Scalefour Forum

Hi guys,

a brief summary of our control techniques, if anyone wants to know more it can be expanded into different threads. We use a couple of minor variations but I will stick to the one I was working on yesterday

All our points are actuated by Tortoises, this includes the Peco points on the OO layouts (and "no" the spring does not have) to be removed despite urban myth claiming it does), we use a stiffer wire, 0.9 mm.

Each tortoise is then wired to a Switch8, a device which makes them DCC accessible, and local wires through the Tortoise switch do the frog control (we pair the switches for redundancy).

Using RailRoad and Co software I then write whatever control panel is required and using our club PCs we drive the layout, easy peasy - the PC using a Locobuffer to communicate with our Digitrax DCC system, other permutations are available for other systems.

Soft(ware) panels make life very easy, for instance yesterday it became apparent that I had got the physical positions of some fiddle yard points slightly wrong, on a conventional hard panel this would have been a real pain, it took me about 1 minute to fix on the soft panel.

hth,

Hi Dave,

thanks for the reply. One or two basic questions , firstly Does RailRoad and Co run on Mac's or is it purely Windows? Is there a book or website that would show how to go about this? We have German made controllers ESU, I assume we would require some other Locobuffer. Is Locobuffer a particular make and does it just work with your digitrax system? As you can tell with this I am an absolute beginner in this and don't mind admitting so. We may not require control from a laptop,there must be some system that will allow route selection from our handhelds. I am assuming Dave, you have some experience with both, what would you recommend?

Allan

Allan,

I checked their web site and there is no mention of Mac use. I didn't look too deeply, perhaps an e-mail to them with exactly that question...? Dave will know for sure.

http://www.freiwald.com/pages/index.html

With regard to the 'locobuffer' here is their website. Another bunch of info which may help you and if nothing else, could well form more pertinent questions to ask Dave.

http://www.rr-cirkits.com/LocoBuffer-II ... er-II.html

Cheers, Tony

If you have an ESU system you almost certainly have a computer port already, certainly the ECOS has. In this case you don't need a locobuffer. The locobuffer is specifically for interfacing the computer to a Digitrax system.
For a link into most DCC sites try http://www.merg.org.uk/links.htm

Incidentally this last few posts have wandered of the topic. can we split this off into the 'Control systems' area please.
regards

One or two basic questions , firstly Does RailRoad and Co run on Mac's or is it purely Windows?

Windows only I'm afraid

Is there a book or website that would show how to go about this?

Tony's posted the link to Freiwald, the WFRM website has a simple tutorial for RR&Co.

We have German made controllers ESU, I assume we would require some other Locobuffer. Is Locobuffer a particular make and does it just work with your digitrax system?

Locobuffer is the interface from the PC to the "network" that our DCC system runs on, its Digitrax specific, Keith has commented on the ESU

As you can tell with this I am an absolute beginner in this and don't mind admitting so. We may not require control from a laptop,there must be some system that will allow route selection from our handhelds. I am assuming Dave, you have some experience with both, what would you recommend?

Personally I would always go for the PC, correct signalling is more than just route setting and RR&Co has the capability to work correctly, Widnes is as close to the real thing as I can get, with full interlocking / flank protection / correct aspect sequencing including flashing / steady yellow on one signal - but if you only want simple route setting then the handheld may be good enough

hth

There is always Panel Pro part of JMRI which is free and will run on a Mac.

Thanks for that Tim, there must be a download for that somewhere I will try to find it.

Allan

Found it Tim,
for others who may be interested and have Macs or PC's here is the web address.

http://jmri.sourceforge.net/download/

thanks again
Allan

Panel Pro is good but nowhere near as good as RR&Co if you want prototypical route setting, and RR&Co can also be configured to do semaphore with software levers and a full implementation of the mechanical locking

Found it Tim, again , for others the website is at
http://www.freiwald.com/
I have already downloaded the manual.
Thanks Allan