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Some recent Athearn production were made with 20,000 ohm resistors on their lighting board instead of 2,000 ohm.? Makes for very dim lights. Athearn is replacing the boards, or buy a Decoder Buddy board yourself. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Good morning, I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis GP40-2 non dcc/sound. It is the newest version and came with a 21p connector. I picked up a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder and installed it along with a speaker. It still has the board it came with. The only thing I changed was where the black wires running from the front and rear ditch lights went to functions on the board. The issue I'm having is the front and rear headlights aswell as front and rear ditch lights are very very dim. This model came equipped with LED's and there are no resistors on the lights. I've tried programming the decoder for "LED compensation" and that didnt work. Anyone have any ideas what would cause them to be so dim and how I can fix it?
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Thank you for your reply Craig. If I do have one of the boards with the wrong resistors installed how do I tell?? If I do have one of the boards that's wrong would you happen to know how I go about getting a replacement?
Sam Robinson? Lewiston, Maine
On Tue, May 11, 2021, 8:50 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: Some recent Athearn production were made with 20,000 ohm resistors on their lighting board instead of 2,000 ohm.? Makes for very dim lights. Athearn is replacing the boards, or buy a Decoder Buddy board yourself. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Good morning, I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis GP40-2 non dcc/sound. It is the newest version and came with a 21p connector. I picked up a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder and installed it along with a speaker. It still has the board it came with. The only thing I changed was where the black wires running from the front and rear ditch lights went to functions on the board. The issue I'm having is the front and rear headlights aswell as front and rear ditch lights are very very dim. This model came equipped with LED's and there are no resistors on the lights. I've tried programming the decoder for "LED compensation" and that didnt work. Anyone have any ideas what would cause them to be so dim and how I can fix it?
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You have to look at the surface mount resistors; if they say 203 they're 20,000 ohms.? They should be 222 or 202.? ?No, I don't know how to reach Athearn for a replacement. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Thank you for your reply Craig. If I do have one of the boards with the wrong resistors installed how do I tell?? If I do have one of the boards that's wrong would you happen to know how I go about getting a replacement?
Sam Robinson? Lewiston, Maine On Tue, May 11, 2021, 8:50 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: Some recent Athearn production were made with 20,000 ohm resistors on their lighting board instead of 2,000 ohm.? Makes for very dim lights. Athearn is replacing the boards, or buy a Decoder Buddy board yourself. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Good morning, I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis GP40-2 non dcc/sound. It is the newest version and came with a 21p connector. I picked up a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder and installed it along with a speaker. It still has the board it came with. The only thing I changed was where the black wires running from the front and rear ditch lights went to functions on the board. The issue I'm having is the front and rear headlights aswell as front and rear ditch lights are very very dim. This model came equipped with LED's and there are no resistors on the lights. I've tried programming the decoder for "LED compensation" and that didnt work. Anyone have any ideas what would cause them to be so dim and how I can fix it?
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They say 203. Athearn told me because I installed a tsunami2 I voided the warranty.
On Tue, May 11, 2021, 4:57 PM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: You have to look at the surface mount resistors; if they say 203 they're 20,000 ohms.? They should be 222 or 202.? ?No, I don't know how to reach Athearn for a replacement. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android Thank you for your reply Craig. If I do have one of the boards with the wrong resistors installed how do I tell?? If I do have one of the boards that's wrong would you happen to know how I go about getting a replacement?
Sam Robinson? Lewiston, Maine On Tue, May 11, 2021, 8:50 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: Some recent Athearn production were made with 20,000 ohm resistors on their lighting board instead of 2,000 ohm.? Makes for very dim lights. Athearn is replacing the boards, or buy a Decoder Buddy board yourself. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Good morning, I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis GP40-2 non dcc/sound. It is the newest version and came with a 21p connector. I picked up a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder and installed it along with a speaker. It still has the board it came with. The only thing I changed was where the black wires running from the front and rear ditch lights went to functions on the board. The issue I'm having is the front and rear headlights aswell as front and rear ditch lights are very very dim. This model came equipped with LED's and there are no resistors on the lights. I've tried programming the decoder for "LED compensation" and that didnt work. Anyone have any ideas what would cause them to be so dim and how I can fix it?
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So I guess it's all your fault that they put in the wrong
resistor?
Big business today continues to amaze me.
Well, the good news is I can now scratch Athearn off my list of
possible new engine purchases!
On 5/11/2021 5:08 PM, Sam Robinson
wrote:
They say 203. Athearn told me because I installed
a tsunami2 I voided the warranty.
