Thanks for your kind comments! UP Big Boy 4014 is currently on a 'Westward Bound' tour from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Sacramento, California, with stops all along the way. It is on public display at the UP yard in Roseville, CA today (Friday, July 12) and tomorrow (Saturday, July 13) from 9am-3pm. Sunday it's pulling a sold-out passenger train over Donner Summit to Reno/Sparks, NV. You can find the entire schedule at the link below: www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm You can also track the current location of the Big Boy at this link: www.up.com/heritage/steam/track/index.htm On August 29th the Big Boy will start its "Heartland of America Tour" tour that will take it south to Texas. I hope it comes somewhere near you! Thanks again, and happy railroading! DD

Thank you! When the steam whistle blows your whole body resonates. I'm glad I got to see it pulling freight yesterday. It is on display at the UP Yard today, hooked up to a passenger special that will run on Sunday. Long line of people waiting to see it. It's wonderful to see the locomotive back in action. There are a half dozen of these that have been sitting cold in parks for 50 years, and no one gives them a second glance. 4014 was in a museum in California until 10 years ago when UP re-acquired it. Now it draws huge crowds. Nice to see. DD

@DriverDTrains it's a wonderful sight. I had the chance to enter the cab of the 2850 and work on maintaining the John molson locomotive. I didn't have the chance to see such a giant beast run in person, but hopefully one day

Awesome! One day, right! : ) Browsing through KZfaq I found a couple of other videos of 4014 from yesterday. This video was taken about half a mile from where I was when I shot the clip from the front of the Big Boy approaching. What's funny is we all heard the whistle and saw the smoke when it came round the bend off the bridge, but then the train never appeared. Now I can see why it stopped. I have no idea who the kids getting on are lol. They didn't invite me or Scratchy! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n5enqcRjmqnQdZ8.html The 2:46 mark of this next video is the same scene as the second clip I posted with the Big Boy just getting rolling. I'm somewhere in the front of that crowd lol. By the way it was 111f / 44c degrees at the time!: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e7WXiduiqc2bips.html DD

@@DriverDTrains thank you for the great video recommendation! I'll be sure to watch them soon!

Thank you very kindly, and to you as well! I did see some irony in featuring a (former CN) Canadian locomotive, but that's what friends are for, right! : ) Thanks again, and happy railroading! DD

Thank you so much for your kind comments! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. All the best, and happy railroading! DD

Thank you as always for your kind, supportive comments. I really appreciate it. All the best, and happy railroading! DD

@@DriverDTrains it is always my pleasure to see a new video from you. Keep up the great work

Hi Kevin, thank you so much for the kind comments! I really appreciate it. Sorry about the delay getting back to you as I was trying to get my next video up before the holiday, which I did just now. Whew. To plaigerize Gregg Berman, the hardest part about using DCC-EX is actually making these videos lol! Anyway, I just released my latest video on using physical controllers with JMRI and DCC-EX, and while I mostly demonstrate doing so using JMRI throttle keyboard shortcuts, I also show an example running four trains simultaneously and independently on one controller (a Stream Deck +) using DCC-EX native commands piped through JMRI's DCC-EX command line. I did have to cheat a little with a few system macros, and for good measure added a special case for the DCC-EX parser to increment/decrement speed steps, since I was not using an actual train throttle, but it was a fun project and I was quite happy with how it turned out! Thanks so much for the updated info on using the DCC-EX native protocol over TCP in JMRI! I will have to check that out some more. I actually plan on looking at connecting to DCC-EX over TCP in JMRI in my next video, as well as highlight a few more of the JMRI features specifically designed for DCC-EX, so good timing! I do get on the Discord server from time to time, but there are always so many more projects than I have time for lol. I want to try building a command station using an ESP32 board sometime. I want to figure out how to implement a locomotive throttle display on an OLED connected to the command station without bogging it down. I need to experiment some with sensors. The list goes on. But I'll try to stop by more often for sure!! Thanks again for your kind words, and thank you as well for all that you and the team do to create this great product for the benefit of our hobby. Speaking for myself, it has brought me a lot of joy and satisfaction, and reading comments here I know that it has done the same for many others. All the best, and happy railroading! DD

Sorry, I should have said EX-MotorShield8874 RevA not Markerfab. The real question is how do I hookup the EX-MotorShield8874 RevA and the LCD 20 x4 display? Both displays work’s fine when hooked to the Arduino Motor Shield REV3.

