Thanks, Steven..

Prices seems to be more in line with competitors... or cheaper...
That's a long awaited move compared to their previous delusional asking prices (6092x).

Sound decoders wouldn't be worth it if the sound files remained locked.

Will have to wait until more info are released..

Does anyone know if you have to do funky things like permanently turning f4 on to drive SDS and suchlike motors with these decoders?

Hi Steven,

Thanks for sharing this! It looks like the motor parts I am using regularly are becoming a little cheaper. Regarding the decoders I am a little less enthusiastic, the specs need to be very convincing in order to get me to move away from ESU. We'll see...

Regards,

Good news, Stephen.

Thank you!

Kevin, you may not want to start with converting an expensive loco, but there is no reason why, with some time, you can't get the experience to fit these decoder kits.

Bigdaddynz and intruder, i thank you for your replies.I have a soldering station,unused, and i was a plumber in another life, so i should with clear instruction be able to do it,Its the confidence i lack,.I will try on an inexpensive loco first just in case it goes belly up.

Thanks

Kevin

Kevin, start off with a 30xx / 33xx series loco, they are fairly easy to convert. A loco with a DCM motor is best, as you can start off with the 60760 conversion kit, which is quite inexpensive.

Interestingly the 60942 states "mfx, Motorola and DCC". All at the same time? Correct me if I'm wrong but that would be a first. Supposedly the new gen decoders are universal and capable of handling all of the protocols but with different firmware.

These are the decoders already installed in new models since last year. You may distinguish them in the CS2 when you the "Upd" button shows up in the Edit loco page: they may be updated via the CS2. AFAIK, that's not yet active.

So:
"Why did Marklin bothered with MFX in the first place?"

There was never any compelling commercial reason to do so - other than preventing DCC from enroaching 3-rail market.

The obsession to "control everything" pushed those who don't like MFX to make a switch to the more mature protocol - DCC.

Had Marklin opted to adopt into the DCC along with the rest of the market - they won't alleniate those customers. It will also be easier to persuade the "hardliners" to make a switch from analog or MM to DCC.

After all, everyone else outside Marklin is also talking in the same protocol....
And they could have competed head on in the huge market of DCC decoders...

I have no specific interest in mfx myself, but I know that a lot of the members in our club only want mfx loco's. I suspect they would consider abandonment of mfx to be a hugh backward step.
I personally have wondered about the merits of DCC over the years, however after seeing the average DCC controller I decided that DCC means "doesn't come close".

I always preferred the old decoders with dip switches, but I believe the Marklin controllers with marklin decoders (or ESU mfx for sound) gives the best integrated package on the market.

Cheers....

Mike.

Try less than 40% of European market only... (and shrinking)
Even in their home market (Germany) - Marklin only has 50% of the market.

Considering a percentage of Marklin sales is also from Trix - the H0 three rail market for MFX is even smaller than Marklin revenue figure suggest.
None of the other brands that sell 3-rail products are willing to pay (more) for MFX decoder.

The past few years, DCC has been enjoying incremental improvements - as all the major players compete to up the ante;
MFX has seen nothing new, as we're reliant only on Marklin to hand us the goods.

The only improvement I see in MFX is that the latest gen decoders have better "reception" of MFX signal as opposed to the first gen decoder. Eg: they allow loco editing further away from the "ugly box".
But IMO ESU V3 M4 is better in that respect compared to Marklin's "in-house" decoder.

Differences will be of no use if Marklin go bust.
I think those "Marklin bashing" exercises happened because of growing concern about Marklin's survivability in the near future after it went out of bankruptcy protection last year.

I thought there was no changes inside the company? Emerging from bankruptcy protection without any changes, is similar to be healed from terminal disease without taking any medicine. A very very rare occasion. I would only say that Marklin really back to health if it can sustain the profitability for at least two years in a row.
Loud voices are good
Sometimes they bring new ideas from different point of view.

I'd tend to agree although admit to not knowing too much about the DCC market, I tend to buy new M loks with MFX, better value than not if you want sounds, but love what can be done with ESU V3 M4 decoders, I have a few of them, if something is wrong with an M 21 pin decoder, then replacing it with ESU 21 pin M4 is the way to go if you have access to a loksound decoder progammer, You can add a few extra functions, like my M39800 V200 ( purchased on ebay from MiWuLa ), that went up in smoke and flames literally, due to wires to the C sinus driver board being caught and squashed under the body mount screw post from the roof, but was fixed with a decoder board repair, and a new ESU M4, better, quiker and more fun than sending it round to the other side of the world for warranty repair. and now has station announcement and a few other protoypical noises the M decoder doesn't provide
Meanwhile the train doctor is toiling over the F1 (smoke)output of my 39011 Kl 01 which doesn't work, seemingly because the smoke contact has touched the body at some stage, but we can't match the whistle sounds from the ESU download menu, so surgery is being performed on the decoder itself
My M39230 Class 23 which has the new decoder, I understand, has one of the best variety and volume of sounds of any of my Black and red Steamers

I cannot see if there is decoder programmer,by adjusts soundfunctions since steam,diesel and electric don´t have same soundfunctional in difference locomotiv.

Price of the new ones - especially the non-sound - look a lot sharper...
finally a worthy effort to try and win back the huge Marklin second hand market from Lokpilots MM/DCC to (Marklin) MFX.

I hope the boards would be available seperately - for similar bargain basement prices. (This was another segment where they'd been losing sales)

Don't think that they'll win too many new friends in the DCC segment though.