Hi all,

Some of you may remember the old ICE Experimental made by Märklin in the 1980s. A friend of mine ownes the 3371 (analog version) and would like to convert it to digital. I was thinking of using an ESU lokpilot with switching relay for the pickup shoes, like I did before for other ICE models. Unfortunately, this model is almost the only one not mentioned in ESU's lists on their website. (http://www.loksound.de --> support --> 33xx) This fact started me thinking: are the motors (Faulhabers) able of handling the input of the decoder? I can't test anything on the model since the original relay or another part of the PCB is defective.

Some background info:
- The model is equipped with two Faulhaber motors (should not be a problem, a LP is usually capable of controlling two motors, at least the regular 5* ones)
- The model has interior lighting in all coaches.

Anyone who has experience with digitalizing this model?

Thanks in advance!

Hello, Sander-san,

I digitalized my friend's 3371 using LokPilot with the relay and my hand made board.

@ Hajime: interesting solution! Does your solution have the capability of switching pickup shoes or are they both connected?

@ Mark: the solution Lutz has suggested contains two boards, one for each head. Only one of the two is equipped with a decoder interface, so one decoder (which is capable of handling over 500mA Motor current) will do. For example a ESU Lokpilot, ESU Loksound, Viessmann 5246 or others...

Sander-san,

It has capability of switching pickup shoes.
Because I used ESU's LokPilot kit including a shoe changing relay.
And it drives 2 Faulhaber motors.[:I]

Hi Sander,

a few years ago, I converted my 3371 with those PCBs by Sven Brandt.

They worked fine, but later on I found, that there were some designproblems.

First of all the train did'nt has a pickup-switching anymore.[:(]

In the second case, there was a big problem, as I turned down the front & rear light intensity by dimming the corrosponding decoder-channels (ESU-Lokpilot). The lights are driven by relays and wenn dimmed, the relays were fluttering with an terrible noise.

Because this happend, I decided to built my one PCBs.

This PCBs, now do not have all described disadvantages no more.

The best is the pickup-switching.
This works first with the Decoder 60905 (see Juergen Schads Homepage http://www.jus-kn.de/schleif.htm]) and after a redesign also with the new mfx-Märklin-Decoders(made by ESU)/ ESU-LokpilotV2 /V3 / ESU-Loksound V3.x and Kühn T145.

In all non-60905 cases the connection is made by a 8-pol. NEM-Connector. The 21-pol. mtc-connector is not supported.
One Decoder-AUX-Channel(AUX2) will be intern used for the pickup-switching, so that only AUX1 can by uses for F1 (Train-Light)
With a (mfx-)sounddecoder(ESU-ICE1) it also works great.

<u>Hint:</u>
The decoders must be programmed in a special way (ESU-Lokprogrammer, Maerklin-CS). With a 60905 some 701.23xy_ic-pins must be wired.

In all cases I have converted already some trains and it works great.

You can get these PCBs by sending me an email. They are not as cheap as those by SB, but therefor they have even more functionality.

Sander:

If these boards do not support pick up shoe switching, does the unit use both shoes when conversted?

r/mark

Sander:

Thanks for the quick reply. With both shoes in operation, this is not too much of a limitation for me. I think that I am going to go ahead and get these boards. My 3371 just sits in a box since it is not digital.

r/mark

To all:

Thanks to Jeff Koellmer, the article on how to convert the 3371 set to digital is now posted on the ETE-ENE website:

http://www.ete-ene.org/3...%20Convert%20Article.htm

r/mark