Hello,

I am in the process of converting my old Marklin AC analog locos (all bought by my dad in late 60s) to digital.

So far, I have converted 9 locos, I am extremely satisfied with the results. In the ones I have more room, I am playing with different LEDs (white/red/strips).

I noticed that my 2 electric locos which were retrofitted with the 60977 decoder (mSD3 sound decoder - electric loco) have exactly the same sounds - which is understandable. After some investigation (reading lots of posts in this forum) I learned it is possible to program the decoders with different sounds and that Marklin has a large database with different loco sounds.

I am trying to change the sounds of my BR 103 (original 3053 retrofitted with high propulsion efficiency kit 60944 and mSD3 sound decoder 60977).

I am following the instructions of the mDecoderTool3 (version 3.6.0) and when I try to program the locomotive with the CS (I am not using a Decode programmer) I get the following error message:



I checked the firmware and bootloader versions and I got the following information:




Doing some research I learned these are not the latest version of the firmware and boo loader. With that in mind, I tried to use the option "Loco update", and I received the following error message:



Apparently I cannot update the firmware and bootloader of my decoder. I tried the same process with a few different locos (with retrofit decoder, with and without sound) and I always received the same message. Needless to say, I had the CS3 connected to the internet via Ethernet. Also, I am running my CS3 with the 2.4.1.0 update.

Questions:
Do I have to update the firmware and bootloader in order to program my decoder with different sounds? If so, how should I proceed?

Many thanks,

Denis Westphalen

PS1: I sent the question to Marklin and my hobby shop where I bought my CS3+ and decoders.
PS2: I followed the instructions provided by Jean to no avail https://www.marklin-users.net/forum/posts/t47388-Reprogramming-Factory-fitted-decoders

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, good question - I confirm I only have one loco on the track. I built a small independent oval for these tests.

No I cannot check the firmware of other locos on the Set Up page. I always get the same error message “The bootloader version request was not successful”. The problem occurs with old locos with retrofit decoders (I tried a few) as well as new digital locos (I only tried with one). I can only check the firmware info on the Configuration page.

Should I wait for the next cs3 update?

Thanks,
Denis

Interesting - never noticed the difference. Yes I am using the green output. I will test later today with the black output and report the results.

Thanks a lot!

We all do mistakes (I have done my good share) and sometimes it's only a wire in the wrong place, the hobby has become quite technical and it's easy to overlook something.

and doing your own decoder projects is satisfying and can really improve the locomotives.

as a side note, I have not seen that bootloader firmware is updated during firmware updates. I think that stays the same but I'm not absolutely sure. eg. I have some locomotives with firmware 3.2.2.1 and with bootloader 6.0.0.0