Thank you for your kind comments. Sorry about the delay getting back to you. There are two things you need to check; the hardware (i.e. the wiring), and the software (the EX-Command station sketch in the Arduino IDE). [If you used the EX-Installer you may need to reach out to the folks at DCC-EX for help.] I suggest you start with the software first. I don't know if you are using the same sketch for both motor shields and just changing the motor shield definition each time you upload it, or if you have two separate sketches. Either way, make sure that the sketch you are using with the EX-MotorShield has the proper configuration settings for the LCD, including that it is enabled, as well as its dimensions and I2C address. For the hardware, if you are connecting your jumper wires to the pins on the top of the EX-MotorShield, be sure to note what order they are in; it is different than the standard Rev3 motor shield. Also, according to the technical specs (below), the power on the pins on top of the EX-MotorShield is 3.3v, versus 5v on the Rev3. Some LCD screens will work fine with both 3.3 and 5v, but others may not. github.com/DCC-EX/EX-Hardware/blob/main/EX-Motorshield8874/README.md *** NOTE STEMMA QT power is tied to 3v3 as that is required for the standard. When using the EX-MotorShield8874 with 5V motherboards such as UNO and Mega, any I2C peripherals connected to the STEMMA QT connector must be 5V-tolerant only! *** Pull-up resistors for the I2C communication are not populated by default. If required, pull-up resistors (R101, R102) can be populated on the board, though this is typically not necessary. The easiest way to deal with this is to go directly to the I2C SDA and SCL lines on the Arduino controller board instead of the ones on the motor shield, and then get 5v and ground from the header socket on the side of the board. See this picture for the Arduino Mega (if you are using an Uno it's more problematic as there is some overlap for the I2C lines): europe1.discourse-cdn.com/arduino/original/4X/5/3/b/53bccd0f6064b1fb2172ed0ec9da08c245c93a7d.png Anyway, hope this helps. Good luck and let me know what happens. Thanks again! DD

Thank you for your kind comments! Sorry about the delay getting back to you. I do briefly show using Engine Driver with both JMRI and JCC-EX in my latest video, #5.d - Using WiThrottle and Engine Driver with JMRI & DCC-EX. The Engine Driver section is here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j9ZzaqxintCRe3k.html I do plan to make a more general video about Engine Driver at some point in the future, but have a couple of other videos to finish first. Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comments. If you are interested in setting up your roster directly in DCC-EX, see the end of my last video #5.d - Using WiThrottle and Engine Driver with JMRI & DCC-EX. The end of that video shows how to export a roster from JMRI (which may not be useful for you) and then add it into DCC-EX (which may). Look at that for an example and then add your roster information to the end of the myAutomation.h sketch in the Arduino IDE. The format looks like this where each function goes between two forward slashes: ROSTER(3,"SF 637","F0 Headlight/F1/F2/F3//////////////////////////") If you're at all interested in JMRI, I am just finishing my next video on some different types of physical controllers we can use with JMRI and DCC-EX, and then will make a video about managing our locomotive rosters in JMRI. Hope that helps! Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comments. I just released a video on using WiThrottle and Engine Driver with JMRI and DCC-EX and highlighted some of the basic info on how to connect Engine Driver DCC-EX as well. Check out Part 3 in the video for that. I may make a more in-depth video on how to use Engine Driver with DCC-EX (for example, to program decoder settings, etc.) in the future, but personally I much prefer to use JMRI DecoderPro for that, so it may be a while before I make that video. Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thanks! That Scratchy-C is always up to something! ; ) Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comments. Once you have installed the EX-WebThrottle app in Chrome, enter the following in Chrome in the address bar where you would normally type in the name of a website (don't forget the colon after chrome and before the forward slashes): chrome://apps This will show you all the installed web apps, which should include DCC-EX EX-WebThrottle along with all the Google apps. If you right-click on the icon for the EX-WebThrottle app and select "Create Shortcut" it should take you to where the app is stored. I need to check in Windows 11, but for earlier versions of windows the address is usually: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Web Applications\ I will check it later in Windows 11 and see if I need to update this message. Again, the name of the app should be "DCC-EX EX-WebThrottle". Also, if you go to chrome://apps and open the app from Chrome, then you will probably see it in your task bar. You can right-click on the icon in the taskbar and pin it to the taskbar if you like. Hope this helps! Thanks again and happy railroading! DD p.s. Note that you can also download all the EX-WebThrottle web files to your computer and run them offline (no internet access required). You can find them on GitHub at the link below. Open the index.html file from the download in Chrome to open EX-WebThrottle. github.com/DCC-EX/WebThrottle-EX/archive/refs/tags/v1.3.27.zip

