I'm wanting to replace the decoder in my Challenger, but the decoder does not have the connectors marked. The only thing marked on one chip is "athearn". I have looked online and can find no matching decoder with matching connector locations. Maybe the bottom of the board is marked. I figured out the rear light and speaker connections. Any help?
OK, why are you replacing it? This is an OEM Sound decoder made by SoundTraxx for Athearn. You can get a replacement from Athearn. You just have to love OEM ‘s using just two colors for wiring. I am guessing the there is a 6 pin socket at the front of the board. These are for the motor, locomotive track power pickup and the front headlight. You said you already have the rear light and the speaker wires traced- the rest are track, power wires. The
The decoder is malfunctioning. I have replaced the decoders in two Broadway Limited Steam engines already. Their decoders stopped working also. I like ESU decoders better and I have the ESU programmer.
Well with the ESU decoder you will be doing a hard wire install. You will have to ring out the wires at the 6 pin connector to find which wire does what. With three decoders failing you might want to take a good look at the system & layout.
It was the MRC decoders that were the real problem with the Athearn Challengers in the beginning. They seemed to fail based on the phase of the moon. While I am an ESU fan as well, I have many locomotives with the Soundtraxx decoders that have not given me any issues. And they have been run on several different NTRAK layouts and home layouts without fail. And while it could be an infantile failure, prudence also suggest that a look at possible issues with the layout and the DCC equipment, especially since this has happened a few times in the past.
