I spent some hours reconfiguring the layout to avoid the dreaded common ground as mentioned in the manual:

8.7. Wiring external boosters
Should the power output of the integral booster be insufficient you may connect more external boosters. For this purpose you have to divide your layout into several individual electrical sectors. Always insulate all conductors (tracks). There may not be any Common!

The track power is handled by the eCOS and the power for the signals and turnouts is handled by the external 6017 booster.. Please see http://www.ldt-infocenter.com/page/page_166.zip for the wiring.. At the moment the power to the 5233s and the ground to the 5217/6088 is from the eCOS..

However, there are a few problems..

1. The external booster does not show a reading in the new current reporting part of the eCOS. (I can see consumption for the eCOS, but not the external booster which reports "no current".)

2. I use Viessmann 5211 decoders which come with an external feed from another transformer. Normally this transformer uses the common (track) ground. However, the only way that I could get the decoders to work was to connect the transformer to the booster's ground. (Please see the diagram below - light blue boxes are transformers or trafos).

3. The turnout lanterns no longer light except momentarily when the turnouts are switched.



Any suggestions?

My greater concern is when WDP X.3 arrives and I hook up the HSI-88 with its bank of 5217, 5233 and 6088s. The HSI-88 unit is also powered from another transformer.. An example of the HSI-88 wiring is on the LDT website at http://www.ldt-infocenter.com/page/page_166.zip

Edited by moderator 10 January 2011 20:55:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

No need to apologise David.. I enjoy a distraction - I even cause some myself..

Funny enough - I thought that Nev would beat you to it... But he knows that I bought my eCOS for two reasons:
1. No one had an updated CS for sale; and
2. I did not want to go through the pain that Nev experienced to get his update (still going since August!)..

I am sure that the answer to my question will also apply to CS users with boosters, HSI-88s and WDP...

I agree Martin, but in those cases the power supply and the rest of the system was the same.. The IB and the DIGITAL-S-INSIDE worked fine set up with only the red side insulated and using common ground.

I am not even sure (or even understand) of the difference in output from the eCOS and the 6017 booster.. It is more than simply insulating M-track - consider the way that contact tracks and s88s work... In any case, if you are using a booster in the track area it would be impossible for the ground and feed not to be momentarily contacted as wheels (and sliders) cross from one section into the other.

Has anyone with a strong understanding of German seen anything in the ESU Support forum that can shed light on this?

Looking at the specs for some of the components on the HSI-88 Rev 2.0 unit I have, I have discovered the following.

The serial port is optically isolated, which is good news.

The brown connection is common to the whole circuit including the ground connection to the S88 bus.

I am not sure if there would be a problem with the brown connection. Definetly would have to either experiement (if one is brave enough), or ask Littfinski Daten Technik how their product integrates with a ECOS or CS unit (this would also include connecting S88 modules across more than one block section, eg more than one booster controlled section of the layout).

In the Marklin CS Updated manual there is a specific mention that the ground connection on a S88 module has to be connected the the track brown connection for it to work (this is with reference to the S88 port on the CS unit).

Hope this sheds some light on the matter.

Edit:

Just found a diagram on the LTD website which shows that the brown of the HSI-88 can be connected to the brown of the CS. the link is http://www.ldt-infocenter.com/page/page_439.zip

Looking at other documents on the site I have noticed that the examples for the S88 modules are the opto veriety. This would seem like a safer route. The real question is how much work is it to convert a standard S88 module into a optically isolated one by adding a sub module between the layout and a S88 module. Again that solution in my view would require that all S88 contacts per optical isolated modules be limited to a specific power district. By this I mean with in each booster section, so you can not connect track contacts or reed sensors from multiple booster sections of the layout to a single optical isolated module. This will surely leave unused inputs on S88 modules but definetly would be the safest approach to using optically isolated S88 inputs.

I am with Ron on this. I suspect this is a case of, or combination of the following:
-poor translation
-Poor technical writing of the original
-Corporate bull to sell some sort of isolator or more transformers or similar
-Plain ignorance of the technical issues at the manufacturer
-Over zealous legal fear of being sued for by a customers who may connect something to something else.

as I say, this is a suspicion- I do not have any experience with this hardware but it seems to me that all of the above elements are becoming all too common.

ADrian, He only beat me to it as I turned off early last nite and have only just seen the post.
N

Thanks Matthew...The struggle is that the HSI-88 is powered by an AC transformer (Actually - it is a blue Marklin one), but the eCOS is powered by 19V DC transformer, which I assume is passed through to the track power to make DC.. Can you really have a common ground in this case?

That would certainly be a benefit for those of us who are yet undecided.

In the end I bridged the two newly separated ground circuits to make a common ground.. Nothing caught fire (so far)..

Still don't get a current reading from the 6017 on the eCOS display, but everything now works properly - fingers are crossed...

I have the smoke watchers on standby and I have the portable electric smoke catcher fully charged..


I hope that the CS finally arrives intact.. It is very (I had a stronger adjective, but I indulged in some self-censorship) disgusting how long it has taken... [:(!][:(!][:(!]

DAvid,
Look at the time of this post and convert to NZ time. 9am indeed.
Arm is coming along quite nicely sometimes I cannot get the glass to the propper position and I have to move head. Secondary drinking arm giving problems, think it will be ok and not require a knife attack.
n

Stiff ssss went to Post office Nothing, Zero Zilth. Guess it is still lost in NZ.
Maybe Dion will have to supply another if it dont turn up soon.

The WDP upgrade arrived from Germany today.. So I will be REAL busy tonight...

Nev, sorry to hear that the CS still has not arrived...

Don't think so Adrian, just a coincidence.