Reasons might include ...

- only needing to produce one decoder, not two, which would mean duplication with subtle difference of packaging instructions etc.
- - equals greater market penetration.
- - future resale value

- not alienate user who have a DCC only or MFx only or MM/Fx only controller
- - includes those who wish to disable a protocol in their controller

- provide those same users the opportunity to take their loco to a colleagues/club layout using the alternate protocol

I disagree with this, I have been using DCC for years on my Marklin layout - since the release of the MS2, though I have wanted it long before then.

This is because the majority of ESU decoders (ie. lokpilot/loksound 3.0/3.5) used in other manufacturers locos (ie. Roco, Liliput) did not support MFX, only DCC or MM.
While ESU did release the v3.0 M4 decoder which supported MFX, it came later and was not the included decoder with Roco loks.

You could previously use MM but it limited you to 27 speed steps while DCC supports 127 - a huge improvement.

Marklin including DCC support costs them nothing and gives users the flexibility of what protocol they want as well as allowing for universal support of DC or AC systems.

Hi,

Correct me if I am wrong. MFX is just a protocol used to set the Loco's Address Automatically depending if your controller supports MFX.
Basically what happens is when you place a new Loco on the track it communicates with the controller and checks if its default address is available, if it is then it uses the default address.
If the defualt address is already being used then it checks for the next available address and assigns it to the loco.

Regards
Carsten

Hi!
I am using DCC and three-rail since I bought my second Roco loco. DCC was around before mfx and it was used for three-rail too - by everybody except Märklin.
Märklin were indeed very late to include DCC in their three-rail locos, thus avoiding quite a bit of my money.

I do not use mfx on my layout. Sometimes I do not buy locos simply because they do not support DCC.
I do not need both protocols.

Good if the manufacturers offer all protocols they can - and let the customer decide what they use.


You are wrong: there are no default addresses with mfx and the controller will always assign a free address to any decoder.
mfx is a complete protocol that does everything; it is not just an extension to the MM protocol that assigns addresses.

With DCC locos have manually assigned addresses. RailCom+ can negotiate a free address automatically if the manually assigned address is already in use. RailCom+ is just an extension to DCC and only used to negotiate an address when needed.


All? After the introduction of the 60942 they continued to sell locos without DCC for years.

Where have YOU been? Taking a course in manners, no doubt.

My take, is Märklin realized finally they are hurting their own sales by insisting on MFX based protocol exclusively.
For those modelers that may want a 3 rail or even 2 rail (Märklin makes Trix after all), that have an existing controller such as one of the many DCC controller solutions, they can sell product to them by simply making that protocol available.

If I've got a Z21 or Digikeijs DR5000 controller, I'd then be able to still buy a Märklin product. Not everyone wants the cost of a CentralStation.

Its just a smart business move. Let the customer pick which protocol they use to communicate to their components - you want to sell components to whoever would want to buy them and not prevent purchases.

Today I went to Mike's to buy my Christmas present.

I happened to ask Mike what his price was on that very loco discussed above. I had no hope that it was available to purchase.

You guessed it: Mike had it and put it on his layout for me to see how it ran.

Now this loco is safely in my home under the tree waiting to be opened the evening of the 24th.

(One thing is for sure, I will not use it in DCC - I much prefer MFX.)

Life is good.

I missed you at Mike's store today, was Christmas shopping in the morning.

No, not necessarily! That's the whole point of the discussion, which you seem to have missed both in this thread and the one referred to by Per.

Both the DCC and mFX protocols, the controllers and locos that use them are agnostic to the type of track used to run them on. I'm not sure how much more clearer we can make this.

Your seeming befuddlement on the issue lead to Clapcott's 'What absolute rubbish' comment in the previous thread (which you took offense to), and it has lead to the comments made by Per and others. So please do not start to take offense at comments made by others who try to get you to see the light as it were. You've already got me close to locking this topic.

The BR187 loco you purchased is a great looking loco, and I want to get one myself. Because it has a decoder that operates on either DCC or mFX, it can run on 3 rail track with either of those protocols. Likewise, if you changed the pickups on the loco so that it would run on 2 rail, the loco would also run happily with either protocol (and also with MM if you were that way inclined).

If folks really wanted to, they could run a Z21 or Digikeijs DR5000 controller with 3 rail track.

So please do not get offended when folks try to point stuff out with what might seem to be stronger comments, they are trying to get you to understand even if it is causing them some increasing frustration. You should be glad that they are still trying to help you.

I wish you had told me you were planning on coming down.

Next time, please call me so we can take a trip together.

Can you please explain how these "you"s don't apply to me ??

The above sentence was written just below a quote of my first reply in this tread.

If you haven't read it before, then please read GlennM's comments here:

https://www.marklin-user...attacks---very-concerned

Per.