Hi all, i need some support with an old digital Loco as I am new to Marklin Digital and I am not sure what i should expect.
I have a Marklin starter kit with Mobile Station 2 (the black one) and an MFX Loco and it works as it should.
Recently i purchased an used Marklin BR 361 loco with reference 3631 in the box as also the box mentions “digital H0”.
Does it means that the Loco is stock Digital? Or it only means that is ready for digital?
I am asking this because the Loco doesn’t run in my digital layout with mobile stations 2 neither I am able to have it found by the mobile station. If I do a manual setup of the loco it doesn’t work either. When I look inside the Loco I can’t any jumpers to set the digital address, hence I m assuming the Loco is not Digitial. Am I right?

I also noticed that the old Loco warranty paper has a number on it that doesn’t match with any sequence of the printed serial number in the Loco, should it match?

I suspect that the Loco is not Digital and the Box, wich mentions Digital H0, is not from the Loco that I purchased despite the fact that the Loco looks like 3631. After some search I found the 3131 to be very similiar to 3631 wich is not Digital, could it be the case that I have the 3131 with a box from the 3631?

Any help would be appreciated

If it is analog it would run full speed on a digital layout. Maybe you can post a photo of the inside?

As far as i can tell from these images, that loco is not digital, it is pure analoug. looks to like it is an old v60?

.thomas

thank you for your support.
To convert to digital is it something that can I do at home?
And do you have any reference of the digital decoder that I could use?

Hi
To convert at home depends on your skills, and knowledge of Marklin locos

The conversion parts needed are

60943 Motor
60972 decoder without sound
60976 decoder with sound

Sorry I have to say that will be a bit difficult for you to do the conversion as you don't look that you have any knowledge, even to recognize if the loco is analog or digital.

By the way the loco must be an old V60 3065 with TELEX couplers.

Regards

Costas

Marklins new 60906 decoder would be a good option for it. No need to change the motor then.

sorry for the stupid question, but Marklin isn't AC? If I change it to DC it will not run anymore in Marklin tracks, right?

A easily confused aspect of Märklin's system for newbies. All Märklin track power is AC, just as it has always been. With digital the voltages are a little different and have an information signal component but otherwise are pretty much the same and are still AC.

The older motors in Märklin locos ran on AC as well and if not modified they need a decoder that supplies AC to the motor. Most modern decoders supply DC to the motors and DC motors run better in this application than AC ones do in most cases. So the decoder receives AC from the booster and then supplies DC to the loco motor.

If you don't want to update the motor to DC - basically just replacing the motor coils with a permanent magnet - then you are in luck because they have recently introduced a decoder just for that use - item #60906 as Michael pointed out.

I know that all of this can be intimidating but it is doable and once you do a conversion you will know ever so much more about how all of the magic works.

Quite true Tom. The only drawback to using the old motors without changing anything is the load regulation issue. I was just trying to keep it simple for someone new to the whole system but you are right, all decoders supply DC to the motor, where in analog it was AC - which was what I intended to say in the first place.

Thanks for keeping me honest.

No rubbish from me! That is actually good advice for someone new to all of this because there is so much to learn when you first dive into this stuff. If you do figure out how to do the upgrades though you will learn a whole lot in the process. If not you will have a non functional loco and a pile of wasted new parts.

I also agree about a 37861, which is a great value with all of the features, a warranty and sound for a pretty decent price.

Thank you for all your comments.

I will look for new locos already mfx compatible, however I would also like to try and learn how to convert my old loco. I am not saying that I would do it myself 😊 but at least i want to assess the complexity and the challenge of doing it 😊

Would you please guide me is some basic tutorials to start learning it? There is always a first time...😊