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11.1.1.1. Hints for save registration of mfx® locomotives
Always make sure that the following is adhered to during the
entire registration process:
• The locomotive must not be in a district powered by a 6017
booster or any other type of booster that is not M4 capable.
• The locomotive is not placed in automatically controlled
blocks.
• The locomotive is not placed in stop sections.
• The locomotive is not placed in brake sections or districts pow-
ered by brake boosters.
• The wiring of your layout is in excellent condition. Track feeder
points (B) and (0) should be located every 1.5m to 2.0m, parti-
cularly before and behind turnouts.
• Do not use multi-core or twisted cables (e.g. post office cables,
etc.) for wiring the ECoS to the layout. In twisted cables the
feedback signals may be distorted.
• Keep the cables between command station and layout as short
as possible and make sure that they are of sufficient wire gauge
(for cable lengths of more than 5m the minimum cross section
should be 1.5mm²). Stranded wires with 0.14mm² are totally
unsuitable for track feeders and are a frequent cause of mal-
functions for M4 registrations.
• Do not place the power cables from the boosters to the diffe-
rent layout districts parallel to each other. This may lead to an
unintended signal cross-over of the mfx® signals.
• Remove all M track turnout signals whose light bulbs are di-
rectly powered from the track and check all car lighting: in-
terior lighting with capacitors (without recharging circuitry)
are “reliable feedback killers”. Use interior lighting sets with
rectifiers and preferably with LED technology, for instance from
ESU. Please press the STOP button before you put the loco on
the tracks.
11.1.1.2. New registration of M4 locomotives
After the initial registration at the command station it may
happen that the locomotive must register once again during
operation. This could be due to the following reasons:
• An M4 locomotive that was not located in the appropriate dis-
trict (not on the layout, signal stop section, district powered
by a booster that is not feedback capable) has been manually
deleted from the locomotive choice list.
• The decoder settings have been changed with the ESU LokPro-
grammer and then the locomotive was placed on the layout
again.
• The locomotive has been operated with another M4 command
station (e.g. ESU ECoS, Märklin® mobile station) and has now
been returned to its “home layout”.
• The locomotive with M4 decoder is located in a brake section
or a stop section while another locomotive has been manually
deleted from the locomotive choice list. Once the locomotive
receives power again it will register anew.
• The locomotive decoder has been reset to the factory default
values.
Under the following conditions all M4 locomotives will register
again at the command station:
• If backup data have been downloaded onto the ECoS (compa-
re to chapter 24.2.3.). In this case all M4 locomotives will regis-
ter again in order to assure data verification between decoders
and command station.
• The command station has undergone a factory reset (compare
to chapter 21.1.4.). In this case all M4 locomotives will register
anew.
• A (any) locomotive has been deleted from the locomotive list
while the “Stop” button was pressed (that is when there was
no track power available). After pressing the “Go” button all
M4 locomotives will register anew in order to assure data veri-
fication between decoders and command station.
11.1.2. Entering Märklin® locomotives into the data base
The ECoS has an internal data base containing the factory data
from most of the older Märklin® locomotives. Entering these
locomotives is particularly easy. The following steps can be con-
ducted either with the left or the right cab. Here we explain the
procedure for the left cab.
Takes you to the locomotive menu.
The choice menu as per Figure 35 will open. The arrow next
to the entry “New locomotive” indicates that sub menus will
open whenever this line is selected. Choose the sub menu by
clicking onto the corresponding text line on the screen.
• Select “New locomotive” and a sub menu opens.
• Select “From data base” and a menu with various entries of
the integral data base opens.
Figure 34
Run locomotives
Figure 35
Figure 36
11. Run locomotives
ECoS stores a list of locos in which you have entered all locos
that you want to run on your layout. Any loco without an entry
in this list cannot be operated. Therefore these data have to be
entered once at the beginning
Entering a locomotive in the locomotive list is either happening
fully automatically (M4 locomotives) or manually supported by
a comfortable menu technique. The entries can be extended,
changed or deleted. These entries are not only needed for the
ECoS but also for all peripheral devices either connected direct-
ly to the ECoS or via other devices.
The maximum number of entries in the locomotive list is 16348 lo-
comotives and thus far exceeds any realistically needed number.
11.1. Adding new locomotives
There are several possibilities for entering new locomotives:
• Automatic detection and registration of M4 locomotives
• Selecting Märklin® locomotives form the internal locomotive
data base
• Entering locomotives manually
Which method you choose is up to your personal preferences.
11.1.1. Entering M4 locomotives
Märklin® mfx® locomotives resp. locomotives with ESU M4
decoders will generally register themselves. Simply place the
locomotive on a track of your layout. Please make sure that
the layout is powered (the green “Go” button is lit). The loco-
motive must not be located in an area where the power may
be turned of occasionally (e.g. signal stop section or similar,
booster connected to the external booster interface).
Subject to the type of decoder the transmission of data from
an M4 decoder to the command station takes about one mi-
nute. If the locomotive is being placed on the layout during
operations for the very first time then this process may take up
to 3 minutes.
During this registration process the progress is indicated by a
progress bar in the status field at the top left of the screen.
Once the bar completely fills the symbol you can assign the lo-
comotive to either cab by pressing one of the two M4 symbols
(left or right). The locomotive has also been entered into the
internal locomotive list automatically.
M4 locomotives are always registered one after the other. The
sequence of registration depends on the internal serial num-
ber of the decoder (the so called “mfx®-ID”). Any additional
locomotive can only be registered once registration of the first
locomotive has been completed.
We recommend placing new locomotives on the layout one at
a time. If there are several new locomotives on the layout then
the registration process may be unnecessarily delayed.
