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Current Central Station 2 Version – 4.1.0 Current Mobile Station 2 Version – 2.5 As we start the New Year we have just seen the new items announcements from the factory, including the new Central Station 3 and Mobile Station! And just like you, we cannot get our hands on them soon enough, so we can see the differences and similarities firsthand. In this issue we continue with the Central Station 2 basics and advanced routing.

Central Station 2 Basics This is where the basics of entering locomotives will start. While it is easy to enter locomotives, there needs to be an understanding of various steps. This includes what type of decoder is in a locomotive to be entered and how to enter it into the Central Station 2 (CS2).

Explanation of Decoders An explanation of the various circuit boards (decoders) inside the locomotives and their differences is in order, which I will explain. It is also important to know that there are a few accessories that are not locomotives, that have a decoder in them, and this description applies to them as well. This explanation will also help later in this article. There are basically three types of decoders: Code Switches (dipswitches) Fx (programmable) and MFX/MFX+ as described below.

Code Switches (dipswitches) Code Switches are the oldest style of decoder. These decoders include the Delta System, C80 and C81 decoders and the 6090, 6090x decoders. Delta decoders have 4 dipswitches. All other decoders have either 8 or 10 dipswitches. The address of the locomotive is set manually on the dipswitches to a digital address (1-80). Delta decoders can be set to 15 digital addresses that are within the 1-80 digital addresses. None of these decoders have feedback to the controller. Only the later 6090x decoders have a potentiometer (pot) to adjust the top speed and the acceleration/braking delay.

NEWSLETTER

Vol. 28 – No. 1 January - February 2016

Digital Consultants

Rick Sinclair Curtis Jeung

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Fx/Programmable Fx/Programmable decoders are all electronic. The address, top speed and acceleration/braking delay (AVB) is set/modified electronically with the controller. There is no feedback to the controller.

MFX/MFX+ The MFX/MFX+ decoders have feedback to the controller. While they cannot give their position on the layout, the decoder and controller “talk” back and forth to each other. This is how the locomotive/accessory can register automatically in the controller. The “+” in “MFX+” means that the locomotive has a feature that allows the operator to drive the locomotive from the engineer’s seat. An image of the cab comes up on the screen of the CS2 and the operator must turn levers and dials to drive the locomotive among other features.

Entering Locomotives Usually when you get a new controller, you will naturally want to connect it to the track then enter a locomotive to get the feel for it. If you received a starter set with a CS2, then the locomotives are usually entered already. Märklin MFX locomotives have the MFX or MFX+ icon on the box and will register automatically because there is feedback to the controller. When the locomotive is set on the main layout or the programming track, the MFX icon under the speed dial should appear. It will be grey while it is in the register process and then it will be in color when it is finished. Once the locomotive has registered, touch the MFX icon under either speed indicator. The locomotive will be ready to use on the respective side of the CS2. Märklin Fx locomotives do not register automatically because there is no feedback to the controller. The following is the procedure to enter an Fx locomotive.

Entering an Fx Locomotive From the inventory screen, touch the “+” in the upper right hand corner. (Fig. 1)

Fig. 1

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A pop-up window will open with four options (Fig.2). New Locomotive – from database New Locomotive – manual Create M.U. Set Manually search for mfx locomotive To enter a locomotive for the first time, use one of the “New Locomotive” selections.

Locomotive from Database This selection can be used if you have the Märklin part number. This works well for almost every non-MFX locomotive.

Enter the Märklin part number in the “Item No.” box.

The CS2 will find that number and highlight it in grey. Click the green check mark and the CS2 will load the information. The locomotive will be highlighted with a blue border in the first position (upper left) of the inventory page (Fig. 3).

If there is an icon in the library for the part number that you are entering, then the CS2 will assign the icon. The icon might be a different paint scheme or a slightly different type of locomotive. If there is no icon then the CS2 will have the default question marks.

The CS2 will use the default address that was assigned when it left the factory. If the address has been changed in the locomotive, then it can be modified later in the CS2. Modifications will be explained in the next article.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

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Locomotive – Manual

When the Manual selection is made, the CS2 goes to the locomotive configuration page (Fig. 4). From here all aspects of a new locomotive can be entered.

First enter a locomotive name. Next select an icon by tapping the default question mark icons. Tap on the icon that you like, and then tap the green check mark (Fig. 5). Now select an icon for this locomotive for use with a Mobile Station 2 (MS2). The next item to enter is the decoder type (Fig. 6). It is important that you select the correct type of decoder. If the wrong decoder is selected, you will not be able to edit the Configuration Variables (CVs) later. Also, this field is not editable later after the locomotive is saved.

