Hello again (would be nice to have a name),

The section on k83 (from a Märklin publication) that I posted does presume some basic understanding of electrical
connections to points (aka switches/turnouts).
So, from your reply post I understand it to mean that you want more basic explanation on how to connect the actual
points to the k83 decoders.
I will go through this supplemented by some images and some further connection explanation:

1. The Points Basics

These were designed long ago (way back when God created Märklin) as simple electro-mechanical devices. The more recent designs are fairly similar and work similarly. They have three coloured wires going to the points – yellow (“power”) and two blue (one each to set the two positions of the points, i.e. ahead-green or red-to side.) The blue wires "earth" one of the solenoid windings thus moving the points.



Inside the black body (more recently a plug-in black unit) is a solenoid. (two – one for each direction - in more recent units)



Power (yellow) goes to the centre tap of the solenoid windings and the ends are connected to one of the blue wires.



The points were originally connected to manual points boxes (see image below). They serve to join the appropriate
blue wire to "earth/neutral" (brown wire) by pressing either the green button (points ahead) or the red button
(points to side) . I still have some of my points (those that are rarely used) controlled manually in this manner :



In more recent times with C track there is the option of placing the decoder within the points themselves
but of course this requires one decoder for each points :




2. k83 input

The k83 just provides the same action but under digital control. Within the k83 are switching circuits/transistors
that switch the points the same as the manual box does, but now under digital command.

The k83 unit has outputs for the sets of wires to four points (a “block” of points on the keyboard).
The image below shows these connections :



The“power” and digital control comes by the “active/bahn-power” wire (red) and the “earth/neutral” wire (brown/black) which takes “power” with “super-added digital signal” primarily for power and control for the locomotives. It can also go to ”power” accessories, particularly solenoid accessories such as points (but with some mild loss of “power”) together with their digital control message. These red and brown wires come, depending on the power circuit for a particular area of the layout, either from the 6021 or from one or more boosters (a small layout usually has only the 6021 without any additional boosters).
This can be seen in the image below with the “power” from the 6021 or a booster joining the k83 as circled top left.



The “power”/digital message connections from the 6021/booster can be “daisy-chained” onto the next k83 by the plug connections shown by the yellow arrow in the image above.

Within the k83, "power" to each of the connected four points is provided from the yellow outlets.
Not wishing to make this explanation more complex, we note that some folk avoid the mild loss of power from the digital circuit due to the k83 by providing the “power” to each of the points directly from a separate transformer. Another way of doing that is to use a Veissmann 5211 (k83 equivalent) which has the option of inputting “power” for the points solenoids to the 5211 from a separate transformer.




3. Connecting the k83s to the Keyboard units

My layout remains in the old digital system of 6021 with connected keyboards and Memory units which
in turn use the keyboard unit to set various routes.



I have three keyboard units , denoted 1 (white), 2 (red) and 3 (green) Thus they can control 3 x 16 = 48 points



Each Keyboard unit has 16 button controls, each a green (points ahead) button and a red (points to side) button. Thus each Keyboard controls four k83s (i.e. four blocks of four points)
Each k83 unit is numbered as a subunit of the particular Keyboard. Thus my No,1 (white) keyboard has blocks 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and 1-4. Each of the connected k83 units are numbered similarly. This is important when setting the codes for the k83s to respond to the correct buttons on the particular Keyboard units and is the basis of the k83 decoder address index chart that appears last in the pdf I initially provided for you.




4. Connecting the points to the k83

Each set of points connect to a k83 like this :



On my layout each points unit has a number/colour to denote it.
Thus points controlled by keyboard 1 are nos 1-16 on a white background sign, keyboard 2 nos 1-16 on a
red background, etc. Let us look at points 9, 10, 11, 12 white background :




Their wires connect through the baseboard to a k83 unit (see image below) You can see the output plugs for
points 9 and 10 marked on the left of the unit




You will note that the k83 is numbered 1 – 3 , i.e. it controls points 9,10,11,12 that constitute the third
“block” of keyboard 1 button controls.





I hope this has explained that which you sought, if you would like more information please feel free to PM me.

I apologise to those members of our great forum who have digital control systems far in advance of the old 6021, who are thus not interested in this information and who may have unwittingly committed fair download time on a small device for this post replete with byte - hungry illustrations.

Regards,

PJ