Hello everybody out there. I am new at this forum, and having a lot of questions about the mobstat, I hope that some of you will be able to make a summary of what is known about it. I have found a lot of usefull information here, but it takes some time to surf around, and it still leaves me with questions. ( Hopefully not only me! )
Questions like: If 2 mobstats connected as master/slave "talks" on a CAN-bus, it should be possible to connect many more slaves, IF you know the schematics of the wires? ( I don't. ) And: If you know the protocol of the CAN-bus, shouldn't it be possible to connect a PC or PLC to this bus? By converting RS-485? How?
I hope this is not too much to ask!

Per.

Welcome to the forum Purellum.

Hello again, and thank you for the velcome's.
Lars: Under the topic "The new Märklin protocol", started by YOU!, I fonud the information about CAN-bus in Mobstat. Reading about the CAN on the mighty internet, I learned that one item "talking" on the bus keeps all other to shut up, meaning that there is no master! One mobstat being master is, as I see it, only related to power.
Franciscohg: The point of more mobstats is more people playing on the same layout, on the same time! ( On the CS it is posible. ) Driving Maxi it is interesting to me , since my layout is planned to be big!!!
I have 5 mobstats already, and I wouldn't mind doing the test, but I don't even know what color wire does what yet.

Thank you

Per.

Hallo again.
I did some tests, and here is the results in short:
A master mobstat uses about 170_mA.
A slave mobstat uses about 35_mA.
I allso hooked up some big resistors, just to the limit of my 1,9_A mobstat, that gave me 1,75_A on the amperemeter!
And here comes the bad part: The voltage on the tracks is about 18,6_V with no load, and about 11,0_V with full load!!! THIS IS NOT GOOD!!! ( Better buy a big booster! )
And to the master/slave issue:
With 1 master and 1 slave, if you take the slave of the bus, the display goes: NO MASTER.
With 1 master and 2 slaves, one of the slaves goes: NO MASTER.
With 2 masters and 1 slave, the slave gets confused, and react partly to both masters. The masters ignore each other.
So, next question from me: How does a mobstat react when connected as slave to a CS? Like a slave or "its own master"?

Thank you.

Per.

How do you get 2 masters?

By cutting of the connectors, and then connecting the wires. I did not connect the output-wires of one of the masters, in order not to make any shortcuts.
BTW, cutting of the connectors was done because I find the M* connectors way too bad. RJ45 will be the solution for me.

Per.

How did it work with only two masters and no slave? The masters ignored each other.
Can you put a scheme of the connections? No, but I can try to tell:
There are 8 wires going to the mobstat.
On a single master that is:
The green wire supply positive power from the uglybox
The blue wire supply negative power from the uglybox
The black wire is power output, that becomes the red wire after the uglybox
The amber wire is power output, that becomes the brown wire after the uglybox
When a slave is added:
The violet from the master goes to the violet of the slave ( BUS )
The yellow from the master goes to the yellow of the slave ( BUS )
The brown from the master goes to the brown of the slave
The red from the master goes to the red and the blue of the slave ( The brown and red from the master carries a voltage of 21,5_V_DC, with the brown being the positive. )
Beware: The colors of the wires in the "7 to 10" pole connection cable are not the same as the colors of the wires in the mobstat-cable!!!

I hope that this makes sense, otherwise, ask again!!! ( I don't mind making a scheme, it's just a lot of work, and I am allergic )

Per.

Some sense.......
For making two masters......scheme please :) : It gives no meaning to connect two masters, since you can only connect one of them to the tracks, and they don't communicate on the CAN-bus. I only tried this to see, if they could talk on the bus, and they can not. In other words, what I tried did not work, I only talk about two masters because the mobstats both think they are masters. Making a scheme is just a risk for me to have somebody make tests with their equipment that could be very expencive. So you see, I have allready changed my mind, I do mind making a scheme!

Keep the pot boiling.

Per.

Glad we had it sorted out. If your needs are, that one man with two master mobstats controls 20 trains, it can be done by switching between the two mobstats on the output line, but this way only one mobstat can be used at a time. Trains running will keep running, even if you switch to another mobstat. Seeing my power measurements, I think it will be irrelevant without a booster.
I may now have confused a lot of people!

Per.

Could a Digital Guru modify [}:)] the MS software - thus more slaves were possible ?

Just like your signature [:p], Per