One of the cool things with the Central Station is the ability to program the digital decoders of the locomotives. The central stations has a extensive menu for programming MFX and Märklin Motorola decoders.

When adding a locomotive manually using the the "New Locomotive / Enter manually" menu one is able to choose between "Märklin Motorola" and "Function Decoder". No MFX choice ofcause as a MFX locomotive selfregisters Anybody know what the "Function decoder" is

The fun starts when one tries to re-program the decoder using the "Edit Locomotive". Then one is able to set the address. But, the interesting part is on the "Advanced" tab button "left-hand" last choice with the "hammer and wrench", where the "Special Options" are found

Let me look at three cases:
1. Märklin 39340 - With FX decoder according to the catalogue
2. Märklin 36821 - With FX decoder according to the catalogue
3. Roco 63063 - With ESU LokSound

<u>Case 1: Märklin 39340 - With FX decoder according to the catalogue</u>
Cool locomotive, but very boring when trying to program ;-) Address, max speed, and acceleration/braking delay are all set by hardware switches/dials [:(] Didn't spend much time on this one - does anybody know if it has any "hidden" options which are cool to play with

<u>Case 2: Märklin 36821 - With FX decoder according to the catalogue</u>
One would think that this is as boring as the 39340 locomotive, but with this one it is possible to access the "CV registers" directly - the following are documented:
CV 01 - address
CV 03 - Acceleration/braking delay
CV 05 - Max speed
CV 08 - Reset (enter the value 8)

So this one can actually be programmed! Cool, but no more features than the 39340 - but at least they can be programmed. Note that register numbers are skipped - does this mean that hidden registers can be accessed Did anybody try this

<u>Case 3: Roco 63063 - With ESU LokSound</u>
Jubiii - this one is interesting! The ESU LokSound supports both DCC and Motorola format. According to the LokSound manual provided with the locomotive the following registers are programmable:
CV1 - Address
CV2 - Starting Voltage
CV3 - Acceleration time
CV4 - Braking time
CV5 - Max speed
CV6 - Average speed
CV8 - Reset (enter the value 8)
CV29 - Combined settings (direction, speed steps, and analogue)
CV49 - Combined settings 2 (load control, and ?)
CV50 - Analog mode (AC/DC analogue on/off)

Compare this to case 2 (36821) - the registers 1, 3, 5, and 8 are the same... Now, when I try to program the LokSound I can tell that nothing succeeds!! It seems like the decoder does not accept any reprogramming [xx(] Rumbling through the manuals for this locomotive I found a mapping table from DCC/NMRA CV register number to Motorola register number yielding the following table:


I only tried to program register CV29 (DCC), which is CV22 (Motorola) and it actually worked [:0] Can anybody explain to me why I need to map the register numbers to be able to re-program the registers on the Central Station Furthermore, I would like to reprogram CV23 (DCC) - what is the mapped Motorola register number for this one

<u>Conclusions</u>
<ul>
<li> The Central station does register programming </li>
<li> What are the decoder differences between case 1 (39340) and case 2 (36821)??? Both marked as Märklin FX in catalogue, but they are clearly different? </li>
<li> Register programming ESU LokSound means that the CV register number must be mapped</li>
</ul>

Final question - does anybody know if Uhlenbrock or other decoders can be programmed through the Central Station using tricks similar to the ESU LokSound mapping trick

Just tried to alter the address of two Uhlenbrock decoders (76420 in a Heljan locomotive and 76520 in a PIKO locomotive) - no success! How does one change Uhlenbrock decoder addresses with the Central Station? Anyone?

Not a problem!

You stated that the Blue Tiger has a loksound decoder - that means you should be able to use the mapping stated in case 3 above. Please note, that for a LokSound decoder I could not change the address using the CV01 register. I managed to change the address on the basic "Edit Locomotive" tab!

Jubiiii - finally figured this out - it is soooo simple [:I] Just do as when programming with the MS!!! You just have to do it on the regular track (NOT the programming track) with the locomotive to program as the only locomotive on the track!!!!! I kept on trying on the programming track thinking that all decoders are programmed on the programming track - WRONG [}:)]

Hence, I succeded in programming the Uhlenbrock 76420. To change the address from the default 3 to 6 I did the following:

1. Put the locomotive on the regular track as the only locomotive (any other locomotive on the track might also react to this, which you do not want!)

2. Create a new locomotive with the address of the locomotive to program (a new locomotive has address 3 by default) This is done with:

<ul><li>Select New lomotive / Enter manually</li><li>Assign address to 3</li><li>Accept by hitting the checkmark</li></ul>

3. Turn on the light

4. Hit change direction 5 times (until the loc flashes four times with the lights slowly)

5. Edit locomotive and enter the CV register you wanna change in the address box - in this case we wanna change the address (CV01), so enter 1 in the address box and accept by hitting the checkmark.

6. Hit change direction once (the loc flashes four times with the lights fast)

7. Edit locomotive and enter the value for the chosen CV register - in this case I wanna change the address to 6, so enter 6 in the address box and accept by hitting the checkmark.

8. Hit change direction once (the loc flashes four times with the lights slowly)

9. Hit the emergency stop ("STOP") button.

...and viola - the new address is now 6