Hi Ron, we have been using our CS3 for about 7 months and also use our iPhones and iPads via wifi router to the CS3. We have not been able to import the track diagram to iPad or iPhone as yet. We don't believe it is supported as yet. There have not been any updates to the Marklin Mobile Station or MAC Central Station software that we can find that can be used specifically with the CS3. It seems they changed the way they produce track diagrams so markedly that no one, including Marklin can get this to work on OS devices!!

We need Marklin to move forward with these upgrades urgently as the investment in a CS3 seems diminished. We only bought a CS3 because our CS2 and then CS1 sadly died.

We have resorted to using the CS3 screen only to show the track diagram, and use a mouse to control our 60+ turnouts for routing our trains. We use the OS devices to control locos. We found the CS3 screen very cluttered an inaccurate and totally impossible to use with a finger, so we always use a mouse. Very disappointing. But this would be bearable if we could get the track diagram onto another screen (eg iPad or Mac or even a PC).

Anyway I hope this posting gets some response from someone who can point us in the right direction, or response from Marklin themselves as they seem to have launched the CS3 without the necessary support for its purchasers. I'm also having difficulty finding any support for the CS3 on ROCRAIL which would give us an alternative program to automate or semi automate our rail layout. Maybe someone can direct us to some forum topics or www sites to help us gain more knowledge.

TEEwolf, I'd disagree with your assessment.

The customer and the market these days demand operating a layout via a touchscreen tablet. For Marklin or you to suggest that the customers desires are misplaced is a fatal marketing mistake, which certainly Apple has made in the past (iPhone 4 antenna-gate of "your not holding it right", and iPhone 7 onward "courage-gate" of removing the headphone jack), and Microsoft (Windows 8 anyone?). The goal of a business should be to meet the demands of the customers, not to tell customers their demands are unreasonable.

Add to that, that solutions like the Roco Z21 provides exactly that very well by proving a web interface to the controller, a "Bring Your Own Touchscreen" if you will, rather than building it into the controller, one cannot make a case for "it isn't possible" or "there isn't demand" etc.

A smartphone interface may well be limited, like a MS, to mainly driving a single loco, or another person/phone operating some switches. But with a tablet (or large screen phone) there is the real estate to do the full display of controls needed to operate the system.

Marklin uses linux, for the same reason most other makers of hardware that don't produce their own operating system use linux:
1) Unix is a solid architecture and been proven since the early 1970's.
2) Linux (Gnu Linux if you will) is the affordable instance of that solution - no crazy licensing costs, its open to tailor to your particular platform, etc.

But it is the reality that the customers have Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, and want to use those devices to control their layouts because those devices have good touchscreens and serve as a perfectly great UI with the exception of the hardware buttons like 'emergency stop'. And Märklin would do well to provide for that demand better than it has, with the MS App in the long run.

If Märklin chooses to ignore the customer demands on the choice of interface, they do so at their own peril, especially for any new model railroaders buying new gear, because if we get sick of the lack of support, we can switch everything over to DCC with the modern decoders and run on a Z21 from Roco. I'm not sure the "World of Operations" of mfx+ area is in enough demand that by itself it can sustain a $700+ controller such as a modern Central Station.

Thanks Jukka, we have also used VNC but unless you have been able to do more than replicate the current CS3 screen then that still means the CS3 has to be showing the track diagram page and therefore cannot be used for loco driving etc without covering up the track diagram as happens on the CS3 screen. VNC only replicates one screen on another screen.

This does not help great deal. We really need Marklin to update the Apple OS programs so we can have the track diagram and loco controls on a larger screen such as iPad or MAC.

While the CS3 is based on Linux, macOS isn't. Also Rocrail isn't even a OS,so I doubt it uses Linux. (But yes, it also runs on Linux).

And Märklin doesn't update their apps anymore since they will be replaced with a new Web-Frontend anyways, so it's a waste of time and money. I think the new firmware with the web-based solution was supposed to be released in April, as far as I heard they already have being showing the new web-interface at some events back in February.

Oh yes it is, it is just well hidden from the users. But if one is determined and knows the magic incantations it is possible to get at the underlying Linux system. There are various things that run on Linux that can also be run on a Mac if handled correctly.