Touch the screen to see the drop-down menu. As I mentioned before, “Coding Switches” are the dipswitch decoders. “Programmable” is the Fx decoders. (The MM2 stands for “Märklin Motorola 2” protocol.) The next step is the address. Enter the address of the locomotive number. If the screen is touched where the number is, a pop-up screen will appear and you can type the address number then click the green check mark (Fig. 7).

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

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When “Coding Switches” is selected and an address is entered the dipswitch image changes. This is how the dipswitches have to be set for this address on a “Coding Switch” decoder. Every digital address has a different configuration for the coding switches on the decoder (Fig. 8). It is important to remember that on the decoder the switch numbers are always at the bottom and the “up” position means “on” for that switch.

Fig. 7

The “Coding Switches” 4 or 8 refers to a Delta decoder or a full digital decoder as Delta decoders only have 4 dipswitches.

Finding an Address If the address is not known, the CS2 can try to find it for you. It does not matter which decoder type that you have in the locomotive (dipswitch or Fx), the CS2 will use the same procedure to

find the address. It is important to note that the CS2 will not know what type of decoder it finds. It is only looking for an address. To find the address, the locomotive must first be put on the “Programming Track”. There must not be any other locomotives or accessories connected to the programming track. Touch the box next to the “+” that has a locomotive image with an up arrow (Fig. 9).

The CS2 will scan through the addresses 1-80 and look for a power drain for each address. When it finds a power drain, the address is set in the “Address” box.

Once all of these parameters are in place, the locomotive can be saved with the green check mark. The locomotive will be in the inventory and the CS2 will need to know if you want that locomotive to be on the left or right control knob. In this instance the left is selected (Fig. 10). The red dot indicates the side the locomotive will be set. Touch the grey dot to change the sides if desired. Then touch the green check mark to return to the Control screen.

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

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These are the basics of entering a locomotive. In the next issue, I will explain some procedures of editing the locomotive characteristics using the CVs. Enjoy your hobbies! Sincerely, Rick Sinclair

Upcoming Appearance in the Märklin Exhibit: Rocky Mountain Train Show March 5 & 6, 2016 Denver Mart – Expo Buildng 451 E. 58th Ave. Denver, Colorado Visit www.rockymountainshow.com for more information.

A Guide to the Central Station 2’s Memory Tab, Part 1 (CS software version 4.0 or greater) Since our articles began for the Digital Club Newsletter in 2015, I’ve wanted to give readers the insights into utilizing the tools found within the Memory tab of the Central Station 2. Unfortunately, to have done so at the beginning would have created a situation where there would have been more questions than answers. The concepts needed to complete memory instructions, or more correctly “scripts”, would have to be explained first. These concepts centered around track feedback sensors, strategies of use and a method to easily access them within the CS2 (please see Digital newsletters #1, #2 and #3 for 2015). Tools found in the Memory tab of the CS2 will use all of the concepts and applications written about in the first three newsletters. A memory script can activate an automated locomotive sequence such as blow a whistle, and then accelerate out of a station. Or, a script can be used to automate track routines, such as re-routing a train to a specific yard line. In this article, I am going to explain the components found in the Memory tab, and the Configuration memory windows. The complexity of what can be done in the Memory tab has divided this

Fig. 10

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article into two parts. Part 1 will cover the basics of scripting with manually controlled activation. In Part 2, I will dive into the concepts and settings for automated control. That is, you can use the layout to help manage some or all of your train fun!

The Memory Tab

Each Memory tab page displays spaces for 32 memory scripts. They are found in four rows of 8. Each row can be set as manually controlled, or automatically controlled. One can also say ‘layout controlled’, because it is the trains on the layout that are used to trigger a script. There are 13 pages of scripts, which brings the total number of possible scripts to 416. Entering into the Configuration memory window is done by simply clicking on the wrench icon (see Fig. 1). Selecting a memory slot expands the Memory tab to the right and the bottom of the screen. The expansion reveals the script sequence panel (right) and configuration settings (bottom panel) for the selected memory slot. First, I will explain the process of memory scripting.

Scripting A memory script is a number of steps that are activated in sequential order. Steps are recorded actions received on the CS2. They can be changes to turnouts, locomotive whistles, changing signals, etc. Practically speaking, any action that is used to operate a layout or train can be automated in a script.

Scripting Routing Paths Turnouts can be selected either from the Keyboard or Layout sections of the CS2. Selecting from a layout plan will save time

Fig. 1 - Script buttons, script sequence panel (right), Configuration memory panel bottom.

