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Offline BenPerr  
#1 Posted : 03 May 2025 04:37:38(UTC)
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BenPerr

United States   
Joined: 19/07/2023(UTC)
Posts: 13
Location: North Carolina, Charlotte
Trying to avoid spending too much $$$ buying Marklin expensive boosters for a large layout, is there any DIY electronic boosters available out there that is compatible with a CS3?
I am looking at schematics, component list and firmware before I start re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks ahead,
Ben
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Offline osoraku  
#2 Posted : 03 May 2025 10:12:08(UTC)
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osoraku

Portugal   
Joined: 22/01/2025(UTC)
Posts: 50
Location: Setubal, Palmela
Dear Ben -

Not exactly a booster, but a good bit of the hardware & firmware you need is documented in this Locoduino project.

Osoraku
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Offline JohnjeanB  
#3 Posted : 03 May 2025 11:18:02(UTC)
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JohnjeanB

France   
Joined: 04/02/2011(UTC)
Posts: 3,551
Location: Paris, France
Originally Posted by: BenPerr Go to Quoted Post
Trying to avoid spending too much $$$ buying Marklin expensive boosters for a large layout, is there any DIY electronic boosters available out there that is compatible with a CS3?
I am looking at schematics, component list and firmware before I start re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks ahead,
Ben

Hi Ben
The CS3 has a 5 A ouput (with a 100 W Märklin PSU
The current control is WAY WAY better than using conventional boosters so in over 12 years of use of a 60101, 100 W PSU (first with a CS2) I never experienced a negative effect.
With this I power my medium size layout (26 locos; over 70 turnouts, DSS, triple switches, well over 40 LED illuminated cars, a turntable, the total digital need is 2.7 to 3.2 A (for a 5 A available total)

What I am trying to say is:
- your Märklin locos are too valuable to power them with weakly protected DIY arrangement.
- using 100W PSU with your CS3 is WAY WAY safer than adding a lot of untested power devices
- worse come to worse, you may have to add a Märklin booster and with 200W it is enough for MOST layouts

Here is an old video of my medium size layout with a CS3 (CS2 at the time) and a 60101 PSU


Additional hints (if I may):
- ban all lamps and replace them with LEDs (on signals, cars, etc). Life expectancy is hugely increased and current need is 5 times less at least.
- avoid using smoke generators (they add 2 W on each loco)
- for simplicity of wiring all switch lanterns are powered by the digital current (less than 1 mA per lantern so why bother?)

Just my opinion
Cheers
Jean
My layout videos
latest vid
marshalling yard
My Layout
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Offline bobyAndCo  
#4 Posted : 03 May 2025 11:49:58(UTC)
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bobyAndCo

France   
Joined: 20/02/2024(UTC)
Posts: 23
Location: France - Bretagne
Hello everyone,

The project I carried out and which osoraku mentions does not indeed meet the demand.

This project is intended to replace the centrale (CS3 / CS2 or MS2) and its power is equivalent to a CS3, i.e. 5A. whereas the initial request is to “boost” the CS3.

I agree with JohnJeanB, 5A available with a CS3 is not bad. Above 5A, other problems will arise, including the level of short-circuit detection. With a trip threshold above 5A, there could be damage to the locomotive causing the short.

To get back to my project, I'm using a card that also produces a maximum of 5A.

Christophe
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Offline bobyAndCo  
#5 Posted : 03 May 2025 12:32:53(UTC)
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bobyAndCo

France   
Joined: 20/02/2024(UTC)
Posts: 23
Location: France - Bretagne
Nevertheless, to answer the question, it is possible to consider using several DIY boosters, each with a maximum power rating of 4 to 5 A, precisely to avoid the problem I mentioned of short-circuit detection thresholds. The boosters must supply power to zones that are totally isolated from each other, and ESPECIALLY be synchronized on the same control unit, so that there are no differences in polarity when a locomotive straddles two zones.

In this lock, 2, 3, 4 or more DIY cards can be used. See https://gelit.ch/Train/Video.mp4

But MFX recognition is not available. Is this important, as it can be done on a programming channel ?

