In my experience the documentation from Märklin for the CS2 and CS3 only hints at all of the operational possibilities. To learn about the very coolest things that you can do requires a lot of forum reading and asking questions. There are very few "CSx for the Complete Dummy" books out there and it is more or less up to you to figure it all out. Märklin frequently does good tutorial articles in their Magazine though, which can be an excellent source of information too.

For me, figuring out that part is fun but I can understand why some people just want it to work and don't want to spend valuable MRR time doing that kind of thing. I think that there are just too few of us for it to make economic sense to publish that kind of info, except online in forums and blogs.

But the knowledge is out there, it is just not easy to access quickly and without a good bit of effort on your part. I think that this forum will be a better source of CS3 information after there are more of them out there in user's hands.

I have gotten a lot of very valuable help here - thanks to many kind and informed forum members.

I hope that everyone has a really great Christmas holiday this year!

The 49960 seems to be really a historic wagon - from 1998.

Have a look here
49960 Maerklin test coach

Here is a post from a German community, where it is described the rebuilding of the decoder. It says that the original Maerklin decoder does only understand the MM1 format. So it is not usable for a MS2, etc. So they built in a new other decoder and let now the wagon run under the DCC format.

Rebuilding Maerklin 49960 test wagon

Jukka, because you are a computer specialist, here another homepage rebuilding the test car with PDF files for the circuit diagram.

homepage with links to circuit diagrams

Sorry that all sides are only in German, but hopefully I could help you with the pictures and diagrams. So you do not have to wait for an Maerklin CS 3 update, which will never come. Please do not ask me, but somewhere I read about the CS 3, that Maerklin is fully aware and on its way to cancel more and more the downgrade capabilities of its new digital items. The only solution then will be a change of the decoders and/or controlling instruments.

Good Morning

Thank you all for your answers. I really am sorry and ashamed, of course I know what kind of contacts those are which I yesterday asked .

I must not work so hard and try to think so log time strait and then ask something stupid.

Now it is clear to me ( or at least I think so) that in new CS3 device make possible to create more complicated routes.

Now I will make some examples ( routes) starting simplest and gradually make more complicated and after they work OK I will publish them all here in this forum.

The "Meswagen business" is after I have some results from my studies

Thank you all . . .

Regards

Jukka

The TFP is actually the firmware that lives in the 60174/60175 boosters. In the CS2 the TFP also lived in the CS2's internal software, but this has been changed with the CS3, and that has different internal track control software from the boosters.

I have found on my (computer-controlled) layout that the latest booster TFP (version 3.54 at the moment) from the CS3 works very well with the CS2. It has fixed all of the irritating mfx issues that the CS2 used to have. I can't use the CS3 to control my layout, because the computer interface isn't supported yet, so I have a combination of CS2 with its current software version, and boosters with TFP 3.54.

Every time I power up the CS2, it wants to downgrade the booster TFP firmware, but I have to cancel that for each booster (twice) as part of the start-up procedure for my layout.

Nigel

answer to post #7 of this topic

Software update process for a CS 3:

If you press the left red knob and the STOP-bar at the same time for several seconds, you start an update process. Of course your CS 3 had to be connected to the internet via a router first. Otherwise you only get error messages.

Please be patient, because the screen is getting black, although before a message bar occurs for half a second (idiotic short - did not found out to get it longer on screen) and then it looks like the CS 3 has shut down. But it is not. Because after a while in the upper left corner of the screen a small white windows occurs. It tells you three different steps for an SW-update. These steps you can follow on screen. But the finish with the ending message is so quick again, that you cannot read it.

When it has the update finished, it returns to the former regular CS 3 screen.

If you want to see your versions, go to

"System - info" (down left right corner in the left window)

or

"system - system/settings - scroll down the screen till "info" occurs. There you see your hard- and software versions and your device number. Under "System/Settings" you find a lot of other buttons for restart, shut down, saving, etc.

Maerklin recommends to end your sessions by using the shutdown button. No idea why.



Today (2016-12-17) after my last update try, it shows me a software version 1.1.0 (3).

Whereas Jukka has on his screen shots a version 1.1.1 (Beta 2) - see post #29 (2016-12-10). Obviously not everybody gets the same updates. So we have to be aware, by which software version we are testing and reporting. This might causes differences.


P.S.: please do not hesitate to inform me about writing and/or language errors for correction. - TEEWolf