The reason that many apps make a Mac version is to handle the different app loading system that Apple have used in their graphic interface.

No it's not, macOS is based on BSD and uses parts of FreeBSD, which both are descendants of UNIX. While Linux is UNIX-like, it was developed completely separate from UNIX.

That's great news, its a shame they don't tell their English speaking customers of this miraculous leap forward, and it's already June !!!

Indeed for this you may blame Märklin. They published different sides in German and English.

https://www.maerklin.de/...obile-station-app-hilfe/

It is really silly not to announce the App update on the English website too. I should have checked the German site before, sorry I did not.

Here is the translated information from the German Märklin website:

"Update Apple Apps : Software update V1.4

An update of the Apple App will be available in the App Store by the end of September.

The content of the app is primarily intended to ensure further availability in the App Store. Apple will remove all old apps without 64-bit capabilities from the shop.

1 Content of the update

Ensuring further availability in the shop
Extension 32 functions
Switching off the shaking gesture

2. extensions

Changeover to 64 bit application
The most important point of the update is the conversion of the application to 64Bit compatibility.
Apple will remove all old 32-bit applications from the shop with the launch of the new operating system and clean up old apps.
To counteract this, the apps must be updated accordingly.

Extension to 32 functions
The application has been extended to be able to operate the 32 functions of the CS2 and CS3.
Functions 0 to 15 and 16 to 31 can be operated by switching the levels.

Switching off the shaking gesture
The shaking gesture to stop the operation is often triggered accidentally. On the other hand, this can hardly be brought about consciously. Therefore, the gesture can be switched off."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

And typical for Märklin too, they postponed the update to the end of September.

Anyway, as I wrote before, I am not interested in the Apple system. Because as others wrote already: Linux is an open system, Apple is a closed shop, with all consequences.
And again, sorry you are wrong: you are buying the app at Apple's AppStore from Apple, not from Märklin, even the app is provided by Märklin to Apple. You do not buy from Märklin. Märklin wrote: “The Apps themselves and additional information about their possibilities can be found in the App StoreSM or Google Playstore™.” To me it is obvious that you do not find the apps in the Märklin online shop or somewhere else, except the AppStore.

You may see it different, that is fine, but the legal situation for me is that the vendor of the Apps is the owner of the AppStore, not Märklin. And Apple is dictating the conditions in its store. Another reason for myself not to buy Apple. If you made another decision for your business it is fine too. I have made just the opposite decision for my business. Keep hands off from Apple products. I know that advertising agencies always used and using Apple because of its graphics possibilities. But meantime you get the same performance from other suppliers too. By the way I work less with graphics but more with cost accounting and business analysis programs. 30 years ago Apple did not offer very much software in this branch. They were concentraded on ad companies.

Yeah but all that stuff is last years news, that Update already happened, iOS doesn't work with 32bit Applications anymore since around September 2017.

And the next Update is going to be for the CS3 and not for the Apps. You'll be able to control your stuff via Browser, no other app needed. This means you'll be able to control your trains with any device that has a somewhat modern browser, no matter what operating system it uses.

If your iPhone/iPad is up-to-date, it must be a 64bit App, since 32bit Apps don't work anymore since last September.

The Web-app will apparently be in the Central Station 1.3.3 Update, which was originally planned for April. According to their Newsletter they now target a June release (so 20 days left).

Correct. To be exact macOS is based on the Berkley Software Distribution kernel, which is a UNIX descendant, just as Linux is. So they are related but different. I am a software developer and I know the magic command line ways to dig into the OS but over the years Apple has made that more and more difficult. It still remains my OS of choice though for multiple reasons, although I also have a personal Windows 10 box as well.

I have used almost every OS out there in my career and I am a huge UNIX fan, so moving to Apple products for my personal computing was an easy switch. I write a lot of Windows software and write most of my software on a Windows box, so I have a ton of experience with both. Neither is perfect nor hopeless and it is just a matter of taste IMO. Some of the best PC OS's out there are Linux distros, but they make take more admin knowledge than a lot of PC users have.

But the real problem is that Märklin has yet to implement the new track diagram protocol for their mobile apps. You will have the same issues on a Windows, Mac or Android tablet, since they are just web clients to the CS. One of these days Märklin will sort that out, but first they have other issues to address IMO and that one will come along eventually.