Electronic Solutions Ulm/Statement Regarding Multifunction Decoder failures

From a statement published on the ESU forums:

06.12.23

Thanks for you explaining your situation and sorry for the late reply. We found that some LokSound 5 decoders we produced at the beginning of 2023 have been used a power supply IC that was not up to our standards, either a fake or "B grade" component. If the component fails, the MCU will not be powered, thus the decoder fails. While extensive testing was done in our lab, we were not able to make the decoders fail. Unfortunately a small portion of these decoders have failed in the field. The failure has nothing to do with the locomotive, the programming process, nor the decoder firmware used. The component may never even fail which we have found is the vast majority.

ESU continues to stand behind its products and our industry leading 2-year ‘no questions’ asked warranty applies of course. Every customer can send decoders to our ESU LLC office for replacement directly. Please note that OEM decoders must be exchanged under the warranty of the OEM manufacturer.

The chip crisis has been hard on the industry as a whole but is recovering. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue and want to thank you for your strong support. Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Ihr ESU Support Team