Hello,

I acquired 18.4 Steamer. A bit older model 3093, but it was sold as "digital". Surely is. There is a 8 dip switch decoder inside and the motor is LFCM AC motor.

Smoke basically came out from decoder when I powered it up. I'm sure it's fried (luckily I was generously refunded 50%). Motor looks ok though.

60944 retrofit motor fits to the body, but the chassis won't go back on. I could dremel it, but this one looks a tough thing to do, so I prefer not to.


So I'm thinking of keeping the AC motor and installing AC decoder. Märklin has one with MFX. I have no previous experience with that decoder, so no idea how the end result would come to be.

However, I wan't sound. No sound steam loco, does not cure my fever.

Does anyone know of a decoder that has got all the needed sounds (operating sounds of motor. whistles and all that jazz) and works with AC motor? I'm sure I can go with DCC, these protocols all work together don't they?

Best,
-Eino

Hi, thanks for the reply!

I'm running digital. The track is powered with Mobile Station 2 and the track box associated with it. Power supply is switched mode ofcourse. I'm running the layout with Rocrail software though.

Luckily I haven't fried any decoders myself yet. This loco I bought from eBay had a decoder installed and it was fried already. I'm not able to identify what decoder it is, but address is set with 8 dip switches.

My original plan was to replace what ever decoder the loco has, with mSD3, but I was surprised to find an AC motor inside the loco, so this will not work.

So my options are:

A) Replace the AC motor with 60944 and dremel the chassis so that I can use mSD3. I can do this, have got previous experience, but don't want to.

B) Keep the AC motor and find any decoder that runs AC motor AND has sound (this is what I'm asking assistance for in this topic)

C) Keep the AC motor and install Märklin 60906 . This will get the loco running, but won't have sound, which is not really an option.

Best,
-Eino

The Märklin 60906 decoder is not a good solution
You can find my conversion of a 3111 but I am not happy


https://www.marklin-user...rsion-with-60906-Decoder

Costas

Thanks for the insight guys!



I totally forgot about the ESU permanent magnet. I think this is the solution I will seek. So do I just use the existing motor shield and armature with this? What kind of changes will have to be made, new brushes at least?

I've never before used ESU decoders. Wha the exact product I should get? Do they come preloaded with Steam/Diesel/Electric sounds, like mSD3 comes?

LokProgrammer is the software, right? So how do I connect the decoder to my Mac, do I need an USB dongle, like Märklin has 60971?

EDIT, add comment:



This looks like a genious way to do it and for this solution, I would not have to buy anything, since I have one extra 60944 and mSD3 at hand... Also I think I have at least two more of this motor shields if I mess up... This is worth considering.


Thanks!

-Eino

read this post datong back to 2010. Might be useful

https://www.marklin-user...R-18-4--3093--to-Digital

Thanks! Can’t ever have too much info. Much appreciated.

Luckily I’ve conerted about 10 locos so far. Only the V200’s and NS1200s have been straight forward. All others have required some tooling.

Here’s a 3072 I did:
https://www.instagram.co...-Dk/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=


I think my choice will be to flip the brush plate 180 degrees.

BTW this is off topic, but when connecting smoke generator (I have not done that yet before) do I solder the Aux1 cable to the small pin at the bottom of the generator (or copper plate if loco has it) and then solder the body of the generator directly to track ground?

BR,
-Eino

Seuthe has a smoke unit designed for use in a plastic body. I can't recall the catalogue number off hand.

Ideally, also instead of soldering a wire to the bottom contact, set up a spring contact like marklin does, then the body can be removed without having to worry about the wire.

Hi
The 3093 has a metal body and is already equipped for installation of a 3.5mm smoke generator

Costas

Hi guys,

Thank you for all the resources. I ended up flipping the copper brush holder 180 degrees. It took about 15 minutes to do. I haven't tested it yet, but I will first try it with FX decoder, just in case something is wrong and the decoder will burn. Here are some pictures: https://www.instagram.co..._Ud/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=



Thanks! This provides the info I needed to understand the connections.



Yes absolutely so. And even if there weren't I'd bend one from copper plating (from an old reversing unit for example)

Hello, oh, sorry for the IG link. I never noticed there was an option to upload an attachment. Little did I know.

Anyways here is a video of the end result... Or maybe it's halfway done. IT IS NOT GOOD.



