Am I right in saying that when I fit my MS to my layout I will not be able to use my turnouts fitted with digital decoders until I get my CS. I presume the keyboard with the 6021 can not be used with the MS.
David

Thanks Fredrik. By the time I isolated all my turnouts and rewired the CS will probably be here so I will wait and meanwhile change turnouts by hand or employ some Preisers to do it for me.
David

Does this mean that I could keep my 6021, keyboards, computer interface, and then use the MS as a (basically) control 80f? This would be a great way to get added value from the new starter sets, especially if the Uhlenbrock loconet adapters are not very expensive.

You need two adapters. The 6021-to-Loconet and the MS-to-Loconet. The first plugs into the 6021 or to a keyboard from the side(like the keyboard does. It also has an IR receiver so you can use the companys remote control(IRIS) straight away. The MS-Loconet adapter is a stand-alone white box that plugs to the first adapter via a loconet cable (no track connection). There are pics of the 2 components at the home page of www.uhlenbrock.de and also in another article of this forum (6021 to MS). I have also heard that the 8 function buttons of the MS can then be used as an extra keyboard though I cannot confirm that. With that setup, save a lot of money and get an IB-Switch instead. Both adapters cost less than 150 Euros

Tolis

I can confirm it. You may configure some of the adresses of the MS as being a turnout so to say. But I still don't know details; it might be recoired to borrow an Intellibox, Twin Center or IB-control to do the configuration. That is the case with other smart LocoNet devices, for instance, Lissy or Switch Control.

The cost 150 EUR counts for the units together. But the drawbacks must be mentioned:
1. The 6021 adapter is not yet delivered. It will probably be before the CS, week 2 2005 though.
2. So far, the setup allows for the Motorola protocol only. I think that this means that a loco with up to 8+1 functions will behave exactly the same as controlled directly from the MobStat, but with 14 speed steps, and less than 80 adresses (two adresses are used for each decoder with more than 4+1 functions).

And a warning. As this also gives you LocoNet, the risk is very high that you will continue buy non-Märklin units after this :-)

/Lars

Bart,
yes let's hear the reactions, some heard already. Possibly you miss the person who have several I2C boxes, want to keep them, including interface, etc, but still want the comfort of the new control. But there are som many different preferences around, so that's probably not the only one.

/Lars

Im not sure about the new x-function incompatibility, but not certain either. As I was reading a technical report on M digital, i.e. how it works, its clear that the 6021 and its predecessors pass through all the commands to the track that come from external units like keyboards connected to the side bus. It doesnt have to understand what it passes through (bitwise). As long as the end device (loc or turnout decoder) understands the command, it will execute it. The new x-functions are just brand new digital words from the MS that the 6021 will send exactly as received. Besides the Ubrock engineers cant be that foolishand produce the adapter if there was a conversion problem IMHO.

Tolis