lgb 20481

meiningen8

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Hello just received my new Saxon 6k Loco 20481 and very nice it is too. But I was surprised to find that Maerklin have again made some alterations to the MFX/DCC chip that is fitted to this Loco. It would appear there is now a power buffer and it will also run on MM as well as analogue MFX and DCC I presume MM stands for Maerklin Motorola which makes things compatible with earlier Maerklin contollers. I hope some body out there who understands these things can supply us all with a dummies guide to these modifications.


meiningen8
 
Received my 20481 and noted the remark that the decoder now has a power buffer. I've been running-in mine on address 3 on my line:

BigMountainInclineRebuild-50.jpg

and Stockers Ochsenwaldbahn:

OchleBahn-04.jpg

I've not got round to setting-up the loco on Massoth but will let you know if there are any problems. For the moment the loco runs perfectly well on Massoth on address 3 straight out of the box.

Sound is great but little bit loud for my liking. That will be addressed when it gets set up on Massoth
 
Keith, volume control should be in the square box on top of the boiler going from the instruction book i just down loaded.

mines due any minute "Your parcel is due to be delivered on Friday 26th April 2019 between 12:29 and 13:29 " cant wait.

251424
 
Andrew, easier said than done. The top of the square box on mine is a very tight fit and I don't want to damage it trying to force it off.
 
So then whats everyone's number, mines 113.

Keith, have to admit I tried and gave up, but will have to give it another go, I generally run mine at low volume so as not to attract attention from the neighbours.

Interesting reading about the decoder, glad I have less than 127 DCC items, as not sure I get the long address settings, seems overlay complicated.

The little info booklets a nice touch, paper could be better but it's nice to have.
 
meiningen8 here again should have mine up and running at the Keighley MRC open day on the 28th April have had no problem setting the address and configuring the details on the Navigator it is just the power buffer that concerns me. Still for a £165 I could pull out the chip and replace with a Massoth SKU 8205000
 
meiningen8 here again should have mine up and running at the Keighley MRC open day on the 28th April have had no problem setting the address and configuring the details on the Navigator it is just the power buffer that concerns me. Still for a £165 I could pull out the chip and replace with a Massoth SKU 8205000

What concerns you about it?
 
Andrew, easier said than done. The top of the square box on mine is a very tight fit and I don't want to damage it trying to force it off.
Managed to do it, it seems to click in place once you get it moving in comes out nicely.

IMG_20190427_143332.jpg
 
The new Marklin MFX decoders look for MFX first, then DCC and after that DC. CV 50 can be set to turn off the MFX capability for those running a non MFX system.
Pulsed DC power may now make these decoders very confused and DC users can not turn off the MFX!!
 
The new Marklin MFX decoders look for MFX first, then DCC and after that DC. CV 50 can be set to turn off the MFX capability for those running a non MFX system.
Pulsed DC power may now make these decoders very confused and DC users can not turn off the MFX!!
In reality how many people are going to spend this sort of money and still run it on a none Mfx/DCC system, half the features wouldn't even work ie. the pulsed smoke?
 
An interesting observation Wandgrudd, and possibly controversial, - but I do understand where you are coming from.
 
An interesting observation Wandgrudd, and possibly controversial, - but I do understand where you are coming from.
I will be the first to admit the idea of DCC or MFX seemed daft to me, I saw every one using it on here and I was still happily using good old anolog (my lines still wired for both), I honestly couldn't see the point. I was that sure it was going to be a big flop. But have to admit it has changed the way I run the trains it's just so much more convenient. And as noted if you are spending this much on a train surely you want to run all its features half of which are turned of in anolog mode, which can only be turned on witha DCC system.
 
So gents, Few observations

1. Are we sure it's has the power buffer and not just a connection for one, it doesn't act like it has one going of the discription in the new issue of the Depesche mag it notes that if the emergency stop is pressed it will continue running for a set distance can't say mine does that and I experienced 2 instances were it stopped under very slow speed running over my diamond crossing?

2. Need to add the loco properly to the massoth hand set as running on address 3 doesn't give the full function list which runs to 22 with this loco.

3. As Keith mentioned the volume seems to be set to max on first run, jumped out my skin when I pressed function 1, To remove the cover for the volume knob with the loco pointing chimney to the right I can just get the lid to pop up trying from the other side doesn't seem to work, the knob seems overly sensitive with the smallest of turns being all or nothing.

4. Smoke seems to work great after I worked out you have to tap the chimney to remove any air locks, was at first only getting smoke form the piston block.
 
Surely it shouldn't need a power buffer with 14 pickups (4 sliders 10 wheels) spread over a foot length? I never had any problems with my 20480 at minimum speed over R1 points.
 
Surely it shouldn't need a power buffer with 14 pickups (4 sliders 10 wheels) spread over a foot length? I never had any problems with my 20480 at minimum speed over R1 points.

Not sure it's the first time I have run it the only reason we think it has a power buffer is it has an additional instruction booklet that's been added that says the decoder has one but I am wondering if it's a translation error, I was running at speed step 6 and out of maybe 50 laps it stopped twice and only ever on the large lgb diamond crossing all points R1 and R3 are fine. I will do some more testing next week.
 
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