I have purchased an old 6032 which came with the wrong manual. I have some older original Marklin digital locos and some of them actually run well. I have experienced some that buzz and growl and need to be dragged into the 21st Century even after cleaning and oiling but also some such as a gauge one Kof which runs well on an Ecos with its original decoder. Also if the motor control is noisy it can be a lot easier to leave the lights and functions wired to the original decoder and piggy back a modern one for motor control alone. That and my own curiosity about how digital evolved. I remember programming ESU decoders with a 6021 and it was not the easy task a Lokprogrammer or Ecos makes it now. Although it would be nice to be able to programme different makes of sound decoder from one programmer instead of all being proprietary. The Marklin decoders look good value but that is cancelled out if you factor a new programmer and learning curve into each brand. I have Google'd and found only one instruction for the Arnold version of the 6032 in French and that was a reply to a question not a manual. It made little sense after translation to my tiny brain. I have a weakness for tinkering with older models and this weekend fitted a Loksound to an old Eurotrain BR89 gauge one model. It only takes 300ma and so the Loksound is happy and I will not run it with a huge load, just an amusing contrast to a modern Marklin one though, as it is hand made, soldered and screwed together. Lots of room in the frames for a decoder and speaker. Old enough to have glass diodes to control the lights but its big Buhler motor runs very sweetly on the decoder default settings. On the first step of 28 it takes 30 seconds for a wheel rotation but it is pleasingly silky smooth.

I think old DCC decoders were programmed in a different way to modern ones. I believe it is register or paged programming which access a small number of variables. I have a quote from Digitrax to explain my problem...

"Programming DCC Decoders

Be sure that the command station you are using is sending programming information in the right mode for the decoder you are using

Many non-Digitrax decoders use only Physical Register programming mode i.e., Registers r1, r2, r3 up to r8. [Note: this is not common with today's decoders, Ed.] If you are programming a non-Digitrax decoder with your Digitrax system, be certain that you have selected the programming mode that the decoder will understand. You won't be able to program a decoder that uses only physical register mode with paged mode and vice-versa."

I believe ESU only speaks paged mode and early Marklin is physical register programming. Which the 6032 should speak.

I know it is a bit obscure and predates the internet and everything being a PDF which makes it a big ask but it is nice to keep old tech alive and useable.

Graham

I have cracked it.

You need a 6032, Control 80, transformer and a programming track.

Put the loco on the track, press reset on the 6032 and search.

If the loco is compatible and everything is connected properly the address will be displayed.

Press stop on the Control 80, a bar appears on the 6032 display and you are ready to enter a value on the Control 80, press go and write it to the loco, it is the address.

Next press of stop and 2 bars is starting voltage, 3 is acceleration, 4 deceleration.

I believe the addresses can go up to 99 rather then 80 and the other variables 0 to 31.

If you cycle through the bars and press read the value will be displayed.

As an aside the control station which came with my 6032 spaeks simple DCC of course and so will speak to a modern loksound 4.0 happily with lights and 4 functions. So Lights, driving sounds, whistle, bell and a station announcement or smoke can be available from a 1980's controller which makes me smile.

Time for a large gin.

Graham