Hello All,

I am new to the forum and have just gotten back into Marklin after almost 25 years. I have gone straight digital control including the use of the CS3 Plus.
My problem/question is that when I connect back to my CS3 Plus from another device such as computer or IOS device the Marklin C3 Web interface appears to be an older version. There is no place to accept the license agreement or properly activate the web interface such as the control/command button that should be appear in the upper righthand corner of the screen. I have watched the August 2021 video from Rick and Curtis, but I am not getting the same screen. I also have had to use :8080 at the end of my internal IP address to get through to the server.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Frank

Hi Frank

Welcome to this great forum.
With the CS3, there are many ways to connect to computer / phone devices using an internet connection

Regarding IOS (iPhones, iPads), there was apps called "Main Station" and "Mobile Stations" released around 2008 to drive the CS2.
They are not available any more because the "LAYOUT" part isn't working on CS3, but all the rest is working.
There are newer apps (Google) to drive the CS3.

The CS3 has also a Webserver interface (you use your own web browser such as Chrome, Edge,.. you type the IP address of your CS3 and you get this

This interface is static and you may see / load loco icons, check web cams hooked to the CS3, etc

Another way of connecting the CS3 is to load on your PC a VNC Viewer (free application).
This VNC Viewer allows you to get a full remote control of the CS3: The CS3 screen is displayed on your PC and the mouse actions and "clicks" are transferred to the CS3. Drawback: the pointer position is not the same as to pointer on the CS3
To have VNC work, you need to insert the CS3 IP address followed by :5900 (Example my CS3 IP address is 192.168.0.23 so the VNC address is 192.168.0.23:5900)
So not sure I have answered your question.

What PC are you using?

What is the software version on your CS3? The last one is the V2.3.1(8)

If you use the last CS3 version, are you in the STANDARD or SIMPLIFIED mode?
Here is the CS3 screen where you select the mode.

The simplified mode may restrict access to many fonctions

Cheers
Jean

Thanks for the suggestion. I have upgraded to the latest version. But, I will double check

Hello Jean, this is great information, I will use this to troubleshoot, Thanks!

It seems that you are probably using the wrong port, don't use :8080, but only :80.

I tested myself (on pc) with 8080 and also got the "old style" pages, so try forcing your browser to use pot 80.
Personally, I find that Chrome works best, but that's on pc..... :)

If you are using a web browser you don't need the port number. This may be what is causing the problem. Just put in the IP address assigned to your CS3 in the browser URL (address) window.

You only need the port number when connecting with VNC. The Catch 22 is that you need to start the screen server software in the CS3 first before you can connect with VNC. You need to connect with a web browser to start the "Bildschrim Server".

Edit added: I'm using MacOS and iOS too and have no problem connecting.

2nd edit added: Sometimes it can be difficult to find the scroll bar to get to the bottom of the pages where the license agreement acknowledgements are. This is a problem I've run across before particularly with my iPhone.

3rd edit added: You are physically connecting via your internet router's local area net right? Your CS3 network connection cable needs to be plugged into same router that assigned the CS3 its IP address. Your computer/iPhone(s) need to be connected to this router too either physically or wirelessly. The CS3 does not have built-in wireless capability, it must be physically connected to one of RJ45 network jacks on your router. (Do NOT try plugging your computer directly into the CS3. You may eventually get a direct connection to work but the additional complexity and networking knowledge needed is quite simply not worth the effort!)

Thanks for the recommendation!

Still troubleshooting it:

1) will not go through with out adding 8080 to the IP address
2) the CS3/+directly connected to one of the LAN ports on my router
3) IP address on the CS3/+ is active
4) May be a firewall issue with my router, going through the configs
5) Not giving up :-)

OK, I just tried some things. First I cleared my browser history (Safari 15.2). Next I entered my CS3 IP address with :8080 appended (192.168.0.16:8080) in the browser URL window. I got the same pages you show. I then changed the URL address to just the IP address 192.168.0.16. This took me to the License Agreement pages. Scrolling down and accepting took me to the Electrical Warning pages all in German. Scrolling to the bottom of these pages and acknowledging then took me to the CS3 Web Interface Home Page. All the menu items here work as expected including the "Control" button on the right side of menu. I cannot duplicate the problem you are having. Note that you only need to accept the license conditions once unless you clear the browser history. The acceptance is remembered in your browser cookies. Next time you connect you are taken directly to the CS3 Web Interface Home Page. You do need to accept the license conditions once on each device you use to connect to the CS3.

Edit added: I just tried again clearing history then entering 192.168.0.16:80 in the URL. This did result in the correct License agreement page coming up. Thus, I assume :80 is the default if nothing is appended to the IP address.