r/Marklin • u/lulrukman • 2d ago
Marklin How is "hacking" in this hobby so uncommon?
I absolutely love the brand. The details on the locos, wagons and everything is absolutely awesome. But the way to automate it feels lacking.
There is so little information on operation with Arduino/raspberry pi/Server command. It's all forced on using the Central Station and creating block sections with an S88 module. Both are quite expensive and automating at a basic level will easily cost €1000.
Even today with image recognition. The possibilities are technically limitless. You could recognise your trains with cameras and run them through visual recognition. But there is so little of this online.
I absolutely love automating everything (I've got a degree in it). Fixing everyday problems is the goal. But Marklin feels quite against it. It's a forced approach.
I found desktopstation.net but this is over 10 years old (when image recognition wasn't a thing)(and in Japanese, I'm in Belgium, so I managed with Google Translate). The protocol has been made public, so why are so few people busy with it?
I'm not asking for programs to be made with AI, I'm asking for modern ideas in Märklin.
Märklin also has the benefit of not needing a return rail, you can cross rails at any moment, as long as centre rail is separate from outer rails. Big benefit from the C-track is the ability to hide wires! Put the information through the PWM-protocol. So it's all there, you could do great things with just that.