At last - an online DCC model railroad!
You realize this isn’t a remote-control railroad or simulation you can access like the camera in Fostoria, right? This is much more interesting than that; it’s using the equipment and protocols for the “Internet of Things” to transfer and use the standard codes that were developed for DCC. Expect the cost of the control modalities, the decoders, and probably the development environments for user interfaces to fall, perhaps precipitously, as the IoT revolution accelerates and broadens.
I’m afraid that I think I don’t have the patience for whatever this is.
Think all the DCC stuff that we now pay through the nose for – the same way we used to pay enormous sums for home control and automation. Now build cheap and small and low-power ways to implement that technology, and produce the components by the millions, and design them so they easily interwork with each other and with software. Very interesting possibilities start to emerge for model railroading…
Running trains with computers…has ZERO appeal to me. [zzz]
Nope,my interest in running trains by computer is less then zero…My Tech 6 is good enough.
Heck, I’m still having a hard time forcing myself to learn Arduino.
Also, I’m not sure I want to let my computer have all the fun by running my model railroad for me. I can see controlling the lighting by computer but I think I’d rather run the locomotives and throw the switches by myself![swg] Maybe I’ll set up something to prevent my trains from running switches the wrong way, but that technology is already available.
I can just see myself 10 years from now desperately clinging to DCC as it fades into history![(-D][(-D][D)]
I wish there was an emoticon for ‘dinosaur’. I’d probably wear it out!
Dave
there is certainly a lot of things that can be done with today’s technology. Not sure what the market is for components that allow anyone on the network to control your layout. Would you want people (kids) doing the Adam’s Family thing? what if there is a derailment?
on the other hand, i think it could be helpful to be able to specify a trackplan you’re considering and operate it virtually to evaluate it and make changes.
Day by day, I feel less inclined to follow the path set by all these electronic gadgets dominating instead of supporting our life!
While I still see some sense in DCC in combination with some sort of wireless throttle, everything beyond that does not strike my fancy.
I think I will revert back to quite old fashioned trains in the future - something like this:
I feel yor pain, I try to stay away from new gadgets but slowly get sucked in. My wife has a notepad but even though I have no use for it and don’t want one, I end up having to fix it, still better at the computer than my daughter but she is light years ahead on the phone.
I guess I still don’t understand what the idea is. And I certainly don’t understand what could be built “cheap and small and low power”.
All I saw was a model railroad being run by clicking here and there on a computer screen. If that’s what it is, then it is of absolutely no interest to me.
One aspect of this - is that there are people who have a moderate level of interest in model railroads, or model submarines, or a beach on some island but not enough to buy their own. This allows them to operate a model RR (or other attraction) once a week or so without buying one. It could ultimately be advertising or donation supported (if it gets really popular) For the person with a higher level of interest it offers a browser based DCC interface to a circuit board that costs about $100 to build, about the same as “entry level” DCC. Your tablet can be your throttles and operate other layout functions. The board has a lot of IO and could also run the sprinkler system, unlock the front door, start the emergency generator, and perform various other “smart home” functions if you wanted.
All that is is a technology demo, some track laid down on a board with RTR engines to show proof-of-concept. It is just there to show how the components work. A bit like the home-control displays in a Home Depot or Lowe’s.
Admittedly there is still considerable confusion about exactly what the advantages of the “Internet of Things” is going to be. But this isn’t like the “Internet coffeepot” of the 1990s, or one of those adjustable Web cams in a computer-science lab, where you could log in and start clicking controls and things would start to happen. (Or for that matter like the camera controls on the Kalmbach railcam in Fostoria … which function, but don’t really work very well).
The actual value to modelers is in what the components do on a real model railroad, when built into your own models or your own environment. Be interesting to have someone from MR write an article on this.
So, is this like designing your own operating system (e.g. like DCC or DCS) for your layout so that various “components” play nicely with one another? Can the layout be operated without a computer or smart phone?
Tom
As currently configured the unit requires a computer or tablet to operate. I could easily add pushbuttons for the switches and potentiometers for throttles however. I just think a tablet, I use a Kindle, is more convenient and adds no cost since I already have it.
To operate locomotives and the layout through combination of DCC, computer and internet.
I may already be too old to grab this, but what´s the use of combining DCC, computer and the Internet to control a loco or a layout? We already have various ways of control employing DCC and computers, tablets, smartphones.
I don´t see any value in involving the Internet.
@ Sir Madog,
You are right.
The internet connection can be used if you are somewhere else (different buildings). Computers, tablets and smartphones need internet connection for accessing a DCC to operate locomotives and also the layout.
If you’re in the same room with the layout, you don’t need the internet connection.
Why would I want to stare at a computer monitor or smartphone to operate a layout…over the internet??? And what happens if there is a derailment??? As I stated before, this has ZERO interest for me, as well as potential disaster written all over it…[banghead]
Tom
I see the need for some sort of “remote control” for operations like the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, but they already have a bespoke solution to the issue.
Frankly, I don´t see any value in this, as there are already plenty of “train simulators” around.