For a friend:


Hi All,

For some time I have been trying on and off (casually in those spare
moments
when I wasn't doing something more important to build the layout) to get my
old digital
controllers (6021 system) to control trains when connected to a Central
station - version
one. ie in sniffer mode. And I and my more
knowledgeable friends could never get this to work. The controllers lit up
and flashed 99 at the beginning as they were meant to and the Central unit
had its small red light going as it should. So in every way they looked
like they were working but
they just didn't seem to be "talking" to the trains. ie when we put a train
number in that train just didn't do anything. Once we found a slightly
loose
connection and tightening this seemed to solve the problem (so it wasn't
totally true
about what I said before - once they did work.) However at a later date
when
I tried to operate them they weren't working again.

So recently we looked for loose connections again (might have found one)
and
eventually after much fiddling got a train to go. Hooray this was
wonderful.
So we tried another train and strangely it just sat there- dead, refusing
to obey
commands. This just didn't make sense. One train was working but others
weren't. We were baffled until one (very brilliant in my opinion) person
said he thought this was because the digital controllers could only respond
to
the first 4 or 5 locos that were put into the CS. We have since
experimented
and this seems to be the case. I had assumed that all 80 locos could be
controlled - ie the number that the old digital controllers could handle.
But they seem to be restricted to 4 or 5 when acting as a slave to the CS.
I
can currently control 4 in this way and am still trying more locos out to
see if thus can be increased to 5 or even more.

What I wanted to know is if this is correct what my friend thinks. To my
knowledge Marklin has never stated this and it is something I have never
heard
of from anywhere. My friend said that the mobile stations are
also restricted in the same way - to about 10 locos and the newer version
to 30.
Marklin never seems to talk about the negative aspects of their products
which to me can be very annoying (it is the only thing I find annoying
about
Marklin) as you are left to find out many things for yourself which can be
very time consuming.

If this is correct I also wanted to broadcast this fact on the B&G so others
would know about it and so would also not have to waste their time in
finding this out for themselves.

If this is true is there any way the number of locos can be increased from 4
or 5? It seems a very small amount and a very small positive to have as a
reason for keeping all of my old controllers and not selling them. When
Marklin talks about this sniffer and slave facility it sounds like a very
useful thing to be able to do, not something that can control only 4 trains
no matter how many controllers you might have lined up before you.

Thank you.

Hi Tom,all!

>My friend said that the mobile stations are also restricted in the same way - to about 10 locos and the newer version to 30.It's 10 with MS1, 11 with MS2 and old firmware, 40 with MS2 and new firmware.

I never seriously used the sniffer port of my CS1, but I hope it'll work with more than 5 locos. Maybe I can give it a try this weekend.
But my CS1 has firmware 3.4 installed. Which software does your CS1 have?<

Many thanks Tom and a few biers This was posted on the M B&G Yahoo! mailing list,as the fool I am,I got permission to post it here and get the -guru's- to help!

BTW:I am DCC all-the-way!

Yours,Dr D

Hi Tom,all,
>My CS1 does DCC - both on the sniffer port and the track output.
For locos that do not support DCC I use inferior protocols like MM or mfx ...

A CU 6021 connected to an IB can control DCC locos. Same for the CS1 sniffer port.<

I know!Since 1996,...

Dr D

Hi Tom,all,



The address to the 'sniffer' ports?

Dr D