DCC decoder performance

[ColinB]

I have for a while suspected that certain DCC decoders work better with poor signals from the track. I was testing out a Hornby Fowler 4P that I recently bought secondhand. My usual choise of decoder is a Zimo, but I have some old different types I have taken out of locos that I have converted to TTS decoders. I won't mention the decoders name (it wasn't a Hornby or a LaisDCC), but I put it in the 4p and the loco ran terribly stopping at points and really only going well at full speed. So I changed it to a Bachmann, it became an entirely different loco, ran at much lower speeds, didn't stop at points, runs really well. I had already stopped buying the previous type of decoder, really only buying it to fit in an Adams loco (which it didn't anyway), but it was just a surprise that two decoders would behave so differently. Needless to say long term it will be a Zimo as the Bachmann is a bit big to fit in the space and I have never had any issues with these. I probably will use the suspect decoder for lighting in the non powered end of a DMU.