As many of you know, I recently purcahsed the Marklin 29500 mega starter set, which includes, among other goodies,
a 60214 CS2.

After using the CS2 as a basic train controller, one of the features I was keen to explore was the ability to connect a CS1 to the CS2 as a remote controller, via the ethernet connection.


I connected the CS1 via the ethernet connection as per the instructions in the setup screen. I was able to control locos from the CS1, but not solenoids - all other screens were locked out. I don't know if that is normal or not.

I was also able to load the loco and solenoid definitions from the CS1 to the CS2.

After a while I noticed the touchscreen on the CS2 was no longer working. The mouse, loco control knobs and stop button were working, but over time they stopped working as well - I accidentally disabled the mouse cursor (bad move!), but the others seems to happen because of a fault.


The CS1 is partially working, I can adjust speed for locos, but nothing happens at the track output, i.e. the locos
do not move.

The CS2 boots up, but does not respond to the touchscreen, speed control knobs or the stop button. The only thing it responds to is pressing the loco select button, but after that nothing else will respond. The physical function keys for locos also do not respond.

This is after several shutdown and reboots of the CS2 - I now can't even access the Shutdown menu.


The CS2 is a 60214 at software version 1.3.0 (1).

As you can appreciate, I don't really want to have to sent them both 12000 miles back to the Lokshop, so if anyone has any suggestions, or knows of a backdoor way to reset both controllers, I'd appreciate your advice.

At the end of the day, I'm not trying to do something the units are not designed to do. This is a documented feature, and should work without anything breaking. If this is the state of Marklin's software testing, then they need a kick up the bum!

By my current experience, the CS2 is a piece of crap, buyers should stay well clear of it, especially if you already have a CS1/Ecos. Not only has it crapped itself, it has also crapped my CS1 for good measure.

I've got one in the mail from Lokshop as well, I hope mine doesn't do this.

Did the problems only start after plugging the two units together? and does separating them help at all? perhaps downloading the update for the CS2 will force it into a system reboot, might help.

TRY doing it via the web browser.

Thay may get you around some tricky road bloackages.

NN

Have you tried the hard reset option using the three or four buttons?? You lose all your locos, but you get back the CS2..

Nope, but that sounds promising. What buttons should be pressed? I'm not too worried about the loco configs.

Try to access from the web browser and do a factory reset on the CS1, it worked for me, from what I understood when happened it was not able to load the loco database anymore and I suspected a corruption of it.
This will probably fix only the CS1, though...

Darn, its been a long time since a CS2 has caused a major problem. I was hoping it would keep up its track record of being less problematic over the buggy CS1

I don't have a CS2, but I heard you can make an USB memory stick with a repair version:
Description here (German only):
http://www.maerklin.de/f...;sb=5&o=&fpart=1

You need a memory stick that contains only 2 files in the root directory: stick.sh and reparatur.sh (supplied as attachment in the link given above, directories may exist on the stick).

Instructions: Insert the stick, turn CS2 on, wait up to 5 minutes for completion of the program, then select "Shutdown" and remove the stick.

XXUP mentioned the three-finger-salute - you should try that first, of course.

Marklin doesn't pay too much attention to foreign langage spoken customers. As a French speaking customer that's my main reproach to them...A lot of informations are never translated in any language...

Another plus of CS1 Reloaded, the emergency boot is included with the upgrade.

Thanks for your reply Tom. What is the key combination for the 3 finger salute - 2 red knobs + the Stop bar??

Thanks Thomas. It will be either that, or kicking the cr@p out of it (metaphorically speaking of course)!

They run not too bad, I guess I should post some piccies I took of them in the other thread.

Hey, I already got a perfectly working 6021!

Hi David,

Sorry to hear its not going well for you. I'm sure Clapcott has used units like this, did he have any ideas?

Cheers....

Mike.

Just a few minutes ago, I had wished you "years of enjoyment" with your new purchase, David. Now, what shit is this from Maerklin? Maybe, Ian was right when he said, "You'll have hours of enjoyment with it".

I hope that there is a quick fix for this problem, and all your locomotive settings are fully restored.


Cheers,
Ranjit

Well, I tried the recovery procedure as mentioned in Tom's post - the two .sh files are Linux shell script files by the look of them, you can open them in a text editor.

At any rate, the CS2 just booted up into it's (ab)normal state, although the flash drive light did flicker for a while.

Not sure if I'm meant to set the CS2 to boot off a USB flash drive, but if so I can't because the touchscreen is not working.

Looks like it is back to the Lokshop with it, and also the CS1, which also has no touchscreen input. The CS1 originally came from the Lokshop, although at 5 years old, will be out of warranty. I'll send an email to Roland Baer tonight.

At least I've got my trusty 6021, and a MS1 and MS2 to play with meantime.

Unfortunately not Thomas. The CS2 does not have a web page to manage it from, and the CS1 has been reset, so no longer has a static TCPIP address, and it is not picking up an address from a DHCP server.

And, because neither are responding to touchscreen input, nothing else can be done with them.


BTW, my workmate has been busy translating your Trix conversion pdf document. He's having one or two problems with some of the technical terms, and the fact that the language used is very formal, much different to how Germans normally speak.

Thomas, it will depend on whether the problems are hardware or software related. If the touchscreens are faulty, then they will need fixing. Otherwise a software reload may be required. The CS1 seems OK software wise, so it may be a case of the screen failing.


As far as the translation goes, that will be the objective.

It seems too much of a coincidence that both CS1 and CS2 touschreens both failed at the same time as the units crashed.
Sounds like a software issue to me.
Really sucks:(

Was there ever a definitive answer on the correct procedure for this?

David,

Does he understand that the screen is blank? How are you supposed to see the CS2 setup menu?

Yup I missed that, thanks. Shame the eCos reset does not work.

I did think of that Dennis, but the gap seems to be too big - the keyboard tab is at the extreme left, the setup tab is 2nd from the right.

Edit: However, using Dennis' suggestion did help with obtaining the final fix.


I have been using the CS2 in the lounge, there are one or two Marklin transformers there. I also have a pair of Martin Logan electrostatic loudspeakers in the lounge, and they were powered on on Sunday......hmmm there's a thought. The CS2 was about 2 metres away from the nearest speaker, I wouldn't have thought the ML's would produce that large a magnetic field, but there has to be some reason for both CS's to go nuts at the same time.

Edited by user 17 September 2010 15:59:34(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Good news. Trains are now running again in the Bigdaddynz house, due in no small part to the Tom's - Dr Tom Catherall and H0 Tom.

As per H0 Tom's suggestion, I connected a USB keyboard to the CS2. That and the limited touchscreen functionality meant I was able to recalibrate the screen (which also re-enabled the mouse), and then use the reset marklin.tgz process Dr Tom mentioned. So, the CS2 is back to normal operation. That leaves the 60212 CS1.