Fig. 2 - Layout and Memory edit interaction. Start and End indicate desired route path.

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and effort wasted on having to search and locate specific turnouts configured in multiple Keyboard pages. In Fig. 2, I have selected the Layout tab to activate it. Please note that the Memory tab is still in edit mode, as indicated by the colored background. I have indicated my desired route with “start” and “end” tags. To properly route the path, I will have to select the turnouts indicated by numbers 1, 2 and 3. By clicking on the turnouts as numbered, the script sequence window in Fig. 3 will now display the turnouts in the order as clicked, as indicated by 1, 2 and 3. The information shown in each script step is: The direction setting of the turnout, and the keyboard ID where the turnout has been saved in the CS2. The keyboard slot number is also the decoder address that is reserved for that turnout. As I mentioned before, if you were to use the Keyboard tab to enter this sequence, you would have to know the keyboard IDs used on the path (in this example: 9,1 and 10) in order to set the route. Using the Layout tab, the path is simply set by selecting the turnouts from the track plan. The example shows the indicator for the active script step, shown as a blue outline. To change an active step configuration, you can either click on its keyboard or layout controller. If, however, you were to activate another turnout, a new step will be placed immediately AFTER the currently active step. In Fig. 4, I edit the example script to include a delay between the second and third script steps. The first step is to click the second script step to make it active. Next, click on the “+Text” button in the “Configuration memory” panel to open the “Add Text Element” window. The “Add Text Element” window contains entry fields for “Stationname”, “Tracksection length”, and “Delaytime”. Setting the Delay time field sets a timing delay before the next action is allowed to occur. The timing delay is in a format of Hrs : Mins : Secs : Millisecs. The example sets the delay of 3 seconds. In order to accept the delay a Station name has to be entered. In this case the Station name is “delay”. Selecting the green checkmark enters the element and adds to the script sequence panel (right). As shown

Fig. 4 - Routing sequence edit sample

Fig. 3 - Script sequence updated

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in the example, the new step is placed after the original active step. The newly added step displays the Delay time and Station name.

Route Indicators There are indicators to show you the status of a memory routing script. An unset path will show the broken path icon in the memory page. A fully activated path (where all turnouts are configured according to the script) the icon path will be closed and a green dot will be displayed. A routing path in progress, or completing its script, will display a yellow dot instead of green. Fig. 5 shows the icons for an unset path and an activated route. These icons are valid for turnout/switch scripts only. Adding delay settings or compound scripts will not display these icons. I will discuss compound scripts later in this article.

Scripting Locomotive Actions Scripting is basically the same where the script order of actions is sequential in nature. Each step entry may have more details and will often need to be edited. From the Configuration memory window (blue screen edit mode for a memory slot), click to the Control tab of the CS2. The script sequence panel will now be on the left and the memory tab show it is in edit mode (See Fig. 6). Setting the speed of a locomotive will place a script step in the sequence (Fig. 7). The information in the script step displays the Delay setting, Control type icon, locomotive name and Speed setting. Delay settings are calculated real time and based on when the actions are made. For example: The script sequence on the right shows that I have added a speed adjustment which added a second script step. I set the speed adjustment roughly 2.5 minutes after creating the first script step, but the CS2 views it as a delay as part of the first step. Comparing the first script steps on both illustrations, you can see that the delay settings went from 1.1 seconds to 2.5 minutes.

Fig. 5 - Route indicators: Unset path (left), actuated path (right)

Fig. 6 - Control and Memory edit interaction

Fig. 7 - Locomotive action scripting

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2.5 minutes is typically much too long of a delay to wait for a next step in your script, so an edit to the delay must be made. To make edits to the script, hold the cursor on the script step and an “Edit Rootelement” window will open (Fig. 8). You can make edits to the speed setting (“Value”) or the delay time. The example in Fig. 7 only holds information for simple speed settings for a locomotive. Fig. 9 illustrates some complex behavior when creating a locomotive script that requires a direction change. Certain actions in the CS2 places 3 script steps from a single click. The first action placed is the click event like pushing the speed adjustment knob or changing the direction arrow. Its icon displays a down arrow which represents a pushed button event. The second step shows that the speed was set to zero, which happens with all direction changes. The third step indicates the direction setting that is now applied to the Loc. (It is important to remember that the direction indicator is relative to the direction of the locomotive setting in the control panel, not the direction of the locomotive. In other words, there is a direction setting for forward as well as reverse, the arrow indicator does not change the direction of the train.) Multiple action entries can make scripts hard to evaluate and read, especially if changes are necessary. For example, if you had 3 clicks to create a locomotive script, the CS2 could read and write 9 script steps. You will likely find that there will be some time delays that will need to be edited as well. The solution that I have found for this is that the Pushed button event and the Speed control event are typically redundant with most actions. I usually will delete them from the script sequence, thus making it a single item in the script sequence. This is done by selecting them as the active item, then clicking on the “trash can” icon at the bottom of the panel.

