Prodigy Advanced Squared questions

[CaptOblivious]

The MRC manuals are woefully inadequate about describing their products. Trying to figure out how to wire a booster to the track outputs of the Prodigy Advanced Squared (since that seems to be the only option for adding boosters). Which of the track terminals goes high on the leading half of a bit, and which goes high for the trailing half? Wish they would label them and document this critical fact like everyone else does...

[nik_n_dad]

I tried to get some documentation on a DCC sound decoder MRC did that was used by Athearn in one of their Big Boys.  Nothing much on the web.  MRC did respond to my email by sending a scan of a copy of a fax of a faded one pager that had virtually, but not completely no information.  Several points for quick response, minus points for everything else.

[CaptOblivious]

Am I right in thinking that the Prodigy equipment is made by Gaugemaster, and imported/re-labeled by MRC? Or is it the other way around? Anyway, I'm talking to Gaugemaster tech support about how to wire LOLbooster to a Prodigy system. Their current thinking is that I cannot (which I know is not true, because you can always connect an NMRA conformant booster to the track output of another booster, although if you're not careful doing so can sometimes cause signal timing issues, and perhaps even nasty ground currents on poorly wired layouts). We'll see where this goes.

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm used to control stations having separate plugs for additional boosters. Never really did see one where you hook up a booster to the track power of another booster or command station....

[CaptOblivious]

I'm used to control stations having separate plugs for additional boosters. Never really did see one where you hook up a booster to the track power of another booster or command station....

 

Most do have plugs. The Advance Square has a plug (although, for some reason, it is labeled "For Factory Use Only", it is in fact meant to drive boosters in addition to the one built-in). I just don't know what's going out on those lines, and hoping I can find out. (I don't have one to test. Anyone willing to part with an expensive bit of DCC equipment for a week or two, if I don't hear back from Gaugemaster?) But in nearly every case, even when there is a plug, what's being sent to the booster is an unamplified DCC waveform. The booster merely amplifies it. Thus, in theory, you should be able to use the track output of one booster to drive a second, assuming the second doesn't mind 12–16V on its inputs (and, if it matches NMRA recommended practices, it should be perfectly happy with that).

 

Still, if there's a DCC signal coming out of that plug, I'd rather use it instead…