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What is the Purple Wire in Marklin Digital Wiring? (Accessory decoder)
 Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 2,976 Location: CA, USA
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Hi all, A sanity check from you if you don't mind: what is the purpose of the purple color wiring in Marklin's (NOT NEM) Wire coloring scheme? If it helps via the specific use case, my #43109 passenger car has a factory accessory decoder, with a station sound. There are 3 wires from the decoder F3 to the sound board: The F3 wire, the orange wire (ground for F3 wire?) and a purple wire. Any idea what the purple one is for? Or is that the F3 ground/return? Why I'm asking: the sound board is bad, so I'd like to cut it out and use the F3 for interior lighting, but I'm not sure whether I connect the purple wire or the (more likely) orange wire to the light board. Images below- thanks!    |
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 1 user liked this useful post by 5HorizonsRR
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 Joined: 04/02/2011(UTC) Posts: 3,563 Location: Paris, France
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Hi Here is Märklin's official colour codes (extracted from a Märklin decoder manual  I can't find a purple in Märklin color code. In NEM it would be F2 Not much but this is all I have. Cheers Jean |
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 Joined: 04/08/2018(UTC) Posts: 1,156
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Originally Posted by: 5HorizonsRR  Hi all,
A sanity check from you if you don't mind: what is the purpose of the purple color wiring in Marklin's (NOT NEM) Wire coloring scheme?
If it helps via the specific use case, my #43109 passenger car has a factory accessory decoder, with a station sound.
There are 3 wires from the decoder F3 to the sound board: The F3 wire, the orange wire (ground for F3 wire?) and a purple wire. Any idea what the purple one is for? Or is that the F3 ground/return?
Why I'm asking: the sound board is bad, so I'd like to cut it out and use the F3 for interior lighting, but I'm not sure whether I connect the purple wire or the (more likely) orange wire to the light board.
Images below- thanks! The Purple/violet vire is decoder ground and the sound module needs it to operate. (Note: The purple is NOT equal to brown wire). the orange is defined as Decoder U+ or Ub+ (common). The decoder seems to be an old 60960 so check that you stay within the max limits for the decoder aux loads.
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1 user liked this useful post by bph
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Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 2,976 Location: CA, USA
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Thanks BPH!
I am using a relay for exactly the reason you mention: so that the aux load shouldn't be a concern.
So if I understand correctly, F3 is the Orange U+ paired with the brown/yellow wire,. And the purple wire is just an excess wire in the absence of a sound module?
The decoder manual shows only the two, but then verbally mentions the ground wire under "connection for a user"
Sorry for the extra questions, I'm far more familiar with NEM/DCC coloring and don't want to screw this up :) |
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1 user liked this useful post by 5HorizonsRR
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Joined: 04/08/2018(UTC) Posts: 1,156
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Hi, yes it should normally work to use orange and the brown-yellow wire for F3. (note there might be some exceptions....)
I don't have that sound module, but I believe that purple and orange basically provided + and - operating voltage to the sound module.
The Märklin Purple is on pin 20 on the MTC21 interface, and the orange is on pin 16
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1 user liked this useful post by bph
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Joined: 05/12/2004(UTC) Posts: 2,976 Location: CA, USA
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Awesome- thank you so much for the help! |
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1 user liked this useful post by 5HorizonsRR
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Joined: 08/12/2021(UTC) Posts: 141 Location: California, Sonoma County
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I did not read the trail of emails, maybe it has been solved.
Digital Consultants Curtis Jeung and Rick Sinclair do digital conversions, and they may be able to provide some information.
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1 user liked this useful post by Bill L
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What is the Purple Wire in Marklin Digital Wiring? (Accessory decoder)
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