My measurement car - Marklin 49960 has recently been giving me incorrect measurements. I'm only using the car to measure the length of tracks. I conducted a test program and in summary I came up with these results.

All the distances were short by 86 to 87% e.g. 80cm measured by a tape, showed 69cm on the car; and 110cm showed 96cm on the car.

Does anyone know why this is occurring and is there a solution?

Regards
Greg

Hi, Greg!
Just a wild guess: maybe your measurement car has acquired "traction tyres" (accumulated dirt on the wheels) and needs some TLC and wheel cleaning.

I checked the wheels and they are fairly clean.

Does anyone know how the car picks up the measurement - there's a "thingy" on the axle of one wheel that has 4 flat surfaces - it rotates and must send some signal to a device that records the distance. I borrowed a car from a friend and he's is in almost new condition and I did the same test with the same results. Does this mean ALL the cars are faulty ???!!!!

I suspect there is an optical or magnetic sensor that detects the rotation of that 4-sided feature of the one wheel. So it sounds like the wheel can detect approximately every 1/4 or 1/2 rotation of a wheel. Thus its not very accurate at very short distance.

Does the car have a setting capability to calibrate the sensor system? I'd think with metal wheels they would be closer than being off by 14% but maybe that was within the promised accuracy of the cars?

Thanks Adrian. How did you measure the distance? The way I measured the distances was to set the front of the wagon at the beginning of the tape measure and move the wagon to say 90cm to the front of the wagon and check the readout. It's strange that the 2 wagons I tested read identically and yours read correctly. Minok suggested to see if there was a calibration setting, however, there's nothing in the manual to suggest this. Adrian, please have a look at the wheel under the wagon that has the 4 flat sections - does each section have a silvery foil on it? Mine has the foil damaged on 2 of the sections - this might be the problem.

Regards
Greg

But you were hiding in the train room !!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Regards,

Philip

To be honest it looks like solder. One of the other plates sees to have a wire embedded.

Can you just buy the part?

There will be a reflective opto-sensor above the wheel, and as each of these foils go past the electronics will register a count.

To replace the pieces of foil, I would look at using cooking foil, and gluing it on with either double sided sellotape or cynoacrylite 'instant glue'. Either way will be a messy and fiddly job, but needs must.

Actually thinking about the application process, I think I would wind one piece of foil around the axle with glue under it, then after the glue has set use a scalpel, and slice along the edges of the flat pieces then peel off the bits you don't want.

Of course, the way Marklin will have done it is to use foil tape that already has glue on one side.

Hi Greg,

The three items are magnets and the silver coating is some sort of protective coating.

On my measurement car there isn't any silver coating left.

I have just tested mine over a 2 metre distance and the results on the readout is spot on.

If the measurement is coming up short I would say the wheel isn't rotating enough and you are getting the wheel to slide on the track.

Check the axle lubrication and also that the ground collector spring hasn't too much tension on the axle.

PS. There are only 3 magnets.

Edited by user 13 September 2016 02:56:59(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yep.. I found your original post Stephen.

https://www.marklin-users.net/forum/yaf_postst20627_49960-Mebwagon-not-reading-speed.aspx

BTW my dealer reports that the part is still available from Marklin - I have ordered two of them.

Hi Fellas,

I sat down, took a deep breath and read the manual. Funny what you learn when you carefully read the manual. This time I had F1 & F3 turned on and I got the correct reading.

Hence the name DRONGO (Google has a good definition for this Australian slang word)

Thanks for all your help, regards

Greg

Hi Greg,

Please read 49960 and 49961 Icons

I thought I had supplied the measurement car '*.yrl" file to you but if I haven't you will be able to download it from the article.

It explains how I set up the controls for the measurement cars to be used with TrainController.

Edited by user 01 January 2025 05:40:58(UTC)  | Reason: Link corrected 01-01-2025

I bought this car for £70
It is in perfect conditions but .... this is what I found out using the EcoS

1) contrary to what is written in the manual the pantograph is dead and there are no current conducting couplers. No way to check if it is at all connected due to item 5) below;
2) the address I had to set is 75, not really immediate to detect. Plus not having a motor, or otherwise a load, it can't detect the address;
3) the decoder has to be set to Motorola Fx 14 otherwise it doesn't react to any of the F buttons;
4) speed detection is a bit erratic. The speedometer car I made myself was more consitent and precise for a fracton of the price :-)
5) the instructions say that opening the carriage is 'easy'. The heck it is!!! I managed to get the two door frames off not without noticing that they do not simply pull out and that they are not inserted identically in the holes. Once they are out there is no way to remove the frame as you need another pair of hands and something to wedge betweeen the yellow frame and the chassis of the coach. Poor design;

Will have to check the wheel with the sensor when I have a bit more time though. Mine has 3 silvery sections, still.

All in all an object that at the time was probably expensive for a pointless return as it does today.
None other than a curiosity of a bygone era, the beggining of digital trains, more or less.