Just bought gp7 and it has a chip taped to the plastic sleve. Checked and it looks like it allready has a chip installed. What is it for?
It sounds like your GP already has a decoder installed. and what you think is a chip a is a blank plug. If you pull the decoder your locomotive will not run on dcc or dc. If you install the blank plug the locomotive will now run only on DC.
i can confirm that the chip is a dummy plug. while it is possible to run a dcc locomotive on dcc, the decoder will eat up half the voltage leaving you with very sluggish performance. the dummy plug replaces the decoder plugged into the pc board, and restores full performance on dc.
ok dummy. I couldn't remember what the dummy plug was called. I guess my age is beginning to show.