On Tue, May 11, 2021, 4:57 PM
Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote:
You have to look at the surface mount resistors; if
they say 203 they're 20,000 ohms.? They should be 222 or
202.? ?No, I don't know how to reach Athearn for a
replacement.
Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Thank you for your reply Craig. If I do have
one of the boards with the wrong resistors
installed how do I tell?? If I do have one of the
boards that's wrong would you happen to know how I
go about getting a replacement?
Sam Robinson?
Lewiston, Maine
On Tue, May
11, 2021, 8:50 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...>
wrote:
Some recent Athearn production
were made with 20,000 ohm resistors on their
lighting board instead of 2,000 ohm.? Makes
for very dim lights. Athearn is replacing
the boards, or buy a Decoder Buddy board
yourself.
Craig
Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Good morning,
I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis
GP40-2 non dcc/sound. It is the newest
version and came with a 21p connector. I
picked up a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 sound
decoder and installed it along with a
speaker. It still has the board it came
with. The only thing I changed was where
the black wires running from the front and
rear ditch lights went to functions on the
board. The issue I'm having is the front
and rear headlights aswell as front and
rear ditch lights are very very dim. This
model came equipped with LED's and there
are no resistors on the lights. I've tried
programming the decoder for "LED
compensation" and that didnt work. Anyone
have any ideas what would cause them to be
so dim and how I can fix it?
--
May the Good Lord take a likin' to ya' - Lester "Roadhog"
Moran
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Sam, that just doesn’t sound correct. How is one to know if a decoder is defective or not until it’s installed! Unless the decoder is out of warranty because of time, it should be honored, especially if it was manufactured incorrectly. It may be worth another phone call to explain the situation.
Paul O _._,_._,_
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Good evening Paul,
The issue is with the board and not the sound decoder I got from Soundtraxx. Athearn installed the incorrect resistors leading to very dim lights all around on my brand new locomotive. I purchased a non sound/non dcc engine because that's all that was left. The engine came with a 21p adapter on the Genesis board. They are saying because I removed the dummy plug and put on my tsunami2 I voided the warranty. In my initial email to them I should have mentioned the lights were dim from the get go. For them to know of the issue where they install 20,000ohm resistors instead of the 2,000ohm resistors and not atleast send me a board or offer to fix it blows me away. Athearn definitely lost my business today.
Sam, that just doesn’t sound correct. How is one to know if a decoder is defective or not until it’s installed! Unless the decoder is out of warranty because of time, it should be honored, especially if it was manufactured incorrectly. It may be worth another phone call to explain the situation.
Paul O
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I'm with you Paul. That's really poor on their part.
On May 11, 2021 22:36, Sam Robinson <samuelrobinson388@...> wrote: Good evening Paul,
The issue is with the board and not the sound decoder I got from Soundtraxx. Athearn installed the incorrect resistors leading to very dim lights all around on my brand new locomotive. I purchased a non sound/non dcc engine because that's all that was left. The engine came with a 21p adapter on the Genesis board. They are saying because I removed the dummy plug and put on my tsunami2 I voided the warranty. In my initial email to them I should have mentioned the lights were dim from the get go. For them to know of the issue where they install 20,000ohm resistors instead of the 2,000ohm resistors and not atleast send me a board or offer to fix it blows me away. Athearn definitely lost my business today.
Sam, that just doesn’t sound correct. How is one to know if a decoder is defective or not until it’s installed! Unless the decoder is out of warranty because of time, it should be honored, especially if it was manufactured incorrectly. It may be worth another phone call to explain the situation.
Paul O
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Here is their reply to my email.......I've included the attachment they sent aswell.?
If the product has aftermarket decoder installed the warranty becomes void. The Horizon Hobby/Athearn warranty is no longer valid when any modification (refer to attachment) to the product outside of factory assembly is administered. This includes the installation of a decoder whether it is in the form of a board or plug.? It is encouraged customers test out locomotive lighting outputs before installing aftermarket decoders to determine if any faults are in the product.?
Sincerely,
Horizon Hobby
I'm with you Paul. That's really poor on their part.
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This, to be clear, is crap.? What a lousy policy.
Craig Zeni Cary NC
Here is their reply to my email.......I've included the attachment they sent aswell.?
If the product has aftermarket decoder installed the warranty becomes void. The Horizon Hobby/Athearn warranty is no longer valid when any modification (refer to attachment) to the product outside of factory assembly is administered. This includes the installation of a decoder whether it is in the form of a board or plug.? It is encouraged customers test out locomotive lighting outputs before installing aftermarket decoders to determine if any faults are in the product.?
Sincerely,
Horizon Hobby
I'm with you Paul. That's really poor on their part.
