The digital model railway with DCC, Motorola format, and mfx actually belong to the past when using CTC.

Unfortunately, new locomotives are usually delivered with digital decoders. And the manufacturers make great efforts to pack many beautiful sound effects onto these digital decoders. It is therefore obvious that some CTC customers would like to have these sounds available when operating with CTC.

Therefore, there is the possibility of connecting a CTC module between the track and the classic digital decoder. The prerequisite for this is of course enough space in the locomotive, because now both the old digital decoder and a CTC module have to be accommodated.

Currently, only the DCC protocol is supported by the CTC modules. Since all current Märklin mfx decoders are so-called multi-protocol decoders, they can also be controlled via DCC. Support for the old Motorola format or mfx will be added as needed.

“Mini Central” for Testing

For an initial test, you can also operate the CTC locomotive module as a mini central. To do this, connect a track (or roller test stand) to the motor output of the CTC locomotive module and leave the DCC decoder in the locomotive. Then connect a direct current source to the track input of the CTC locomotive module. It is also worth connecting a support capacitor to the CTC locomotive module.

With the locomotive on the track or roller test stand, you can now already configure and test it before installing it in the locomotive.

Locomotive Installation

During locomotive installation, the CTC module is connected as usual with the two track connections. There are now two possibilities for connecting the digital decoder:

  • In the simplest case, the digital decoder is then connected to the motor output of the CTC module instead of the motor.
  • Alternatively, the digital decoder can also be connected to two half-bridges. Then it is even possible to control the motor via CTC and retrieve sounds from the digital decoder in parallel.

For lights and other switching functions, you have the free choice in both cases whether you want to leave them on the digital decoder or connect them to the CTC module.

Note: The CTC locomotive module-H0a currently cannot be used for DCC. All other CTC locomotive modules are suitable for DCC.

Pictorial conversion instructions will follow soon.

Configuration

How to configure a digital decoder is described in the user manual Chapter 4.6 - Config - Connecting DCC Decoder.