TrainsDcc...that's how it started. I decided to write an android application to my Sasmsung Galaxy Ace phone to be able control my modell railroad layout. This happened in autumn, 2012.
This time I was already finished my first dcc decoder and house-made booster. I also made a handheld, similar to a MultiMaus. It was made from a counter machine, actually. To be honest, I did not like to control the layout using the lot of buttons and the small 2 row LCD display. It was hard to switch the turnouts, and control 2-3 locomotives at the same time. It took too much time to change always the addresses of locos and accessories to control them. I also tried a MultiMaus after that, but actually I felt the same. Also the CV programming was quite complicated. So I decided to create to myself an easy-to-use user friendly application to my touchscreen phone.
I did not want to use a PC for that, because a PC is more expensive than a phone, it consumes much more power and usually it is noisy. Also I work on a PC every day, and I do not want to use one when I play. Other thing compared to a PC is that with my phone I can control the layout by moving around it and using the WiFi of my device to communicate with the command station.
So I bought a book about Android and JAVA programming. After 3 month I had the first release of my application with the following functions: locomotive library, locomotive control (throttle) and CV programming. It looked like this:
Locomotive control screen:
I know it is not the most beautiful one, but it worked. Locomotive library (pictures made by the camera of the device from the application):
This time I was already finished my first dcc decoder and house-made booster. I also made a handheld, similar to a MultiMaus. It was made from a counter machine, actually. To be honest, I did not like to control the layout using the lot of buttons and the small 2 row LCD display. It was hard to switch the turnouts, and control 2-3 locomotives at the same time. It took too much time to change always the addresses of locos and accessories to control them. I also tried a MultiMaus after that, but actually I felt the same. Also the CV programming was quite complicated. So I decided to create to myself an easy-to-use user friendly application to my touchscreen phone.
I did not want to use a PC for that, because a PC is more expensive than a phone, it consumes much more power and usually it is noisy. Also I work on a PC every day, and I do not want to use one when I play. Other thing compared to a PC is that with my phone I can control the layout by moving around it and using the WiFi of my device to communicate with the command station.
So I bought a book about Android and JAVA programming. After 3 month I had the first release of my application with the following functions: locomotive library, locomotive control (throttle) and CV programming. It looked like this:
Locomotive control screen:
I know it is not the most beautiful one, but it worked. Locomotive library (pictures made by the camera of the device from the application):
