beavercreek said:
Very very interesting....
Tony was posting about his idea in the control section of the forum. It would be very very cheap and also able to run any manufacturer's locos Using electronic bits that are available now....only thing would be to be able to miniaturise them a bit more........
I would love to hear more about the iPad/ipod control of the DCC can this work with Massoth?
Yes, it does work with Massoth. You simply plug your PC into your Dimax base station and via software such as Rocrail (www.rocrail.net), which is open source and free, you can then control your layout via a WiFi device through your PC. The PC acts as a server in this case, so it always has to be on. There are several wireless clients for Rocrail, depending on your wireless device (iPod, iPhone, Android phone etc.).
If your base station is in the garden and your PC in the house, you would need a USB/Ethernet converter to turn the USB port on the newer Dimax base station into an ethernet port and then connect it to a WLAN router, which in turn connects to your WiFi network and through that to your PC in the house. Lenz produces an USB/Ethernet interface that simply plugs into their XPressNet port, hence there it is more straightforward.
Touchcab (www.touchcab.com), by contrast, connects directly to your base station and therefore does not need a PC as a server, but only runs on iPods/iPads/iPhones and currently only works with Lenz and ESU.
Ultimately, systems such as this are cheaper, because you do not have to buy, for example, a Massoth Navigator and wireless receiver. You buy the base station and then run it with whatever wireless device you want. Being WiFi, the range is also easier (and cheaper) to extent and Rocrail, for example, enables you to build virtual layouts etc. that are then displayed on your screen.