No front coupler included. It comes with a filler plate for the cowcatcher held in by a screw. Take the screw out, and the filler plate should slide right out (I have not tried this). Per instructions that came with the engine, you then slide in an MT 1016 coupler and put the screw back in to hold it in place. As I mentioned in my first post, no hand held controller. Athearn changed decoders for this run, and it does not need the controller to run on DC. I also have the first run, which I run on DC, too, and it has the controller and I have to use it to make the engine perform. I understand others have said that is not necessary, but I do have to use it. I have concluded that it is because I have a radio controlled throttle/receiver wired between my transformer and track. This is both good and bad. On my first run, using the supplied controller, all or most functions work including the bell and whistle. On the new run, without the controller, I have no bell or whistle when running it on DC.
Thanks for your help Glenn. You obviously have a different set of ininstructions than I have. My instructions say: "The Athearn N-scale Big Boy model comes with the swivel coupler installed on the pilot. As on the prototype engines, you can have the coupler exposed on the pilot, or swing it around so that the pilot has no coupller in use. The "coupler" on this part is a dummy (non-operating) coupler. The included operating coupler can be installed on the pilot. Simply unscrew and remove the dummy coupler." Also, my exploded parts list shows both the dummy and the micro-trains coupler as numbered parts. This to me is a mini-mystery indeed.
Does the new decoder have the "voice feedback" feature that the old MRC decoder had? I always liked that. Does Athearn sell a DC controller separately? I'm wondering how one goes about controlling the various functions without one? Thanks, -Mark
The new decoder does not have voice feedback, it is a Soundtraxx decoder made for athearn, just a few features short of a tsu 750. What i have seen is f11 does not work, On a tsu 750 pressing f11 will engage brakes to stop the loco. Don't about a separate Dc controller. It is a duel mode so will run on DC, i do not run DC so I don't know how to control functions. Doug
Thanks, Doug. Is this most recent run the first one with Tsunami's? Or did Athearn make the switch with the second production run (back in 2008)? -Mark
There have only been two runs of the Big Boy, the first had the MRC decoder with the seperate remote control, the second and most recent comes with a TSU-750 Micro Tsunami. It is a full fleatured Tsunami becuase it is the same replacement decoder that Soundtrax made to replace the MRC decoders for the aftermarket before Athearn started installing the Tsunami OEM in the Challenger first and now the Big Boy. The F11 feature is present, just not turned on. CV61 is set to 0 as the default. http://www.soundtraxx.com/factory/OEM pages/athearn/challenger_n.pdf Also the default whistle is inccorect, it is set for the Challenger.
Tony, I have loco,s 4005 and 4014 both of these have cv 61 set to 60 and neither one will respond to f11. Do yours stop when f11 is pressed? I also have two of the Challengers that I replaced the MRC decoder with a Sountraxx decoder and these respond to f11. Doug
I honestly haven't set mine up for it yet, but I will gp try. What is CV3 and CV4 set at? They affect the brake effect also.
Tony, CV3 is set at 60, CV4 is set at 20. All these settings work great on the challenger with a TSU-4664N. This gives a long stop to the train and simulates starting with a heavy load. Doug
I have to disagree with you there (at least technically). There were two separate runs back in 2008 (or at least two separate shipments). It was the second group that introduced elephant ears. But I take it that all of the '08 Big Boys had MRC decoders? -Mark
I forgot about the two seprate announcements but I'm pretty sure ours all came in one batch to the shop. I may be wrong, heck that is now going on 4+ years ago. All I know was when they came in, I had one reserved and a customer begged me for it. I let him pick it up expecting another run shortly. 4 years later I finally have mine.
Doug, Yes and No. The brake function works but they have remapped it to F9. I would like to say I read all the CV's in the decoder to figure this out but I just did a little trial and error to see what each function on the throttle did after setting CV61=40 and just putting a little momentum in each CV3 and 4. Edit: Found this digging around the Athearn website. http://www.athearn.com/Content/PDF/SoundTraxx Quick Start Guide.pdf
Tony, Thanks for finding this out. I should be able to re-map to f11 so my 73 year old operating system doesn't have to remember f9. Thanks again Doug
BTW - Just opened my instructions and it is right there in the DCC operations section. We both could have made this easier by reading the instructions. I still need to do the tweeks to the programming that John C came up with. I can't stand the fact that the chuff timing is nowhere close. I just fixxed the whistle a few minutes ago.