For a CS3 to be able to send its commands to several boosters like here, it will be necessary to go through an interface that will receive the MFX commands and then send them to the different boosters at the same time.

I wasn't interested in doing this for MFX, but I did it for DCC, with the added bonus of inserting the Railcom cutout and a 16-bit preamble instead of the usual 10 or 12 bits.

Developing such a card for MFX is not complicated, as only frame timing makes the difference between MFX and DCC, and a few steps like sync frames in MFX versus preamble in DCC.

Here is the code for the DCC: https://github.com/BOBIL...stophe/DCC_to_dcc-cutout

Alternatively, the code to produce an MFX signal is here: https://github.com/BOBIL...ristophe/directMFX_ESP32

To realize your project, you need to mix the two!

Note that any risks to the CS3 raised by JohnJeanB are eliminated because the CS3 MFX is galvanically isolated from the mains.

Christophe
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Offline kiwiAlan  
#6 Posted : 03 May 2025 12:52:15(UTC)
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kiwiAlan

United Kingdom   
Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC)
Posts: 8,456
Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
Originally Posted by: BenPerr Go to Quoted Post
Trying to avoid spending too much $$$ buying Marklin expensive boosters for a large layout, is there any DIY electronic boosters available out there that is compatible with a CS3?
I am looking at schematics, component list and firmware before I start re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks ahead,
Ben


Marklin do have an adaptor for connecting the original 6051/6052 boosters. It does this by sniffing the output from the cs and then using that signal to drive the boosters.

Early model DELTA units can also be put into a booster mode that can me used like a 6051 as well.
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Offline BenP  
#7 Posted : 03 May 2025 13:35:19(UTC)
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BenP

United States   
Joined: 04/02/2021(UTC)
Posts: 478
Location: USA
I have used an old delta controller as booster for M digital layout, connected to switches and signals decoders. Track control remains on cs3. About 1-2A booster power provided.
(I since removed all lights from 40 switches, reducing power by 40x0.04A, negating booster need)
Ben
Digital M track layout with vintage rolling stock and accessories controlled by CS3+Rocrail; small Z scale layout.
https://youtube.com/play...0kgVYbh0CeDTF-bYXoD_2-V9
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thanks 1 user liked this useful post by BenP
Offline BenPerr  
#8 Posted : 03 May 2025 13:41:03(UTC)
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BenPerr

United States   
Joined: 19/07/2023(UTC)
Posts: 13
Location: North Carolina, Charlotte
Thank you all for your answers (que j'apprecie beaucoup, merci Jean et Christophe!).

I was originally planning to use DCC for my new layout and DIY the central station & all other peripherals using the work that Hans Tanner did with his IOTT (Internet of Toy Trains - IOTT - quite impressive work went in there!)
Fate took a turn and I won/bought quite a large volume of MFX locomotives from an estate auction that happened a few days ago (Auction link)
I am therefore now planning to buy a CS3 for the train control, but still use IOTT and its Loconet for the switches & block detection - all that being controlled through RocRail.
The IOTT booster is an Arduino shield (plugs on top of it, gets its DCC input signal from it and amplify it to 5 or even 8Amps). It is short-circuit protected and uses a IBT-2 power circuit for the output (I already have a bunch of those!).
My take is that a MFX protocol is 'close enough' to DCC from a switching frequency standpoint, and maybe I need to connect the MFX out wire to this input to try to see if this can work? (I have some EE background and the right tools, do not worry).

@Christophe - Thanks for all the links! I will check them and you are correct that MFX programming/registering will be done on a specific layout track directly connected to the CS3, and it is not needed after that, right?

@Jean - Thanks as well for your valuable input and sharing your experience! You are most probably right that I am over-thinking this and I might as well take the plunge and buy some Marklin booster & PSU instead of re-inventing the wheel here...
Here is the planned architecture - can you poke holes into it?

UserPostedImage

Benoit

Edited by user 03 May 2025 17:35:04(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified
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