Garden Railway Forum

Good morning.

I recently found an offer of three Playmobil 5258 locomotives on wallapop for 100€. It occurred to me to offer 75 and they accepted the offer, so now I have increased the fleet correspondingly.
These locomotives are RC and work with a specific control knob of the brand. The offer included only one.
As my garden railway project uses a centralised control based on an ESP32 controller, it occurred to me to extend it to support RC. In principle, it seems to me that I could investigate the protocol used by the Playmobil control and replicate it in some way in the ESP and therefore obviate the need for independent control controls for each locomotive. In this way it could use the instrumented generic controller for the rest of the locomotive fleet.
My question is whether my idea is far-fetched and whether anyone has experience in the guts of the RC protocol to be able to replicate it in a suitable interface.

Best regards

Congratulations on picking up a bargain. I haven't any experience with these controllers so can't help I'm afraid but I'll be interested in hearing about your progress.

Rik

I also had one and the only drawback was the range of the transmitter. In my small garden of 9 by 5m it was a problem. Naturally, this was originally intended for use in the living room close to the locomotive. it is probably still an analog 27MC.

The Playmobil 5258 is 2.4gHz and the range is a lot better than the older 27mHz equipment, but still limited.

I would suggest you remove the existing equipment, and fit something based on the ESP32 that you are already using.
This will be a lot quicker than trying to reverse-engineer the protocols being used by the Playmobil system, and give you greater control.

Phil.P

ge_rik wrote: Sat May 03, 2025 7:02 am Congratulations on picking up a bargain. I haven't any experience with these controllers so can't help I'm afraid but I'll be interested in hearing about your progress.

Rik

Thank you very much Rik!
So far I've acquired a few NRF24L01 in hopes of tracking the messages from the controller and the locomotive. Although the same is far-fetched.
We'll see.
Best regards.

Palmerston wrote: Sat May 03, 2025 7:31 am I also had one and the only drawback was the range of the transmitter. In my small garden of 9 by 5m it was a problem. Naturally, this was originally intended for use in the living room close to the locomotive. it is probably still an analog 27MC.

Good morning. Thank you for your reply.
The dimensions of my garden train are similar, although the control device will be located in a central position (a maximum distance of about 6 meters).
If I succeed, we will see if it is enough.
Best regards.

Phil.P wrote: Sat May 03, 2025 1:15 pm The Playmobil 5258 is 2.4gHz and the range is a lot better than the older 27mHz equipment, but still limited.

I would suggest you remove the existing equipment, and fit something based on the ESP32 that you are already using.
This will be a lot quicker than trying to reverse-engineer the protocols being used by the Playmobil system, and give you greater control.

Phil.P

Good morning.
Thank you very much for your answer.
That is indeed the last resort, which means homologating these locomotives with the rest of the fleet. However, I would like to preserve the built-in features: lights, sound and engine control.
If I incorporate an esp32 to the locomotive (there is plenty of room), I will quickly have the connectivity solved, but to maintain the built-in functionality I would have to reverse engineer the lighting system, engine control and sound device.
Or change everything...
Best regards.