Wifi!

Yesterday I visited Joel and we installed lighting over the new section of RR.  When we were complete, I asked him about my staging yard panel and how it feels when he/guests are operating it.  The discussion lead to scrapping the panel for a touch screen panel, mainly due to the fact that I am not excited about doing more wiring...for anything!

Ultimately I'd love to have a touch screen to work at least the staging yard, but honestly, a touch screen would be ideal in several locations on the RR.  Doing some research I ran across a few youtube videos by Arthur Houston that were very helpful.  And finally I found a project that I didn't have to do anything to complete!  The only thing I had to do was download the WiThrottle app to my phone and my iPad and to my utter amazement, everything worked fine!  I already had wifi in the house for my computers.  The layout was already connected to a PC and Loconet.  I was already in business!  This was, to me, like getting the DCC to work for the very first time in 1994.  Awesome!  Here are a few photos.  And when you come over, if you have WiThrottle on your phone, you can run trains with that.

This is where you set the address of the loco(s) you want to run.

This is the whole JMRI panel on the phone.  I can get this on the iPad too so the dispatcher can simply sit in another room or outside the house if he/she wanted to.  Awesome!  I need to make another panel solely for the staging area and that will load up too.

Here is the throttle section.  All functions for each sound loco are there, just scroll down.

In the end, this is an amazing addition to the layout.  We'll be testing this on Sept. 21st.  I'll be researching touch screen monitors now.

Interested in attending on the 21st for a test session, let me know at CPRXmodelRR@gmail.com.

Frank Kenny