Hi Luna,
I compared non Marklin 6 pin cable to the blue Marklin ones and they look the same. I do know from the manual that the Marklin cables are shielded to prevent interference. I don't know if all RJ45's are.

regards,
Roger

Hello Luna,

I have all my s88 modules together as close as possible to my command station. I use long runs (some over 30 feet) from all my contact tracks to these s88 modules. These single wires from contact tracks are just "open" or "GND" levels with not much chance of RF interference. I use either single 22 AWG wires or CAT 6 cables. I have used this system for over 25 years with no problems. Using CAT 6 cable is very inexpensive -- you can connect up to 8 contact tracks to one cable, and buying a few 100 foot rolls or even a 1000 ft bulk pack is the way to go.

The actual problems of interference that can occur is in the length of ribbon cable between various s88 decoders and the ribbon cable from the last s88 to the command station. Those are the critical lengths which you want to minimize.

Or... go with the newer s88-N standard, which connects s88 modules via Ethernet cables and does away with flat ribbon cables altogether.

Just some suggestions based on experience.

Cheers,

That's not the issue. The issue is using longer cables than the stock 3' (1m) ones that come with the S88's so that they can be set up close to the feedback track locations.

My L88 and S88's all use the S88-N RJ-45 cables to interconnect. I have never seen a Marklin statement, pro or con, about using longer cables than they supply.