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Craig,
If I make a mistake I admit it and they wouldn't get a email asking them to replace their oversight. I would order a new board and be done with it.?
On Wed, May 12, 2021, 9:58 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: This, to be clear, is crap.? What a lousy policy.
Craig Zeni Cary NC
Here is their reply to my email.......I've included the attachment they sent aswell.?
If the product has aftermarket decoder installed the warranty becomes void. The Horizon Hobby/Athearn warranty is no longer valid when any modification (refer to attachment) to the product outside of factory assembly is administered. This includes the installation of a decoder whether it is in the form of a board or plug.? It is encouraged customers test out locomotive lighting outputs before installing aftermarket decoders to determine if any faults are in the product.?
Sincerely,
Horizon Hobby
I'm with you Paul. That's really poor on their part.
--
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To all,
Since I don’t know the products first hand, I agree with you, if you want to boycott Athearn. If they are going to stick to their warranty policy all is not lost. I would look for a local electronic shop that can work on surface mount repairs and have the resistors replaced with the correct value. I personally would do the work but not everyone is used to working on very small components. BUT before doing anything that will surely and permanently void their warranty,?Before doing any soldering. I would network with others that know the issue to determine which parts need to be replaced.?
Of course, the best route is getting Athearn to come to their senses, urged by a group of users, to replace the defective parts, instead of losing their customer base.?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Craig,
If I make a mistake I admit it and they wouldn't get a email asking them to replace their oversight. I would order a new board and be done with it.? On Wed, May 12, 2021, 9:58 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: This, to be clear, is crap.? What a lousy policy.
Craig Zeni Cary NC
Here is their reply to my email.......I've included the attachment they sent aswell.?
If the product has aftermarket decoder installed the warranty becomes void. The Horizon Hobby/Athearn warranty is no longer valid when any modification (refer to attachment) to the product outside of factory assembly is administered. This includes the installation of a decoder whether it is in the form of a board or plug.? It is encouraged customers test out locomotive lighting outputs before installing aftermarket decoders to determine if any faults are in the product.?
Sincerely,
Horizon Hobby
I'm with you Paul. That's really poor on their part.
--
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On Tue, May 11, 2021, 4:06 PM Sam Robinson via <samuelrobinson388= [email protected]> wrote: Thank you for your reply Craig. If I do have one of the boards with the wrong resistors installed how do I tell?? If I do have one of the boards that's wrong would you happen to know how I go about getting a replacement?
Sam Robinson? Lewiston, Maine On Tue, May 11, 2021, 8:50 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: Some recent Athearn production were made with 20,000 ohm resistors on their lighting board instead of 2,000 ohm.? Makes for very dim lights. Athearn is replacing the boards, or buy a Decoder Buddy board yourself. Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Good morning, I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis GP40-2 non dcc/sound. It is the newest version and came with a 21p connector. I picked up a Soundtraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder and installed it along with a speaker. It still has the board it came with. The only thing I changed was where the black wires running from the front and rear ditch lights went to functions on the board. The issue I'm having is the front and rear headlights aswell as front and rear ditch lights are very very dim. This model came equipped with LED's and there are no resistors on the lights. I've tried programming the decoder for "LED compensation" and that didnt work. Anyone have any ideas what would cause them to be so dim and how I can fix it?
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Sam,
? The way around this is to remove the board and 'hard wire' the decoder.
Yes, that's more difficult.? Yes, Athearn should fix the problem by at least
sending you a new board.? Replacing the board is essentially the same
amount of work as hard wiring the decoder.? You can purchase a harness
that has the correct plug on it that allows you to plug in the decoder you
have (21p style) - or you can just use a wired decoder and reuse that
decoder in some other loco.
? Athearn has often done stuff like this - been "inflexible" to changes
and or mistakes.? Not only on decoder stuff but also on paint - even
when the paint mistake is pointed out to them during the "pre" release
of pictures for customer review.? What I learned on one of these is?
that Athearn employees are "just guys who order stuff".? Second?
lesson is that they have a very long lead and so details of the way
the model is/is not are locked in place long before it would seem
to be necessary.? That follows directly from the way the actual
companies bid the jobs ... all changes after the bid result in huge
fees to Athearn/any one ordering.? Those companies know that
there will be changes ... so they bid low and make their money
on the "rework" charges.? This is pretty much how all of the products
produced overseas works and it won't get fixed until the companies
ordering stuff bring the engineering back to the U.S.??
? My experience is that it doesn't really matter what company you
are buying from ("whose name is on the box") - they all have sold
their souls for the reduced cost (fictional?) of having someone
else do the engineering (physical, electronical, OR software).
