There was a thread recently where someone was wanting to do this, as they didn't want the expense of a cs2.

If you can find that thread probably worth putting a link to this one for him.

What You need and the costs:

To run this solution, You need at least
(1) a Mobile Station 2 (MS2) with Track Box and power supply
(2) a WiFi router
(3) a smart phone or tablet
(4) a Banana Pi
(5) the CAN interface board from Gerhard Bertelsmann: http://lnxpps.de/bpi/
(6) optional a CAN "StartPunkt 2": http://www.can-digital-b...ys3&modul=47#Mod_Top

I assume, that You already have (1) - (3).

Then, the only things, You need to purchase are the Banana Pi and the CAN interface board. Optional You may buy the CAN "StartPunkt 2", which makes it easier to connect the Track Box to the Banana Pi.

Costs:
- (4) Banana Pi M1: 36€
- (5) CAN interface Board from Gerhard Bertelsmann: 14€
- (6) CdB "StartPunkt 2": 19€

Total: 50€ - 69€

For the Banana Pi and the "StartPunkt 2", an additional power supply is required!

I'm going to make the jump into this as saving $700 in purchasing a CS3 (or I assume $500 in purchasing a late model CS2), considering I don't plan on using the layout/control features of a CS beyond it interfacing from WinDigipet/TrainController to the track (or having mobile apps on my phone talking to manual controll trains). I can buy a lot of track with that saved money.

I've read on the German thread ( http://www.h0-modellbahn...Zentrale.html#msg3770351 ) that he repurposed the S88N adapter board by installing it into the trackbox (hardware hack ) so that the power from the trackbox can be used to power the "StartPunkt 2" (with the caution of not using other active CdB-CAN products as you are now distributing the 18v from the trackbox on the CAN bus wires and some of those additional components need 12v). So by patching into the trackbox one can pull out its power feed as well, saving one more power supply.

The need for the StartPunkt 2 though isn't clear.. its 'optional' but always mentioned. What is additionally needed if one doesn't want to use a StartPunkt 2?

I know Gerhard's daughter board has lots of additional functionality that can be enabled by installing the other bits... does one of those come into play?

So I'll do another build of this solution and configure two SD cards - one with Gerhard's CS2.exe dependent image (for use with WDP/TC) and one with Michael's image to allow the Banana Pi solution to simply interface with the MS2 app on my iPhone so I can run my Xmas tree train or carpet bahn without needing to pull out a laptop as well.

Oh, final question, have you tested the S88N interface for actual S88 sensing? Did you just plug in Märklin S88 AC (or DC) modules via the RJ45 connection?

OK, ok, ONE more question: The hardware bits I need to acquire are clear... except for the cabling.
What cables do I need? Cat5E I can build with parts at home all day long, but cables that have various DIN style plugs on them and other less common ones, what do I need to acquire here?

Thanks Minok and Moritz for your promotion :-) More Infos here: BananaPi Gleisbox

The link contains information to get the PCB. If you need a single PCB and components, feel free to contact me.

Regards

Gerd

You get them here:
https://de.aliexpress.co...114.47010508.4.24.gr5rkj

or from me for 1 Euro each plus shipping. I've ordered a bunch of them directly from a manufacture.

Regards

Gerd

Ah, good, thanks.

I'd gotten a response from Gerhard, the developer. Indeed a law firm on behalf of Märklin, is alleging that the project has violated the license and intellectual property of the CS2.exe software by running some subset of the Märklin code in the software that is being distributed on the BananaPi project. That is nonsense, and the lawyers are addressing it. I assume that the full data will be back up at some point. The only thing that might come out of this is that the project gets pushed out of Germany so that German law doesn't apply anymore.

For what its worth, the code and projects are available on GitHub, so they will live on. I'm putting the links here to provide some backstop on the Stummi clampdown.
https://github.com/GBert/misc/tree/master/BPi-CAN
https://github.com/GBert...road/tree/master/can2udp

The Gestapo like behavior of the Stummi forum admins (nothing to see, stop asking question and move along) be it the consequence of judicial orders or just stupid admin behavior certainly leave a bad taste in ones mouth. In the US, that sort of supression would only come from a national security letter where the government's secret courts have issued an order that also forbids any mention that you received such an order. Thats what this feels like in the way its being carried out at Stummi and beyond (as the website itself has replaced the pages with blank pages). Its easier to do that, but I'd have expected the replacement to not be blank, but at least say "there is a legal situation being investigated - once that is clarified we will be back". Something, anything other than disappearing into the night without a peep.

In the end I'm pretty confident the project will live on. Somewhere else if need be. Some other forum, some other country. Nothing against Märklin making the legal challenge if they feel their Intellectual Property had been violated, as well they should do in that case.

Thank you very much for your quick answer and your good information. I have in mind to get a BananaPI and make a simple interface. But when I saw the lost of information I was very surprised. I was looking for information of the project in other sites and the same situation.