On slover speeds the engine is jerking a lot. This may be a decoder defect, but I'm sure it's got more to do with brushes contacting the commutator... Does anyone have experience how sensitive these are?

Anyways, here's what I've learned, since I actually did this two times over:

- For the love of everything that is good in the world, DO NOT BEND THE COPPER PARTS. This will lead to disaster in terms of power getting to the commutator. (For example loose spring tension does not push the brushes hard enough towards the commutator)

- Do what ever tooling needs to be done to separate the copper parts without harming them. The second time, I removed them from another plate by cutting the plastic around the parts, until the plastic shattered off.

- Do what ever tooling is needed to the plastic, to make sure the copper parts go in place easily, do not force them. Have an intact plate near by to have a reference on how the parts should be aligned exactly.

The first time around, the motor running was terrible. It is now better, but still no good.

Could it be that over time, the brushes have been honed/polished to have a better contact to the commutator in the "non factory" angle they currently are in?

Any suggestions?

-Eino

Hello,

to add in to my previous two posts, I think I now have it running smoothly, however I noticed a problem with traction. The tires were at the end of their lives. Unfortunately I don't have steam loco traction tires available so I stretched an smaller tiers around the wheels, but that didn't improve it as you can imagine. So I need to order some traction tires.

Anyways, what did I do?

- Re attach all parts, make sure that everything is well in place

- Re solder connections to motor, I think this played big role here

You can see the result here in YouTube

Let's see what happens when I get new tires for it and also the mSD3 which will be delivered to me in next four days.

I'm hopeful about this!

One thing though. Only two wheels have the grooves for the tires, what if that does not bring enough traction?

-Eino

Thanks!

Not yet. I’m testing with 60760 FX decoder. Just in case I defect the motor and it fries the decoder. Better to fry 19€ decoder than 90€.

So the mSD3 will arrive in a few days, so we see what happens. Though I think that the motor is now running as it usually does with 60760.

The traction is so bad that the loco just slides on the tracks like on ice.

I will order tires, but makes me wonder if everything is ok mechanically here… I mean there is no traction at all. Have a look at this:

I actually noticed earlier that the trailing wheel is very tight, but since I’m quite inexperienced, did not think it was important. I’ll loosen it a bit when I get back to the trains later next week.

About the auto camibration. I only have MS2 (I drive with Rocrail) so MFX gives some fancy named menu options for me and it’s not nearly the whole set.

I have no experience with DCC, but could I do it with it? How do I initialy set the decoder as DCC when adding to MS2? Later if I wan’t to change back to MFX, how is it done and does is keep the calibration?

-Eino

Thanks! I’ll look into it.

Google is nearly useless since all the resources are in german and almost nothing can be found with english keywords, so thank you!

-Eino

just to clarify, you have connected the Aux1 wire to the small pin or wire that comes out in the bottom centre of the smoke generator?

The fault description you give might be that of the decoder overload protection. but the smoke generator might also "hiss" a bit when activated, and if fill too much it won't smoke.

I just connected a 1950s steamer's smoke unit with 60906 mfx decoder. The aux wire goes to the little center piece wire (the 'glowing' part of the unit). The external case goes to ground. Note that smoke unit uses track ground (via train), not decoder ground (in contrast to led lights and telex).
Once installed you may need to adjust the decoder output to aux, so the smoke unit does not overheat.

Ok,

I will make sure that everything is connected correctly. I have tested everything to the copper plate, but obviously can’t measure when chassis is on. However, if there would be no contact with the copper plate and smoke unit bottom pin, I guess there would not be flicker with the lights.

Ground is track ground via the loco chassis/hull. I’ll double check that again.

I will get back with the results.

Edit:



I will do these measurements and check the link also! Will get back to you.

Much appreciated!

Thanks!

-Eino

So I found out the problem. The solder joint from Aux1 to the copper plate was too big of a blob, so the smoke unit's body touched it and caused a short circtuit. See this video:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YVKCl0qyARg


Here's the end result of the loco running with perfect smoke!



Decoder is still in factory settings.

I'm hoping I can initiate the calibration with the Decoder programmer when it will arrive hopefully next week. Haven't ever used the software, but I guess one can write CV with it.

Thank you very much for everyone who helped me out on this topic!

-Eino