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Offline 5HorizonsRR  
#1 Posted : 05 November 2018 15:29:24(UTC)
5HorizonsRR

United States   
Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC)
Posts: 2,975
Location: CA, USA
Hi everyone,

I recently purchased the Railtop trailing coach for my SBB red arrow 33865 (separate topic to follow), and spent this weekend fabricating a coupler to connect the ski trailer coupler to a snap-on close coupler, leaving the option of pulling the factory ski trailer or the railtop supplemental coach. This was a fun project, but I noticed something very unusual about the locomotive and decoder, and was hoping for some advice:

Upon opening the locomotive up, I was surprised to find a 21 pin DCC board and a 21 pin decoder hiding underneath the factory Marklin PC board. I thought this meant a Digital conversion had taken place I was unaware of since the locomotive is supposedly delta, but I had purchased the locomotive from a friend who in turn bought it new. And the factory PCB still has the 4 pin delta selector

Upon registering the "read decoder" with my ecos, it only provided that the decoder was motorola - not what the chip was or who makes it etc... Some images are below- does anyone know what is going on here? I'm curious what it is. I forgot to check the lighting functionality, but that might have at least determined delta vs digital.

Images are below!

IMG_2275.JPGIMG_2277.JPGIMG_2276.JPG
SBB Era 2-5
Offline ktsolias  
#2 Posted : 05 November 2018 19:26:41(UTC)
ktsolias

Greece   
Joined: 01/05/2016(UTC)
Posts: 623
Location: Athens
Hi

The decoder is an ESU LokPilot 3

The 21 pin board is ESU as well.

Somebody has done the conversion

As you can see only two wires are connected to the Marklin PCB the Red (Center rail), and the Black (ground)

Regards

Costas
Offline 5HorizonsRR  
#3 Posted : 05 November 2018 19:32:38(UTC)
5HorizonsRR

United States   
Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC)
Posts: 2,975
Location: CA, USA
Originally Posted by: ktsolias Go to Quoted Post
Hi

The decoder is an ESU LokPilot 3

The 21 pin board is ESU as well.

Somebody has done the conversion

As you can see only two wires are connected to the Marklin PCB the Red (Center rail), and the Black (ground)

Regards

Costas


Thanks Costas! Visually this makes sense of course, but it seems strange the decoder wouldn't register as such with my ecos. I'll play with it again tonight. thanks!
SBB Era 2-5
Offline H0  
#4 Posted : 05 November 2018 20:47:13(UTC)
H0


Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,440
Location: DE-NW
Hi!
Originally Posted by: 5HorizonsRR Go to Quoted Post
[...} but it seems strange the decoder wouldn't register as such with my ecos. I'll play with it again tonight. thanks!
Do you have all protocols enabled in the ECoS?
This could be a decoder for mfx and MM, but without SX and without DCC. If you did not activate M4 in the ECoS then it would react to MM only.

Regards
Tom
---
"In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS
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Offline 5HorizonsRR  
#5 Posted : 06 November 2018 03:28:35(UTC)
5HorizonsRR

United States   
Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC)
Posts: 2,975
Location: CA, USA
Originally Posted by: H0 Go to Quoted Post
Hi!
Originally Posted by: 5HorizonsRR Go to Quoted Post
[...} but it seems strange the decoder wouldn't register as such with my ecos. I'll play with it again tonight. thanks!
Do you have all protocols enabled in the ECoS?
This could be a decoder for mfx and MM, but without SX and without DCC. If you did not activate M4 in the ECoS then it would react to MM only.



Hi- I think you are right. I was assuming it was a lokpilot but the lack of DCC or railcom functionality was confusing me. Even worse is the fact my ecos stopped registering MFX entirely last year, which hasn't been a problem (although for sure an inconvenience...) until now. It must be an MFX-only lokpilot. Sadly my MS also died (I do not have good controller luck!), so no other way to check at the moment, but the train runs on address 3

thanks to you all!
SBB Era 2-5
Offline kiwiAlan  
#6 Posted : 06 November 2018 12:19:15(UTC)
kiwiAlan

United Kingdom   
Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC)
Posts: 8,463
Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
Originally Posted by: 5HorizonsRR Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: H0 Go to Quoted Post
Hi!
Originally Posted by: 5HorizonsRR Go to Quoted Post
[...} but it seems strange the decoder wouldn't register as such with my ecos. I'll play with it again tonight. thanks!
Do you have all protocols enabled in the ECoS?
This could be a decoder for mfx and MM, but without SX and without DCC. If you did not activate M4 in the ECoS then it would react to MM only.



Hi- I think you are right. I was assuming it was a lokpilot but the lack of DCC or railcom functionality was confusing me. Even worse is the fact my ecos stopped registering MFX entirely last year, which hasn't been a problem (although for sure an inconvenience...) until now. It must be an MFX-only lokpilot. Sadly my MS also died (I do not have good controller luck!), so no other way to check at the moment, but the train runs on address 3

thanks to you all!


Your EcOS should be able to read the registers on that and allow you to change the address, and set any of the available protocols for it.

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