[steventrain]

New marklin Softdrive sinus launch on

http://www.maerklin.de/produkte/softdrive_sinus.php

The softdrive sinus will included new items locomotives for 2007.

26218
26540
29680
37772
37902
39050
39121
39180
39181
39401
39402
39500
39540
39562
39590
39802
39890
39970
39981

There is also download update for 60212 central station from the marklin website this month.

 

[Doug]

Looks great.

These are similar to the brushless motors that are used in RC aircraft, but with a little less RPM I presume.

 

[adecoaches26point4]

The motor looks the part

and the control of the 01 pacific looked superb

David

 

[7113]

Certainly looks the part, but, a question, is this an AC only motor? I think thats what the article says, but my German is not that good.

Regards

John

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (BRITHO @ 18 Apr 2007, 16:36) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Certainly looks the part, but, a question, is this an AC only motor? I think thats what the article says, but my German is not that good.

Regards

John

Yes it is - however, it can be controlled with a suitable decoder.

 

[dwb]

This is an interesting development. I watched the video on the Maerklin website and came to the conclusion that the name SoftDrive comes from the fact the drive comes from a set of 3 pulsed waveforms. Now if the "Soft" part of the name is derived from the fact that these pulses are generated by the software in a decoder, then as dbclass50 says, so long as the decoder understands what's on the track, it can drive the motor. So maybe one day these motors will find their way into the NMRA DCC world.

For mono glot english speakers to truly understand what is new about this motor, we need some kindly soul to tell us what those three graphs in the accompanying PDF leaflet are saying. Hopefully one of them says high torque...

The pacific in the video is a very fine looking model....

David

 

[neil_s_wood]

Very good. Maerklin do come up with some excellent ideas.

Was that Pacific a Class 01?

 

[Dennis David]

Looks like the form factor allows optimum placement of the motor for steam locomotives as well.

 

[dwb]

>Looks like the form factor allows optimum placement of the motor for steam locomotives as well.
Do you think this will improve the chances of get steam models from the first century of railway history rather than the second?

David

 

[John]

Ah, now I understand why Zimo have announced a special decoder for the Sinus motor (MX64D). I had no idea why Zimo were doing this and what a sinus motor was!

 

[dwb]

>Zimo have announced a special decoder for the Sinus motor (MX64D).
That's seems like pretty hot news John; I've just had a check on the Zimo website and didn't turn up any mention of the MX64D.

Do you know if the MX64D is going to be Motorola only or will it do NMRA DCC as well? If the latter does anyone think that swapping the decoder in a Maerklin SoftDrive lok would allow it to run on NMRA DCC?? Now that would be something!

David

 

[adecoaches26point4]

QUOTE (neil_s_wood @ 18 Apr 2007, 22:37) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Very good. Maerklin do come up with some excellent ideas.

Was that Pacific a Class 01?

It looks very much like the new 01 model

David

 

[John]

QUOTE (dwb @ 19 Apr 2007, 21:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>>Zimo have announced a special decoder for the Sinus motor (MX64D).
That's seems like pretty hot news John; I've just had a check on the Zimo website and didn't turn up any mention of the MX64D.

Do you know if the MX64D is going to be Motorola only or will it do NMRA DCC as well? If the latter does anyone think that swapping the decoder in a Maerklin SoftDrive lok would allow it to run on NMRA DCC?? Now that would be something!

David

It's listed in the Projects page (in German) on the website and was announced in the April Newsletter from Zimo. Here is an extract from the Newsletter with the specs for the MX64D :-

The 21-pin interface is used more and more in Locos from Märklin, Trix, Liliput, Brawa, and others. Therefore ZIMO offers a new decoder type with an internal 21-pin connector: the MX64D. Up to now ZIMO provided MX63T and MX64T, decoders with external connectors (on wires).

Technical specification:

Dimensions 20,5 x 15,5 x 4,5 mm (according to NMRA draft RP 9.1.1)
Max current total 1,2 A
Motor current 1,2 A
Functions current total 0,8 A
For all DC motors, Faulhaber, Maxxon, &#8230; and C-Sinus (Märklin, Trix)
6 function outputs, 2 servo outputs, SUSI, RailCom, software update with MXDECUP, all features like any ZIMO Decoder.

MX64D is also used for Locos with C-Sinus motor (Märklin, Trix); for this the decoder motor output can be changed by a CV Bit to control the C-Sinus control board, which is used in these locos (of the type built in 2007).

 

[idd15]

This is going to be very interesting! I use these "brushless" motors in my RC aircraft and they make a big difference where we're looking for maximum efficency, but I'm not so sure that this is really needed in a model loco. But I'm probably missing something.....

Also I'd like to know how the motor knows which way to go when driven by the AC controller. On an RC aircraft controller they generally use electronic sensing of the waveform to determine armature direction from start up, so very often you get a momentary chatter from the motor as the controller works out which way to go. Not what you want on a model loco. So it could be they're using using additional sensors on the armature to determine direction of rotation. This was the case on the early generations of controllers we used on RC aircraft where hall effect sensors were used.

One very big advantage of these motors of course is that there are no soft carbon brushes to wear out, so models with these in will really be able to put the miles on!

More information someone please.

Cheers

Ian

 

[dwb]

Thanks for posting that information John

David

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (idd15 @ 20 Apr 2007, 22:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>One very big advantage of these motors of course is that there are no soft carbon brushes to wear out, so models with these in will really be able to put the miles on!

As someone who makes their locomotives work hard for a living (anyone want to buy a very high milage LGB 251 ?) that would be excellent news. Yest another possibility with DCC.

 

[Clever Trevor]

Unfortunately the two rail Trix version can only be controlled via DCC if any slow running is needed. This problem also affects their BR17 4-6-0.

 

[steventrain]

The SDS (Soft Drive Sinus) brochure is now available as well in English.Download in pdf.

http://www.maerklin-info.de/produkte/pdfs/...oftdrive_EN.pdf

 

[dwb]

> The SDS (Soft Drive Sinus) brochure is now available as well in English.Download in pdf.
Excellent

Thanks for posting that.

I wonder if the motors will ever be available separately or in UK outline models?

David

 

[Dennis David]

QUOTE in UK outline models

Sure in about ten years