I've done a backup of the Github links and the last cached copy, including all files linked inside except the "DHCP server image" for SD card, that it's not available in the cached copies. Not all it's lost

Minok, If you continue with the project live outside of Germany, I could collaborate translating the information to the Spanish language. This is a great project and it would be a pitty that it will be forgotten.

Yeah, most of the data is still on the server in question, and was just moved to quickly satisfy the legal demands until things are resolved. The image of the latest THT (through hole technology) board I posted above is just a link to the actual image on the project's own server.

I'm feeling pretty confident that the project be back visible, its just a question of where and when. The only downside could be the loss of the long threads on the control daughter card, and the long thread on the booster card on Stummi, but as much of that data is overcome by events, only a few posts would really be critical. (the intro, what is it post, and a few of the 'when this seems to malfunction, then check this' post for troubleshooting).

Thinking about Märklin's objectives, its hard to know what is going on. If you own IP (Intellectual Property) in most countries you are obligated to make an effort to protect that IP if you see there is possible violation, because if you don't do anything, your legal recourse may disappear and you lose the IP protections, such as it is in the US. So if Märklin feel there's a chance their CS2 code or other IP is embedded in the software of the project, the absolutely need to clarify if it is and if so have that removed so they can continue to have legal protections for that IP. Another possibility is Märklin sees the project cutting into CS3 sales in the future. That doesn't seem likely enough to have the quash the project, but managers make very illogical decisions some times. The project fills a niche of folks that want computer control and don't want to spend a bunch of money on a complex hardware controller that only serves as a data signal pass-through. If Märklin had or would produce such a module at a reasonable price ($200) I think it would sell well. Making their Central Stations modular where the added control, display and buttons would snap onto the top of that cheaper box would be an interesting solution. But that's just guessing, so I'm not jumping to conclusions on why the lawyers got involved.

The legal system is very odd thing in how the are different in differing countries. Copyright and IP (and data protection ) are very strong in Germany so that its good for the person but somewhat dampens innovation, while in the US its a bit looser and has more carve-outs ("fair use" for example) but that makes personal data massively less secure due to lack of regulation. So as I contemplate where to back up my personal computers to a cloud storage, I'm strongly considering using the Amazon cloud servers in Germany to ensure US agencies don't have easy access to them without my knowing, while project and web stuff I want to host in the US where it requires court level proof before anything is required to be taken down.

The operators of the Stummi forum try everything to stay out of legal trouble and they delete/hide posts early.

The legal situation is simple: if the German operator of a forum hosted in Germany is informed about illegal content of the forum then he has to remove the content quickly to avoid liability.
With respect to freedom of speech I think they sometimes delete posts that are clearly covered by the right.
But I can understand they don't take any risk when it is about copyright infringement and similar matters.

With respect to communicating such deletions the moderators often act in a way that really leaves a bad taste. In some cases there may have been a history - users that already were on a blacklist may get harder responses than others.
But mentioning the Gestapo also leaves a bad taste.

With an open source project it should be easy to verify if there are infringements in the source code. You cannot expect this from every forum operator, so I still think it is OK to hide the thread to be on the safe side.

OTOH the CS2 is a closed source project that uses some GPL code. One could ask if they publish all the source code they must publish to comply with the GPL.

Our highly esteemed Webmaster also received letters from Mother M.'s legal department for having "marklin" in the URL. He didn't give in.
I know from own experience that the heart is beating fast when you read such a letter.

Ok, I had understood your idea. Probably, I expressed it wrongly generating a misunderstanding. My English is not as good as I would like. My idea was translate to spanish the site that you was to set up for the project owner.

And yes, I'm going to send him an email and if he is interested in it, I'll do.

That is the basic problem, that there are no moderators on Stummiforum but only smart-alleck admins. The admins answer very often in an unfriendly way, a normal user would have been kicked off the forum if he would write in the same rude way.

There is a big disbalance between the high competence of several users there and the incompetence of the admins

I hope you find this forum better moderated regarding respect for real world knowledge among members...

@Gerd - I hope this did not cost you too much, whenever lawyers are involved you are at risk ending up in the poorhouse...

Yes of course, it is!

Regards,
Moritz

Ah, now I understand why Märklin deleted the CS2.exe software from its homepage. But what can we do now, when we want connect our CS with a computer and a external screen?

Yeah that is the one. It has not been removed, just updated.

Indeed I expected getting an update of the CS2 software, but instead of the updated software a message occured with the remark "no available page", indeed very strange. Now the prior download link "CS2-4-2-1-setup.exe" is cancelled and a download link in the section "Download CS 2 Update" was set up. However it looks like that the updated software (which I originally was looking for) seems to be available now.

Hi,

I've finished the spanish translation and Gerhard has published in his site.

The link to the Spanish site is: http://lnxpps.de/bpi_esp/

Best regards,
Javier

This may be a long shot but... This seems like a really great solution for in between a Mobile Station and a Central Station but I am lacking in the skills to create such a device. Is it possible or would anyone be willing to help create such a solution? I am certainly more than willing to compensate for time and materials.

Thanks

Sorry, I meant in lieu of purchasing a CS, not physically in between.