Ok gang. Here's the dirty little secret that MRC doesn't want you to know. For the Prodigy to work as advertised, you have to have MRC's new decoders. And they haven't made them yet. (Funny how they forgot to print that minor detail on the box.) After weeks of scratching my head wondering why nothing seemed to stick when programed, I discovered the ugly truth. A customer at the hobby shop invited me over to check my decoders and system with his Atlas system. Lo and behold every CV had a value of 0 (zero). The reason that my locos took off like rockets wasn't because they were in 14 speed step mode. It was because you can't program top voltage into anything but their new decoders. It seems that the only thing the Prodigy CAN do is assign addresses and run locos. Wow. It can't program start voltage on anything but their new decoders. It can't program top voltage on anything but their new decoders. It only has three values for programming momentum. (devide the throttle into thirds) I got all this from a Frank at MRC today, when I called them to voice my utter disappointment with the Prodigy not doing what they advertise it should. They will not take the system back, stating that it works as advertised using their new decoders. There is no way that I in good conscience can sell one of these to anyone that comes in the store and I intend to send the one we have at the store back to Walthers tomorrow. I am really ticked about this. This is nothing short of false advertisement. It's like selling someone a car and after delivery, telling them that it only runs on special fuel that only you sell. But you don't have any. I guess I will have to get my PR-1 up and running if I want to do any more programming.
Thats too bad because MRC has made some good products that have worked well for me like the walk around controlmaster 20 which I now use to power my Digitrax Empire Builder. I was tempted to buy the Prodigy but pleased I didn't now.
Yeah....I too bought the Prodigy, and just read in the manual over the weekend about the voltage only working with the model 430(?) decoder. I don't know what page it is, but it lists all the decoders that won't work with voltage. Of course, mine are one of those. Being that this was my first experience with DCC, I was attracted to it be the ease of setup and of course the price. Looks like I may have been taken for a (train) ride of my own! [ 01 April 2002, 13:18: Message edited by: Jerry Marx ]
Thanks a million for the info, I was one of those that looked long and hard at the Prodigy system...whew, thank you! (Sorry about the experience though, and I am surprised a company like MRC wouldn't take the system back...)
Jerry, Don't give up hope, you won't be the only person in that leaky boat. I suspect MRC is receiving a lot of nasties over it, so I suspect a fix in the works will appear.
Does the Prodigy conform to the NMRA DCC guidelines? If it does there shouldn't be any problems. I cant imagine MRC making a DCC system that doesent conform to the NMRA guidelines. Of course I havent looked at one of these systems closely so ..... Mike
The MRC web site makes no mention of NMRA DCC standards. From MRC's web site: "The MRC Prodigy DCC is unlike other DCC systems. It is compatible with other DCC systems but uses a different approach to DCC. "
According to TTX (at: http://www.ttx-dcc.com/productcompare/dcccomparison.htm ) the MRC Prodigy is "Pending" for NMRA Conformance. (However, that table also shows the Digitrax Chief II and NCE PhPro as "No" for that, so I'm really confused now )
I would like to see more about how the Prodigy DOES work. Does anyone have an oscilloscope to take a look at the pulse train? I wonder what they mean when they say it's a whole new way of doing DC.
thanks Rob. I just cant imagine why MRC would make a non conforming system in this day and age. Just doesent make sence to me, how can they expect to sell this system once word gets arround that it wont work with other peoples stuff. Glad I,m not the one at MRC that came up with this idea.........Mike
