 Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Hi. Would be grateful for some assistance.
I am setting up a new C track layout and am using an inherited MS2 (60653) for testing purposes until I decide on which permanent controller/system to buy. This has been working perfectly well allowing me to test the points as I digitised them and to run a train on the track as I installed different sections.
This morning, I started to finish assembling some points but could not get the MS2 to fire up to test them. The handset display is as I would expect, but when selecting the point ID, having checked that I had set the dip switches correctly, they simply would not switch.
When connected to the track I get circa 12.6 volts on my multimeter.
I then tried to run a loco that was working last weekend, and nothing. When I tried to use the find loco function, the controller could not find any locos.
Would appreciate any ideas members might have so that I could carry out further tests to see if the controller has departed this earth or what else might be the problem.
Thanks very much
Alex
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Hi!
60653 is MS2, not CS2.
Which voltage readings do you get on your MS2 info screen?
Which firmware version do you have?
A reset to factory defaults may help. But all registered locos will be lost.
Do not trust the readings you get with a multimeter - unless it is a True RMS multimeter. |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS  |
 1 user liked this useful post by H0
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Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Thanks for the correction Tom,. I have corrected mat post.
From within the MS2 I have 18.3volts and am running software 1.81.
I did a reset but that has made no difference. The MS2 wont see any of my locos or any of the 16 switches on the layout.
Alex
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 Joined: 15/12/2005(UTC) Posts: 3,589 Location: Spain
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Disconnect the controller from the layout, and connect it to a single track-piece with a single loco. Does it work that way?
(You need to do that, in order to discard that it is indeed the controller that is failing, and not some bit of metal stuck between the tracks or some decoder malfunctioning) |
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 Joined: 04/02/2011(UTC) Posts: 3,555 Location: Paris, France
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Hi Alex
One possibility is that one pin (or more) on the MS2 connector is broken.
Depending on which it is the result vary. So, inspect closely the connector with a magnifier.
Märklin sells spare cable for MS2 for 15€ or so.
The other point to check is what voltage is providing the DC power 60360 (my case) It should be 19.4VDC
The voltage you measure on the track is irrelevant when using a normal multimeter (You MUST set to AC measure but the result is precise for sinusoidal waveforms at a low frequency (50-100HZ) but not at 10 kHz or more like on MFX waveforms.
Of course, the internal electronics may fail or the Track Box 60116 may fail. Your dealer or a friend may help you by testing with other components (other Track box, PSU, a CS3, etc)
Cheers
Jean |
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Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Hi and thanks everyone for your useful suggestions.
Problem turned out to be an issue within a new switch motor. Rested all the switches individually and eventually found the errant one, changed the motor and problem resolved.
Thanks again for your help and tips. Will be keeping this MS2 as a spare controller, but need to decide this weekend what main controller to purchase.
Alex
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1 user liked this useful post by Alex H
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Joined: 04/02/2011(UTC) Posts: 3,555 Location: Paris, France
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Hi Alex
If your trains are mostly Märklin, I strongly recommend a CS3 or CS3+.
This is because of all the synergies between Märklin products (programming / configuring locos, editing / programming sounds, fault finding in digital, etc).
They interact with each other (they are tested to work perfectly with each other).
I purchased a CS3 and never regretted it.
Cheers
Jean |
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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You have version 1.81?? It is a old version and you need to upgrade your MS2 to 3.121. I recommended you to use CS3 to do this. If not less you buy a new CS3 instead. |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: Goofy  You have version 1.81?? It is a old version and you need to upgrade your MS2 to 3.121. Yes, 1.81 is an old version. 3.121 is an old version, too. Why do you recommend that version? Upgrading to 1.83 would be a step forward. Upgrading to the last 4.x version wouldn't be bad either. But there is nothing wrong about 1.81 if you do not own any mfx+ locos. |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS |
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Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Originally Posted by: JohnjeanB Hi Alex
If your trains are mostly Märklin, I strongly recommend a CS3 or CS3+.
This is because of all the synergies between Märklin products (programming / configuring locos, editing / programming sounds, fault finding in digital, etc).
They interact with each other (they are tested to work perfectly with each other).
I purchased a CS3 and never regretted it.
Cheers
Jean Hi Jean The CS3 certainly has a lot going for it, and would make sense. The real downside for me is that you are tethered to the layout by the wires coming out of the back of it. Yes there is now a WiFi mobile controller but then that is a waste of the two controllers on the CS3. To me the beauty of, for example, the Z21, is that you can mount the unit out of the way on the layout, and then use an iPad or similar to run the trains. Of course the downside is that you lose the MFX functionality. Alex
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1 user liked this useful post by Alex H
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 Joined: 10/02/2021(UTC) Posts: 3,882 Location: Michigan, Troy
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The Zed 21 has that going for it, and high resolution cab driver graphics. However, the Roco system utilizes railcom, and the Marklin mfx doesn't. This can have some confusion for the decoders. The professional set costs about the same as a CS3 plus.I wonder which is better for using an automated o.s. software control such as Rocrail?
