SimonT
Western Thunderer
Observers of Aberbeeg at the Wigan Show and the ARSE at Larkrail will have seen much use of iPhones. No, we weren't on social meeedya or placing bets on nags, we were running the trainset. We can do this as an outstanding app has become available called Touchcab. It is available in two versions one of which you pay for and one of which is free. You can guess what the differences might be! In addition the DCC manufacturers are moving to using computer WAN technology rather than radio control with its expensive licensing requirements. Touchcab is aimed at Lenz users although I understand from David Nicholson that the ZTC equipment should be able to use it.
This diagram should show what you need and how it all connects together.
Most of the Lenz kit is available from the usual sources. The Router I use is the TP-Link Wireless N Nano Router available form Maplin for £20. Without it, the project would be unachievable as the Lenz documentation is atrocious; the best versions are available on the US Lenz website.
This was what the build looks like:
You boy, at the back. Are you paying attention?
The trick bit is setting up. The Lenz Interface unit comes with a CD that includes their CV editor and some more information. I thought the easy way would be to connect my laptop to the interface on a LAN cable and use the CV editor to control something. Didn't work. I tried a LAN crossover cable. It still didn't work. After an hour of faff I was about to bring out the hammer and smash the thing to hell. As a last effort I thought to see if the laptop could see the router. Immediately I was into the router and a fabulous on line series of web pages telling you everything about the router. Now the Lenz instructions had talked about needing to change the router IP address to the interface IP address. Complete rubbish. The router just asked me if I wanted to talk to the interface. A minute of setting names and passwords had me connected to the layout and I ran a loco from the laptop.
Next I fired up Touchcab on the phone and it immediately connected to the layout. Cue run loco from iPhone.
So what are the advantages of all this? On Aberbeeg I have got rid of three small control panels, with associated power supplies (all now controlled from Touchcab), three Lenz handsets and three data cables that ran the length of the layout. This save 20 minutes of set up/knock down time and gives fewer components to fail. In addition everyone hated the Lenz handsets but now our resident septic thinks that TouchCab is the best controller he has ever seen. Instead of the sequence taking 1hr 40 mins we run through in 1 hr which means more trains moving. This also makes the fiddle yards easier to run as the drivers move trains out as soon as they are ready up to the first signal.
In addition, I have written the complete loco, point and signal configuration on my iPhone. I can pass this to each of the operators through the router. I now have a configuration for each layout on the phone. To me this isn't gimmick but one of the best improvements in operating a train set.
Hope this is of use. Blame Dog Star for this as he asked me to document it. Grahem, time for Tiffin!
Simon
This diagram should show what you need and how it all connects together.
Most of the Lenz kit is available from the usual sources. The Router I use is the TP-Link Wireless N Nano Router available form Maplin for £20. Without it, the project would be unachievable as the Lenz documentation is atrocious; the best versions are available on the US Lenz website.This was what the build looks like:
You boy, at the back. Are you paying attention?
The trick bit is setting up. The Lenz Interface unit comes with a CD that includes their CV editor and some more information. I thought the easy way would be to connect my laptop to the interface on a LAN cable and use the CV editor to control something. Didn't work. I tried a LAN crossover cable. It still didn't work. After an hour of faff I was about to bring out the hammer and smash the thing to hell. As a last effort I thought to see if the laptop could see the router. Immediately I was into the router and a fabulous on line series of web pages telling you everything about the router. Now the Lenz instructions had talked about needing to change the router IP address to the interface IP address. Complete rubbish. The router just asked me if I wanted to talk to the interface. A minute of setting names and passwords had me connected to the layout and I ran a loco from the laptop.
Next I fired up Touchcab on the phone and it immediately connected to the layout. Cue run loco from iPhone.
So what are the advantages of all this? On Aberbeeg I have got rid of three small control panels, with associated power supplies (all now controlled from Touchcab), three Lenz handsets and three data cables that ran the length of the layout. This save 20 minutes of set up/knock down time and gives fewer components to fail. In addition everyone hated the Lenz handsets but now our resident septic thinks that TouchCab is the best controller he has ever seen. Instead of the sequence taking 1hr 40 mins we run through in 1 hr which means more trains moving. This also makes the fiddle yards easier to run as the drivers move trains out as soon as they are ready up to the first signal.
In addition, I have written the complete loco, point and signal configuration on my iPhone. I can pass this to each of the operators through the router. I now have a configuration for each layout on the phone. To me this isn't gimmick but one of the best improvements in operating a train set.
Hope this is of use. Blame Dog Star for this as he asked me to document it. Grahem, time for Tiffin!
Simon
