How to Upload JMRI Roster Into WifiTrax WFD-30 Web Roster

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I just got a WifiTrax WFD-30 Wifi module. It works great with my NCE PH5-R DCC system to enable my Android cell to to run DCC locomotives wirelessly via the Engine Driver app (or Wi-Throttle for Apple users).

You can even create and maintain a WFD-30 locomotive roster through it’s own internal Web applications. Downside is that you have to enter all of the information, into multiple fields, via your cell phone’s keypad. A daunting task if you have a big roster!

The majority of those fields allow you to customize each locomotive’s Function Labels to use while you’re controlling it on your phone. Instead of having to remember or look up what each F Key does, it’s right there on the screen! This is an awesome convenience, except when faced with having to edit up to 28 Function Key Labels for your layout’s 40 locomotives.

So, WifiTrax offers a JMRI Roster Upload button, where you can access that label information, you efficiently typed in, using a keyboard. Problem is, despite following all of the WFD-30 instructions, the WifiTrax Web Roster app Upload doesn’t seem to work. You press the button, which then displays a box to enter the JMRI location into, but it doesn’t let you type anything into it.

I’ve emailed WifiTrax to see what I might be doing wrong, but I haven’t gotten a response.

Has anyone else tried to Upload their JMRI Roster into WifiTrax? If so, what steps did you follow to make it work?

2

Since my first post, I have figured out how to upload a JMRI roster to the WFD-30 Web Roster. You have to type the WFD-30 Wifi address into your cell phone’s browser (i.e. Chrome, Safari), select Roster, then upload a JMRI xml file (I emailed mine, so I could download it to my phone).

You also have to create the JMRI xml file for only one locomotive at a time. The WFD-30 can only process one at a time. It can’t handle a multi unit roster.

After I uploaded the file, I called the locomotive up in Engine Driver. To my dismay, all of the Function Labels were blank. The WFD-30 algorithm wasn’t able to process the labels JMRI stored in the file.

I know there are limitations of the formatting to get the WFD-30 Roster to display the Function Labels. Editing them manually, I’ve discovered they can’t be more than 10 characters long and can’t contain any spaces.

Some of my JMRI Labels met those criteria. Some did not. So, some of them should have uploaded properly. Now, I wonder if the WFD-30 had an issue with the layout of the data in the xml file.

I did get a reply from Steve Shrimpton of WifiTrax about how to upload the file. I have a followup email into him about the labels not uploading properly. I included a copy of my xml file for him to test. I haven’t heard back yet.