Helpful Hints for Sound-Equipped Athearn Genesis F-Units

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The following is an excerpt from John Sipple's Review of the 'Athearn Genesis F-Units Equipped with Sound' in the March 2006 Issue (Vol. 12, Issue 3) of Model Railroad News and is printed here by permission. You can read more at www.modelrailroadnews.com. It includes helpful information about volume control & programming.

DCC Operation

In many ways, these units are classic decoder operations under DCC. By the time I got to this point, I was ready to lower the volumes of all sounds. Since both units are delivered with address 03 as required by NMRA standards, I just ran them that way. This meant that I could turn down both units at the same time through programming on the mainline. I searched through the listing of Control Variables (CVs) and found no master volume, so I wound up turning each sound down individually. Under DCC, that amounts to 15 different CVs. Each CV offers the choice of 3, the maximum volume, down to 0, the minimum. I programmed them from the factory setting of 3 each down to 1 each. While that did, indeed, turn them all down dramatically, they were still louder than most of my DCC sound-equipped locomotives have been when they were delivered to me at full volume!

The yellow arrow points to the tiny control pot.

I, personally, would also like a master volume that would then reduce the volume from the level it is right now down to a whisper. However, the DCC side of the decoder offers something the DC does not; a double-click on F0 or a single click on F12 will shut the sounds completely off. This is useful for answering a phone or holding a conversation without shutting down the entire layout.

The MRC Prodigy Advance system features the ability to use 20 different functions, from F0 to F19, so their decoder also has 20 active functions. F0 is headlight, F1 is bell, F2 is horn, F3 is air release, F4 is coupling, F5 is braking, F6 is dynamic brake, F7 is coupler arm, F8 is coupler fire, and F9 is engine fan. On the Prodigy Advance, use the [Shift] key to reach F10 and beyond. F10 is rail click-clack, F11 is air compressor, F12 (and double F0) is sound on/off, F13 is door close, F14 is coupler crash, F15 is air pump, F16 is exhaust, F17 is short air release, F18 is safety valve, and F19 is doppler on horn type 1.

I am generally pleased that MRC is taking advantage of the potential of function buttons. Many DCC systems wont let you get to all of them, and frankly, you might not miss some of them. The track click-clack is just one speed; to me it would be more convincing if it varied with the locos speed. The Doppler horn on F19 sounds more to me as though the locomotive sideswiped a truck at a grade crossing. F16 is the distinctive acceleration chug of the 567 diesel engine and should be part of that sound package rather than a separate function.

When it comes to the motor decoder, I feel this is a fairly primitive decoder. While it does support both two and four digit addressing, it does not support speed tables. There is no Back EMF or torque compensation adjustment. While there is a start and top volt adjustment, mid volt is a choice between 1 and 0 and comes from the factory set to 1. Since there is no explanation for this in the programming instructions, I called MRC.

I learned two things from that call. First, the mid-volt is a toggle between a factory curve (1) and a linear line (0). My experience is that the difference between settings is not very large. The other thing I learned is that the Genesis F-units actually have a volume potentiometer on the board. Remove the shell on each unit, set it on a powered track so that the sound system is running, and then find the very tiny potentiometer (volume control) about in the center of the board. It looks as though a Phillips-head would fit it. One direction will actually make it louder, but I turned it the other way and cut the volume about in half. Ahhh, just right!

Meanwhile, I ran the DCC tests and both units performed flawlessly, either alone or together. The A-unit for SP has a working Mars light flashing on top and a steady headlight below, all controlled by F0. I then took my F3B unit which has a TCS decoder installed and added it to the lashup. I found that it ran just fine with the F7 units; it could have been adjusted if necessary, but none was needed. I then added the F3A unit, also with a TCS T1 decoder, setting it up to run normally in reverse; at that point, I had a whole heap of pull on the drawbar! This lashup ran very smoothly and led its train with very good manners. It should be noted that this is a prototypical lashup since SP treated its F3 and F7 units as being basically interchangeable. I alternated B-units to spread the sound out, and the whole business became a lot of fun.

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