FIXED CV124 must be set to 1 :Sounder stopped making idle loco sounds

[James Hail]

Ok....per title...MRC Sounder 1665 and NCE PowerCab.....

I knew i shouldn't have bought them....

But i did....

First they worked fine but would not ops mode (POM).....any cv's

Then after getting them to ops mode and take cvs.....and running for a few min....2 of them no longer make the idle loco hiss....they still make random effects while idle but in between its dead silence...

When running they make all the correct sounds....

I tried cv 125 reset....no good...
Unlocking mode no good....
I tried recovery mode ....no good...

Instructions list no info..... website and PDF were no help...

I'm afraid my NCE must have hit on a hidden CV and took out the "white/pink" noise?...

Anyone know of a fix?......I'm stumped as everthing else on them works ....

And #3 is working fine but I'm afraid to install it.......

Help please......this is the only time i have ever had a DCC install problem....

Jim

Guess next time i will heed the warnings........Ugh

[James Hail]

NCE recovery mode causes this........I just found out ....dont ask....

But why?........what is it doing to the sounder unit?......

Jim

[James Hail]

FIXED.....CV 124 must be set to a value of 1

NCE must be setting it to 0 on recovery....turning off the steady boiler sound...

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!

If only MRC listed this *$*%$(*&^$  CV on the chart this would have been a easy fix....

I set CV's one at a time (124 of em ) until i found it....

Jim

[James Hail]

These decoders have "hidden CV's" that are NOT in the instructions that can get screwed up...

It also seems after setting a address other than default of 003...it locks the sounder and you cannot adjust anything on it...

I have been setting them up without the loco...and then changing the address on the sounder to the cab number (long address) and then install on the already decodered loco.

This works but i can no longer adjust the sounder in OPS mode unless i set just the tender on the track....do a re-set back to defaults and start over on set up of the sounder.

Good thing all my sounders are in harnessed tenders so they can be tweeked without the loco/motor controller getting messed up too.

Any ideas guys?.... I would like to be able to OPS mode to the Sounder...

Jim

[James Hail]

After tonight i got this nailed down...

MRC Sounder for Steam #1665 works fine out of the box...program it to a 4 digit
address (5702 2526 3750) and it will work at the new address but no longer
respond to OPS mode programing,and appears LOCKED as it will not respond to ops
cv changes.So your stuck with what you set before the address change.

I re-set them with the NCE recovery program and decoder unlock feature..That
takes it back to address 3..then you must set CV 124 back to 1 or you will loose
the background Idle boiler hiss.

Yea hidden CV's folks......Great fun when one gets changed...I worked through
123 of em to find it.

Then I started over and chose 2 digit addresses and WALLA....Ops mode programing
works again....

I now have all 3 sounders doing what i want them too....and responding to On the
main programming.

I do not know if this is a MRC issue or NCE issue.

I would say this causes allot of returned Sounder decoders as the end user would
think its broken and might not figure out what i did.

I spent 2 evenings on this .

Jim

1 reset/unlock
2 select control of loco 3
3 set cv 124 to 1...decoder should now be restored and on address 3
4 avoid 4 digit addresses