Compound or Nested Scripts The previous examples show a routing script and a locomotive script. It is a good idea to keep these distinct from each other. For example, if you wanted a train to turn on its lights, blow a whistle, set a track route out of a station to a specific line, then start the train at speed 50. Create a separate script for the locomotive, and a script entry for the track route. The benefit of this is that your track routing scripts are simplistic with timing, whereas a locomotive script may have multiple steps that require specific timing.

Fig. 9 – Complex script action

Fig. 8 – Edit Routeelement window

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It is simple to envision routing paths around a layout, but when adding scripts to your memory slots, you may find that there are repeated steps amongst many of the memory slots. Rather than repeating steps for each of those slots, you can create a memory script for just those repetitive steps. Then, for any scripts that require those repetitive script steps, you can place a memory slot into a script. Thus, placing a script within a script. This is called a compound or nested script. I’ll use the following yard plan to show how compound scripts can be used (Fig. 10). For the purpose of this example, I have only numbered the turnouts that are necessary for this outing. I will also only be using the top yard entry line, by turnout #1. Table 1 shows a sample memory script shorthand that illustrates how compound scripts can be utilized. Also, it allows me to introduce a shorthand that we’ll use in future articles to give quick instructions to memory scripts.

Looking at the first two steps of the table (Table 1 – rows 1-2, highlighted), you can see that the script steps are the same for entry to Gleis 3,4,5, and 6. Even though the example may not seem to be much, if you make changes to the setup of turnouts 1 and 2, You will have to edit each of those scripts to adapt. Table 2 illustrates how the compound scripting can now be written. These common script steps can be added to a separate memory slot (“1-2 script”). “1-2 script” can now be entered into each script sequence as shown in the table. If changes are needed between turnouts 1 and 2, you will only need to edit the script in the “1-2 script”. Fig. 11 shows how a compound script may look in the CS2.

Memory Slot Gleis 3 Gleis 4 Gleis 5 Gleis 6

Script steps 1-r (right) 1-r 1-r 1-r

2-x (crossover)

2-x 2-x 2-x

3-l (left) 3-s (straight)

3-s 3-s

4-nx (non-crossing)

4-x 4-x

5-l 5-s Table 1 - Repetitive scripting

Memory Slot 1-2 script Gleis 3 Gleis 4 Gleis 5 Gleis 6

Script steps 1-r (right) 1-2 script 1-2 script 1-2 script 1-2 script

2-x (crossover)

3-l (left) 3-s (straight)

3-s 3-s

4-nx (non crossing)

4-x 4-x

5-l 5-s

Table 2 - Compound scripting

Fig. 10 - Compound scripting yard example

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Memory Script Activation To activate your scripts manually there are two methods to do so. Clicking the appropriate memory slot in the memory tab will activate your script accordingly. The second method would be to add a memory slot into your track plan in the layout tab (see Digital Newsletter 2015 – #3) and clicking it as you would a turnout, or signal light. The second method is great for manipulating turnouts into a yard. See Fig 12.

Fig. 12 – Yard with Memory script

Summary Part 1 The first part of learning to use the Memory tab of the Central Station 2 explains the basics of memory scripts. The sequenced steps can be categorized into layout sequences and locomotive sequences. Instruction was given on basic editing of a script and the editable details of each step. Nesting scripts into compound actions was also discussed. At this point you can create automated sequences that are manually activated. In my next article I will show how memory scripts can be triggered by events on the train layout. While you may not wish to create a fully automated layout, it is possible to use automation to remove some of the burden of constant monitoring. We (Rick and I) have two sayings which always seem to be true. One: The moment when you are not monitoring your track is when collisions happen. And, two: Whenever you want to show the layout to somebody, that is when the layout stops running flawlessly. Until next time, Happy Railroading! Curtis

To contact Rick and Curtis for help with your Digital, technical and product related questions: Phone: 650-569-1318 Hours: 6:00am – 9:00pm PST. Monday through Friday. E-mail: digital@marklin.com

Märklin Digital Club · PO Box 510559 · New Berlin WI 53151-0559

Fig. 11 - CS2 Compound script