PC Control of MTH Engines by Radio Connection to the TIU

[Neil]

"Has anyone reported you to your employer for posting about MTH from your office computer in recent years? Or did those nut cases bite the dust."

Talk about the bad old days. The individual was a not really nasty nor crazy guy named David who went by toytrains1. A decent fellow, but totally loyal to MTH and Mike Wolf. My criticisms sent him over the edge. He obviously was having a bad day when he made that threat. He didn't realize, I'm available 24/7 as part of my job, and put in about 55-60 hours or more if you include texting, phone calls and emails after hours and weekends/nights. My employer doesn't monitor my computer except that certain websites are blocked at the hospital so folks cannot watch Netflix, which seems reasonable. As long as the patients get taken care, the papers get published and such, my employer doesn't micromanage me.

Toytrains1 stopped posting on OGR some years ago, but was the major MTH fanboy/expert for the first decade or so of the OGR Forum. Sort of like Barry Broskowitz but with a more pleasant disposition and less technical knowledge. Toytrains1, like many MTH headcases, bought hook line and sinker the MTH BS about the lawsuit(s) and the evil people at Lionel. I believe he is still alive, as his website still exists, including his interest in roses. However, he hasn't updated it in over a year, and his YouTube channel hasn't been updated in several years. Not a bad guy, I'd guess, but mesmerized by the MTH voodoo and Kool-Aid.

[jlong]

An ultra sensative bunch. It all started when Toytrains 1 was featured in an MTH video when PS2 first came out. 400 psi air inflated his head over it. Yes, they were the bad ole days alright. He reported my postings on the AOL message boards to the OGR staff. I was LMAO.

[SanDiegoMark]

Tom sent me a video of his use of a handheld remote, my RTC program, my OOK Radio, and a program written by Mike Hewett using the CTI TrainBrain system. Tom was able to combine all three systems on his layout to control his trains.

http://www.silogic.com/trains/Technical ... os.html#TM

[rogruth]

Mark,
To me it reads like you can push a button, sit back and watch the show. I suppose the process of doing the programing ahead of time is the fun part to you. I may be surprised but how long did it take to get to the stage as you describe, turn it on and push a button and everything goes?
For me this over complicates playing with my trains but, as I have said several times, if you like that go for it.
Someone above made a reference to how much of a modern automobile was computerized.Some of that seems to be good. Our vehicle is seven years old. My wife is still not sure how to work the heater. I wonder if age makes a difference?

[SanDiegoMark]

Version 3.20 of the Remote Train Control program is available on the web page.

http://www.silogic.com/trains/RTC_Running.html

The big addition are Hot Buttons. This a window of 20 buttons that you can program to perform most any operation, on any engine, on any TIU or AIU. So if there are functions that you do over and over, on any TIU or to any engine, you can setup this window to do that function with one click of a button. You can popup this window and keep it on the screen to use as needed.

The program and source code are freely distributed under the Gnu Public License v3.0.

Mark

v 0.3.20.0

1. Added Hot Buttons:

Up to 20 Hot Buttons can be defined. Once defined, a click on the
button will immediately send that command. To open the Hot Buttons Window,
click on the [Hot Buttons] button on the Main screen.

To edit a button, right click on that button. Fill in the fields:
- Button Label that will appear on the Hot Buttons Window. Use
"&&" for "&", ie "P&&LE".
- Command to be executed selected from the drop down Command List
- TIU Number 1-5
- Engine/Lashup Number: Engines 1-99, All Engine Operation 100,
or LashUp 101
- for AIU commands, the AIU Number 1-5 and the Port Number 1-10
- for LashUps, the LashUp String - engine numbers separated by
commas, using a minus sign to indicate Reverse Running.
- for engine sounds, enter the sound number 1-255

Press the [OK] button to accept that command.

To undefine a button, right click on it, press [Clear] and then press [OK].

A special function "Playback of a Recorded File" lets you associate a recorded
file with a hot button. When you press the button, the recorded file will
play. You can cancel playback by pressing the [Cancel] button on the playback
popup. You can repeat the playback by checking [X]Repeat.

The program, internally, maintains the Command list. If you want to add
a command, right click the Hot Buttons Window outside of the Hot Buttons
themselves and select "Edit Command List". Each line in this list is a command.
The format is "Command Description"="Command". Press [Done] to save
the edited list. The edited list is saved in the RTC folder with the
name "HotCommands.txt". You can delete this file at any time to return
to the internally maintained list.

A setup option "Auto Hot Buttons" causes RTC to display the Hot Buttons window
automatically each time the program starts.

2. Moved position of Quick Controls button

3. The buttons for Startup All Active Engines and Shutdown All Engines have
been removed. To perform these functions, right click on the Main Window
and when you get the popup menu, you can select these functions.

4. In the setup, you can select [X]Allow 255 Sounds. This sets the Engine Sound
knob on the Sound Controls window to show sounds 1-255 on the knob. With this,
you can play all 255 sounds in the engine. On the remote, "S01" hot key selects
sound 177, "S02" selects sound 178 and so on. The 1-255 number corresponds to the
index into the sound file as shown by the ADPCM program.
http://www.silogic.com/trains/ADPCM.html

4a. For touch screen users, I added up/down buttons to both the Engine and Idle
Sounds knobs. With a touch screen, the knobs are too hard to accurately control.
The knobs themselves may disappear someday.

5. Totally rewrote the recorded file playback routine. Now when you select
a recorded file for playback from either the Setup window or the Hot Buttons
window, the playback runs as a separate thread. That means you can do other
operations or even other playbacks while the playback is running.

[SanDiegoMark]

I've added Proto (or Quilling) Whistle support to the RTC program. I made a video:

ADPCM Video 6 - In my train room - operating the Proto (or Quilling) whistle SPW with my RTC program

You can watch this video on my web page at:

http://www.silogic.com/trains/ADPCM.html

[SanDiegoMark]

I've created a new Playlist on YouTube with a dozen videos demonstrating version 4.0 of the RTC program. This version is a complete rewrite of the radio communications code. V4.0 also has a completely new scripting feature that lets you write a program-like script to control your trains. The scripting feature works both with and without my RFID train detection scheme. Look at my web pages for more details.

Link to version 4.0 of the RTC Program:

http://www.silogic.com/trains/RTC_Runni ... C_Download

YouTube Playlist link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9LAtcT ... b0hl6U_hpO

Video Episodes:
0 - Intro
1 - Layout Tour
2 - Radio Hardware
3 - Program Setup
4 - Operations Popup Menu
- Scene 1
- Scene 2
5 - Multiple Operations Windows
6 - Sound Controls
7 - Quick Controls
8 - Hot Buttons
9 - LashUps (Consisting)
10 - AIU Control
11 - Routes & Scenes
12 - DCS Setup
13 - Recording and Playback
14 - Program Scripts

[J. S. Bach]

...snip... Whistle "Dixie" ...snip... George

With the right sound file installed, it can.

[chuck]

Very impressive (the software AND the video's). Thanks for posting the links!