Have a look at this with a price tag around the EUR 669.00

http://www.esu.eu/en/products/d...system/what-ecos-can-do/

ESU 50210 ECoS II Central 6A with 150W power supply
Locomotives now in color
The ECoS control center can manage up to 16384 locomotives. For each locomotive, it will remember its characteristics so that you can name your locomotives in the future. In addition, you can assign a locomotive symbol and symbols show you the function of the respective locomotive directly - whether it is a permanent or momentary function. A comprehensive navigation menu ensures that you can find and drive your locomotives as fast as possible.
Of course, ECoS supports all DCC addresses up to 9999 and 128 stages. Depending on the decoder, up to 255 addresses and 27 drive stages are possible for Motorola operation.

Switches and Magnetic Articles
Just like the locomotives , you can also give names to your switches and magnetic articles. The large control panel on the ECoS screen shows you all switches and their switching state directly. You can group the switches so that you have a clear overview of all the points in the station area. Each magnetic article can be assigned its exact function in order to be able to distinguish, for example, single, double cross, or three-way switches from uncoupling tracks or road lighting.

Driveways
Several magnetic articles can be grouped very easily to driveways. Roadways can then either be switched as individual routes or linked to a feedback contact: thus already more comprehensive block point controls are possible. ECoS manages up to 1024 routes with up to 256 magnetic article objects each.

Shuttle control
A completely new function is the shuttle control. For this purpose, you only need a (s88) feedback contact at each end of the route, which can be assigned to a locomotive in a software-controlled manner: you can adjust the duration, acceleration and braking behavior or interpositions on the ECoS screen. As our shuttle control system works on the central side, this works with every decoder. Up to 8 swinging units are possible.

Decoder programming
Thanks to the color screen (7 "color TFT) programming of decoders is as simple as never before: all parameters are displayed in the plain text, the search for CV numbers and bitwise calculation is a thing of the past! Of course, you can make all the settings of your decoders on the main track during operation and check the effect immediately - POM (Programming on the Main) makes it possible!

The address of the old Motorola® decoder is determined automatically - you do not have to unscrew your locomotives anymore and check the DIP switches ... Use legacy systems
We make your switch to the ECoS as simple as possible: simply use your existing digital system ! This is made possible by the built-in ECoSniffer module: the track output of your previous digital center is simply connected to the input of the ECoSniffer module. The module "hears" all DCC and Motorola packets and translates them to the ECoS control center. This in turn treats the legacy system as one (or more) additional hand controllers. Even if you already have more than one digital system, you will find a solution: It can connect additional ECoSniffer modules to the ECoSlink bus and share as many systems as possible from different manufacturers at the ECoS!

Modellbahn Kramm seem to have it available at 10% discount.

The ECOS software is quite versatile; therefore as long as software updates keep going, the current hardware should be OK. At the end of the day, protocols are just languages, you can teach hardware how to speak it. It is not like a computer game, where, depending of the hardware that you're using, there is no way to play the game properly, or simply it won't run at all. Extra functions completely related to the command station itself (visual effects or track planning, for example) are nowadays the only major reason where a hardware upgrade might become mandatory.

As long as the processor used in the decoders and accesories doesn't receive a major upgrade, the current hardware revisions should be OK to run mfx and dcc based equipment.