(P.S I HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE BOILERS MELTING!) I was wondering if there are any known big issues with Paragon 4 decoders on NCE. I am thinking about getting BLI’s new PRR 2-10-0.
I have a number of P4 equipped locos......... They DO get warm (but not melt the boiler warm) if you run high volume levels on the sound, and when they get warm they can get a little glitchy (is that a word?). I can't say in terms of NCE....I and the club use MRC, but I have a friend who has an NCE and there doesn't seem to be any real difference.
NCE does not provide sufficient juice to the programming track to reliably read CVs in Paragon 4s, and they sort of recommend that you buy a Sountraxx programming booster. My booster arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, my throttle crapped out the day before, and is now being shipped to NCE for repair, so I can't tell you how well it works. See the article here. Note that they warn you not to use it on a Power Cab.
I've only heard that the J is at risk for melting, and that's only if you use the smoke unit at too high of a temp, because the boiler is too narrow to dissipate the heat properly.
The melting boilers is down to the smoke units and being run dry of oil and consequently too hot. Regardless of P4, 3 or 2 electronics.