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Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Originally Posted by: marklinist5999 The Zed 21 has that going for it, and high resolution cab driver graphics. However, the Roco system utilizes railcom, and the Marklin mfx doesn't. This can have some confusion for the decoders. The professional set costs about the same as a CS3 plus.I wonder which is better for using an automated o.s. software control such as Rocrail? Id be interested to know the answer to that question as well - I am hoping to use iTrain for my automation.  Hopefully some users might chip in and offer their experiences.
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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Originally Posted by: H0 Originally Posted by: Goofy You have version 1.81?? It is a old version and you need to upgrade your MS2 to 3.121. Yes, 1.81 is an old version. 3.121 is an old version, too. Why do you recommend that version? Sorry i wrote wrong numbers...correct are 3.148. In Märklin homepage it still stand same numbers about Trix MS2 at version 3.121 which i did focus. |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: Goofy Sorry i wrote wrong numbers...correct are 3.148. Latest version is 4.1. Why not recommend 4.1? |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS |
1 user liked this useful post by H0
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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Originally Posted by: H0 Originally Posted by: Goofy Sorry i wrote wrong numbers...correct are 3.148. Latest version is 4.1. Why not recommend 4.1? What are you writing about? We discuss MS2. |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: Goofy What are you writing about? We discuss MS2. I write about Märklin MS 2. The latest SW version is 4.1. Who's not up-to-date? |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS |
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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Originally Posted by: H0 Originally Posted by: Goofy What are you writing about? We discuss MS2. I write about Märklin MS 2. The latest SW version is 4.1. Who's not up-to-date? And where is the information by Märklin? |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: Goofy And where is the information by Märklin? I dunno. My CS2 downloaded that version from the Internet. The Märklin dudes from USA confirm v 4.1 in their newsletter. |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS |
1 user liked this useful post by H0
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 Joined: 08/11/2005(UTC) Posts: 3,528 Location: Mullerup, 4200 Slagelse
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If you can dream it, you can do it! I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.  |
2 users liked this useful post by Purellum
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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Originally Posted by: Purellum You did present MS WLAN. That is not the MS2 we discuss about. |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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Joined: 08/11/2005(UTC) Posts: 3,528 Location: Mullerup, 4200 Slagelse
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 Originally Posted by: Goofy
You did present MS WLAN.
That is not the MS2 we discuss about.
No, try to read it again Per. |
If you can dream it, you can do it! I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. |
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Joined: 15/12/2005(UTC) Posts: 3,589 Location: Spain
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Oh my, here we goof again... |
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1 user liked this useful post by hxmiesa
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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I did contact a hobby store to get verified and they say that correct version are 3.148. |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,464 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,464 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: Goofy I did contact a hobby store to get verified and they say that correct version are 3.148. They are obviously not keeping up with their communications from Marklin. Have another look at the image of the Marklin ms2 page above, and re-read the information on it much more carefully.
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3 users liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: Goofy I did contact a hobby store to get verified and they say that correct version are 3.148. Ah, a hobby shop. A shop with professionals would have confirmed that 4.1 is the latest version.  |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS |
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Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Hey guys, My original post was about a fault I was having, using an inherited MS2. Thanks to other posts, I got to the bottom of the problem and the issue was resolved. It is obvious from my post that I am not in a position to upgrade the software in the MS2 as I don't have a CS3, so in my option all of the posts about what is and isn't the latest software is irrelevant, my MS2 is stuck on what it has unless I buy a CS3. Clear one member believes it is one version, a second member, another. Lets leave it at that and agree to differ shall we? Alex
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,464 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: Alex H
It is obvious from my post that I am not in a position to upgrade the software in the MS2 as I don't have a CS3,
If you come to one of the meetings that we periodically have (as announced through this forum) someone will be quite happy to update it for you.
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1 user liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
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Joined: 25/03/2017(UTC) Posts: 119 Location: England, Devon
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Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan Originally Posted by: Alex H
It is obvious from my post that I am not in a position to upgrade the software in the MS2 as I don't have a CS3,
If you come to one of the meetings that we periodically have (as announced through this forum) someone will be quite happy to update it for you. Thanks, I am based in Devon but hopefully might be able to come to one of the meetings, or possibly find someone locally to update it for me. I may of course decide to buy the CS3 as my controller, looking at one of Tuesday. I think its between the CS3 or the Z21
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,442
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: Alex H It is obvious from my post that I am not in a position to upgrade the software in the MS2 as I don't have a CS3, so in my option all of the posts about what is and isn't the latest software is irrelevant, my MS2 is stuck on what it has unless I buy a CS3. Clear one member believes it is one version, a second member, another. One member goofs up many threads. Since the issue was resolved, I thought it was OK to continue on a side track. With respect to upgrades: One way is to mail your MS2 to a member you trust to get the upgrade installed. If you ever buy another MS2 with a newer version installed, you can bring both MS2s to the same version. So there is another upgrade path without buying a CS3 or CS2. Version 1.81 is stable, but cannot handle mfx+ decoders. So if you ever buy a loco with mfx+, an update of the MS2 is required. |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS |
2 users liked this useful post by H0
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