I upgraded by holding down the left-hand red button and the STOP bar, and this forced an update.

However, my CS3 has been a little more flakey since then. It no longer displays the little green "you are running the latest version" icon. And, it reboots if anything derails; it generally didn't do that before. It's difficult to know what behavior is caused by an update or not, but I'm hoping that a new update comes out to fix some of this behavior.

I used to think that it is a good idea to stay current with the latest updates. But, if it ain't broke, don't fix it - perhaps better not to update unless there are clear reasons to do so.

Cheers, John

I hear what you guys are saying but I cannot update or write addresses to loks. I am messed up or there is a really serious problem here.

Why are there no people posting telling me that they have upgraded and operate fine? Do they just not care to respond or is everyone in a mess?

Are there only a small group of people that have this beast?

My serial number is below 2000 as was the one for my CS2. Does this mean there are only 2000 owners in the world?
Who is running this railroad - I had a fellow Marklin user (and forum member) with experience with ECOS and MS2 come and look over my shoulder.
We read the downloaded manual as well as the CS3 book I bought. We failed downloading the update and address loading and changes on the ESU
decoder loks I have. Now, I can change addresses and run them up my programing track i set up for my ESU lokprogrammer. Lights on and off etc.
Just cannot get the lok loaded in the CS3 with the address I assigned with the lok programmer. Yes, we know about MM and DCC settings.

I have tried to talk to the Marklin digital guys but they either do not understand what I am saying or they are in denial.

This cannot be this hard if you are selling a product to the general public. Of course, maybe I have a defective unit but how do you know?

Before I just send it off somewhere I would like to see if I can resovle the issues. Once again, where are the satisfied customers that I can communicate
with to see if it is my problem or what?

Eric

This is the response of Marklin about the problem of changing address of loco DCC/MM or change value of cv with CS3 ( Almost always works ):

Dear Mr. Bernasconi,

Before programming the locomotive, try to press the Stop button twice. After that the locomotive address should have changed
Märklin Customer Service

Daniel Kahler



My mail to Marklin :

Subject: CS3 Problem
I am writing to you from Milan Italy, I purchased a CS3 60226 The Cs3 has problems programming the locomotives with MM or DCC type decoders. so I can not change address and more. Sometimes it works but for very short moments.

A number of DCC decoders require a power cycle to change a value in certain CVs after programming. When programming on hte main this results in the "tilt the loco so all the wheels on one side are off the track for 10 seconds" instruction. It is not isolated to marklin by any means.

Still holding back from buying my CS3 plus. Just how long will It take before we have a unit that works properly I don't know.
With my CS2 I only update using USB stick and have had no problems. I have never connected to the net and maybe this is where the problem lies.

HELLO

DEVELOPMENT. . . the development dear gentlemen and ladies. If we were not here , then who would develop the Märklin equipment

Have Fun

Regards

Jukka

John -
I finally got around to try your suggestion. I( have been busy settling an estate and was totally bummed out on Marklin). Well, to my total surprise,when I hit the button and the stop bar things came alive.
A window opened and very fast lines of data started streaming in. This ran for a while (5 minutes?) and stopped. I forgot what I clicked but probably "OK". This took me back to the main screen and the system had the red dot. I followed it and started the update the normal way. Things did not go the way I expected and I got a few warning messages in German. I got my laptop and did google translate on the words but it seemed to
be about connectivity. Anyway, after I clicked on a few things it all settled down. When I went to info it said my version was now 1.3.2(1).

All of this is totally out of sorts withthe published documentation. When I hook my CS3 to the layout tomorrow I will see if loading addresses has improved. I have the feeling it will not be better. As of today,
I say the CS3 is ,a flawed product not worthy of purchase at this time.

Thanks for your help - How did you ever know to try pushing those two buttons?

Eric

PS Markin needs to know only 2% of the people in the world speak German. Maybe most of their business is in Germany but if they want to grow ....

It might be helpful if anybody who has a problem fires off an email to Marklin. If they get enough complaints they will do something otherwise problems will continue. No point in complaining if the company does not know about your complaint.
I presume Marklin have the CS3 made by another company for them.

I hope that I find that to be the case. Did not get the chance to try things out today but I did hook the CS3 up to my layout and it ran existing Loks fine.
I have many obligations for the next few days that require travel and are far more important than toy trains that have gotten complicated completely out of control.

This weekend I have a friend coming over to help me with repairs/upgrades to my 1976 MGB so trains are not on the schedule. I have being doing Marklin since 1959
so I am committed, but, its not always first.

Can you set addresses etc?

thanks,
Eric

I am able to set addresses properly; things are working well. BUT, as Jukka has mentioned, I've found that I do sometimes have to power down the unit and unplug it for say 30 seconds. I have a few DCC locos, so I do use the programming track always; sometimes I get errors when using the layout track and reading MFX decoders.

Cheers, John

I have always had a separate programming track set up, including the CS2, which I thought was standard practice. The only loks I let program on the main line are MFX decoder loks that find
and register themselves. I believe I am following Marklin's recommendations to the letter. Something is wrong. We should not have to consistantly reboot or any other such
tricks. These tricks are not mentioned in the CS3 manual or the recently release CS3 book. I have now been contacted by enough people having the same problems for me to
feel the the CS3 is a flawed product. I bet the is a lot of concern in the programming/ IT or whatever they call it department. If the company I worked for had these kinds of
problems and feedback there would be hell to pay.
Eric