Dear Forum members,
I run Trix locomotives but I am assuming that the decoders are the same as the Marklin decoders. I have search the internet and the forum and cannot see a definitive answer to the question of who manufactures the modern Marklin/Trix decoders. I have seen two manufacturers listed ESU and D&H. Does anyone have a definitive answer - if ESU are they essentially re-badged Loksound decoders or a propriety Marklin design? Apologies if I am asking an obvious question, or one which has been covered before.
Rob

Both Märklin and Trix locomotive do have same decoders but protocol mfx+ exist only in the Märklin trains.
I am not really sure if Märklin do produce decoders if not less an electronic company does it.
Zimo are pure electronic company that produce own system and sound decoders in all scale of the trains.
Zimos new sound decoder MS do have mfx protocol too and ESU do have decoders too with the M4 protocol.
D&H don´t have it.
I have never ever seen D&H decoders in the Märklin/Trix trains.

Thanks for the replies and the information - I can see that this is not a straightforward issue.

One of the reasons that I posed the question is that one of my loco's had a shop fitted ESU Loksound decoder. I have spent some time playing around with the extended CV functions, tweaking the loco. My trix Loco's (all 2019 or later models) with factory fitted decoders only have a limited number of CV's listed in the manual, and I was wondering if all of the other CV'c that are not listed are adjustable as well. I thought if I knew who manufactured the chip, I could get hold of their extended CV list.

Rob

OK Alan - this is where I remove my ignorance from under the bushel....

I didn't even realise that this was a possibility. I have heard of JMRI but thought that it was just a way of computer controlling the layout - I didn't realise you could interrogate decoders. I will do this for sure - just about to get online and order a NCE USB interface!

Brilliant - thank you!!

I run Ubuntu but the idea of using java doesn't appeal to me too much 🙄

I don't know who made the original Maerklin decoders (6080/6090), but around the end of the 1990s, Maerklin started using OEM equipment from ESU. They were not the only company to do this. The OEM decoders were often either stripped down or restricted versions of ESU Lokpilot models. In some instances, the OEM models might have had more limited functions than the regular production versions or may have had functions that were "locked". I had a couple of models with damaged OEM ESU decoders. I had a saved version of that decoder and was able to overwrite the settings on a basic ESU Lokpilot. If the model had more complex lighting than regular/long distance (hi-beam), it might have been harder to restore.

Some Trix models were even more complicated and without modifications, could not be used with third party decoders, as the pins were not wired according to norms.

Regards

Mike C