? We, the buyers/hobbyists, are left with having to live with whatever
product is available.? Often that means putting in an order before
that particular model has ever been seen or reviewed (small
batches of a particular model for a particular roadname).
? And that means we get 'caught' ... from time to time ... with
incorrect details, wrong resistors, inflexible SW, "no longer
available/sold out", etc.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?- Jim
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Sam, if I was in your position I'd remove the Athearn board, buy a Decoder Buddy board, and go from there.? You can reuse your 21 pin decoder on the Decoder Buddy and it has the proper resistors for the LEDs. I rarely trust factory boards and often the Decoder Buddy is not as long, allowing more space for a keep alive and bigger speakers! Craig Zeni
Cary, NC
Despatched from my infernal Android
Craig,
If I make a mistake I admit it and they wouldn't get a email asking them to replace their oversight. I would order a new board and be done with it.?
On Wed, May 12, 2021, 9:58 AM Craig Zeni < clzeni@...> wrote: This, to be clear, is crap.? What a lousy policy.
Craig Zeni Cary NC
Here is their reply to my email.......I've included the attachment they sent aswell.?
If the product has aftermarket decoder installed the warranty becomes void. The Horizon Hobby/Athearn warranty is no longer valid when any modification (refer to attachment) to the product outside of factory assembly is administered. This includes the installation of a decoder whether it is in the form of a board or plug.? It is encouraged customers test out locomotive lighting outputs before installing aftermarket decoders to determine if any faults are in the product.?
Sincerely,
Horizon Hobby
I'm with you Paul. That's really poor on their part.
--
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Horizon is not Athearn, call Athearn direct.? They are not listed
in Horizon's list of supported brands.
Chris
On 5/12/2021 7:50 AM, Sam Robinson
wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Here is their reply to my email.......I've
included the attachment they sent aswell.?
If the product
has aftermarket decoder installed the warranty becomes
void. The Horizon Hobby/Athearn warranty is no longer
valid when any modification (refer to attachment) to the
product outside of factory assembly is administered.
This includes the installation of a decoder whether it
is in the form of a board or plug.? It is encouraged
customers test out locomotive lighting outputs before
installing aftermarket decoders to determine if any
faults are in the product.?
Sincerely,
Horizon
Hobby
I'm with you Paul.
That's really poor on their part.
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Where in all of this has the dealer the model was purchased been involved?
I am a Horizon dealer and ONLY sell trains.? When there is a problem with a model, I call my sales rep at Horizon and soon after receive the part(s) to rectify the problem.
Simple!
Calling for boycotts is a stupid knee jerk reaction that will accomplish nothing.? If your dealer won't help you, there is where you boycott as they are the ones taking your money and not serving you.
I have yet to be denied assistance by Horizon on any Athearn part needed.
Tom
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McLean Depot
266 E Dixie Rd
PO Box 266
McLean IL 61754
mcleandepot.com
309-244-5900
M-F 10-6
Sat 10-5
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I'm not trying to call out anyone, or point a finger of blame . . . . but this is how I'm summing up this whole thread:
A guy buys a locomotive made by "A" and sold through "B" and immediately starts changing electronic things in it.? The guy doesn't like the outcome of his changes and wants "A" or "B" to fix it.? "A" and "B" have stated and written policies about this type
of request.? The guy is pissed because "A" or "B" stand by their policies and won't do anything for the guy.? The guy wants everyone to support him and boycott "A" and "B" for their lack of customer service.? Sorry guy, look in the mirror and you'll see the
responsible party.? He's the one that needs to fix things.
George?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Where in all of this has the dealer the model was purchased been involved?
I am a Horizon dealer and ONLY sell trains.? When there is a problem
with a model, I call my sales rep at Horizon and soon after receive the
part(s) to rectify the problem.
Simple!
Calling for boycotts is a stupid knee jerk reaction that will accomplish
nothing.? If your dealer won't help you, there is where you boycott as
they are the ones taking your money and not serving you.
I have yet to be denied assistance by Horizon on any Athearn part needed.
Tom
--
McLean Depot
266 E Dixie Rd
PO Box 266
McLean IL 61754
mcleandepot.com
309-244-5900
M-F 10-6
Sat 10-5
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Okay folks, let's wrap up this thread.? The problem has been identified and a few solutions offered.? Time to move on.
Allan Gartner
Wiring for DCC
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I agree Alan. I was in no way asking the group to boycott Athearn and never would.?
On Wed, May 12, 2021, 2:52 PM wirefordcc < bigboy@...> wrote: Okay folks, let's wrap up this thread.? The problem has been identified and a few solutions offered.? Time to move on.
Allan Gartner
Wiring for DCC
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Craig Zeni
Jim Betz