Hi Tom,

I was hoping that you might have some suggestions.

Yes, the CS2 is up to date - I updated it just the day before I attempted to register this loco. Before I updated it I did a backup which captured the CS2 state before it ever saw the 26922 loco. I might restore to that point and try again and see what happens. I assume that without whatever reference the CS2 stored it might start the registration process over again.

I do have that black box between my CS2 and the layout and programming track. I had not thought about that but now that you mention it someone (maybe you) said that they could interfere with communications between a decoder and the CS2. I will remove that before I restore back and try again and if the FCC asks I will deny all knowledge. :-)

Thanks for the ideas.

No, I have not given up on them yet and I will try to call Walter next week. I have talked to him by phone in the past and maybe he will have some useful suggestions.

I plan to try registration again without the black box in place as Tom suggested. If that fails I will restore back to the CS2 save before my first try to register this loco and then attempt another registration. If that also fails I am out of ideas again unless I can find someone locally with an MS/CS.


That might work, but I really don't want to buy an MS2 since I use my tablet as my portable slave and I have no nasty wire to contend with. The display is better, it presents a nicer interface and it responds much more quickly than the CS2.

At this moment spending any more money on Märklin products is not very high on my priority list anyway. In fact I wish that I had not pre-ordered the Insider 103 last week from AJCKids. But they get back to me by email almost immediately and are winning the customer service competition hands down!

Jim,
what do you mean "without the black box"? What is this black box? Which function shall it have?
regards
TEEWolf

I think Jim means the black box that sits between the track and the CS2. It was not with the earlier CS2's but added later and has a noise reducing function.

It seems 191724 is the box needed for EU compliance. 74044 is the box for FCC compliance that came a bit earlier - and maybe it is more rigid in suppressing mfx signals.

Older CS2 that were sold without any of those boxes can still be used without them.


Good to hear your loco works without sending it back.

I bought my CS2 here in North America in December of 2015. It came with the 191724 box that Tom suggests is for EU compliance and he is seldom wrong on that kind of detail. So I have no idea why I received a 191724 instead of the 74044, but please don't mention that to the FCC!

Thanks Jim,

yes, I read about this interference suppression set (iss). But I thought it is for analogue systems applicable only? So I never took any more attention to this iss (black box).

regards

Wolfgang

It was supplied with the CS2 for use in digital operation, although as Tom points out they both say that you have to use it and that you should not use it with digital. I hardly see how I could output analog from a CS2 so they are clearly confused somewhere. If I remember correctly, the info in the package with that device said that it should be used with all digital control systems when operated in the US. Using it never caused me any trouble until this registration and it is easy enough to register things without going through the device. I have also never observed any radio frequency interference when using the CS2 without it.

How complex we humans make our world!

I have seen this mentioned a couple of times. Can you elaborate on the details of the design flaw?

And with regards to the RailCom cut outs, I assume that this issue really is a non issue because if you make true use of RailCom you would want all your locos to have it.

The problem with those cars is that by design, only the wheels on one bogie can be used for the grounding. This is related to the way the car was originally designed for two rail operation as they were a Trix design.

Check the wheels to see if a DC set of wheels have been fitted. That would make the grounding worse as then there is only grounding on one side. It could possibly be improved by swapping one axle end for end so the wheel doing the grounding is on the opposite side for that axle. Easy change to do to test.

Use an ohm meter to check the resistance between the two wheels on the same axle. If it is very low then it is not a 2 rail wheel set, but three rail.

The idea behind the Central Station is easy: you put the loco on the track, the CS reads all CVs from the loco and this takes a minute or two.
If you later want to change any CV, the dialogue opens without any delay as the CS already has a copy of all CVs.

Now run the loco on a different layout. When the loco comes back, there is no way for the CS to know that nothing has changed - and all CVs will be read again.
Delete a loco from the database - and all locos that are not on the layout at that time will be read again the next time they get contact to the CS.

The CS2 uses a different approach: to drive a loco, only the basic CVs are read and the delay is much shorter. The delay comes when you want to change CVs. Every time you want to change CVs.
You can make a test-run while still in the CV screen - and you should do that to avoid the repeated delay if you later have to make more changes.

So with both CS1 and CS2 I have to follow strange rules to avoid unnecessary delays imposed by the wonderful mfx protocol that is supposed to make things easier and save time - I consider mfx a waste of time.

A simple change counter that is triggered with every CV write would allow CS1 and CS2 to keep their local copies of the CVs in sync without reading them again and again and again ...

DCC is stupid. DCC just reads the CVs that are going to be changed. Simple, fast, efficient.

Several times I told the story of the failing mfx registration at a club meeting. After some investigation we found that a Märklin coach set with interior lights disabled mfx registration for all locos. When we put a new mfx loco onto the layout, I just put a piece of paper under the centre-rail slider of the lighted coach set. After the registration, the paper could be removed again.
Simple solution - but it takes minutes of trial and error before you come up with that simple solution.
A Märklin coach set prevents Märklin locos from registering with a Märklin controller. Great system.

You can use some locos with RailCom for automatic operation while running locos without RailCom manually. Or use RailCom for programming on main for locos that support it. Or use RailCom+ for automatic registration of newer locos while older locos are registered manually.
Are all your locos mfx? To take full advantage of mfx this should be the case ...
I have dozens of locos with DIP-switch decoders and I intend to keep them as they are - no mfx, no RailCom.
It's different if you want to take advantage of new decoder features on your layout - ABC braking or absolute braking distance come to mind. But even with that scenario you can have automatic operation with newer locos (maybe on the mainline only) and manual operation with older locos (maybe on the branchline only).