Thank you for your kind comment and your questions. I can't be entirely sure what is happening but it may be that your locomotive has inadvertently switched into consist mode. I have had this happen a few times when there is an interruption in the DCC signal. I'm not really sure why. The lights will still do their thing, but the locomotive won't move because it's waiting for the consist address. What I would suggest is putting the locomotive on your programming tack and read its DCC address and make sure that the address is what you expect it to be, and that the locomotive is not set up for consist mode. (Also make sure your JMRI is not set up for consist too.) As for the voltage, you need to set your multimeter to the AC setting to read DCC voltage on the track. DCC is not technically AC current, as it is an alternating DC current (and PWM as well), but your meter will see it as AC, even if the voltage reading isn't entirely accurate. But I would start with the programming track and check the DCC address. Good luck and happy railroading! DD

@@DriverDTrains Thank you for your help. You gave exactly the same advise as the DCC EX discord guys haha. I just got back from the store, and on another dcc system the loc also didn't run. After fidling with the decoder, it suddently did run! So fortunatly it's not due to DCC EX, but a broken contact with the decoder I think. Thank you for your advice and all the video's you make!

Heh heh. Thanks for your kind comment. Just two weeks this time. : ) I am hoping the next one will be out in about two weeks as well. Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comment and question. EX-WebThrottle is a web app that runs in Google Chrome. You can access it in your Chrome web browser by going to this web page: dcc-ex.com/WebThrottle-EX/ You can also download the app onto your computer by opening the app in your Chrome web browser, then clicking on the three horizontal lines at the top-left corner of the screen to open the sidebar, then selecting "Settings" at the bottom of the sidebar, and finally clicking "Install as an app" at the bottom of the list of settings. This will download the app to your computer (probably as a ZIP file) that you can then open in Chrome without having to go on the internet. Hope this information helps. Good luck and happy railroading! Thanks again, DD

@@DriverDTrains I would like to run EX WebThrottle from my computer (Windows 11) start menu. I have ESP8266 WiFi shield also. If I go the hamburger menu to setting to app I see (App Installed) What now?

Thank you again for your kind comments. I really appreciate it! There's a lot to know about JMRI, and sometimes it doesn't work *exactly* the way you'd expect, so I try to include as many tips and tricks as I can. I'm always learning new things, even as I'm making the videos! Anyway, watch the video again and try some of the tricks out for yourself. : ) And Scratchy says 'Meow' and thanks for the love! Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comment and question. On my Wi-Fi shield the light flashes 2 or 3 times when the command station boots, and then goes out. However I have heard that on some versions of the Wi-Fi shield, or with some firmwares, the light may stay on. The light on the Arduino Uno is always on. I'm sorry that I don't have a more definitive answer for you. Good luck and happy railroading! Thanks again, DD

Thank you for your kind comments and questions. Unfortunately I do not have a video on Track Manager. I did briefly try it and will tell you what I know. Apologies if I am stating the obvious or things you already know. 1) Track manager supports up to 8 blocks of track, but you would need 4 typical motor shields to actually control 8 blocks. Each motor shield can typically support up to 2 blocks. 2) You need to supply the DC power through the motor shield (same source as DCC power). 3) You need to make sure your motor shield configuration in DCC-EX is configured with a brake pin. The standard motor shield is configured this way. 4) You need to tell DCC-EX to use one of the tracks for DC **AND** at the same time assign a locomotive address to it. You would do this with a command that looks like this: =A DC 12 (You would execute this command using an automation script, or through a serial interface in something like JMRI or the EX-WebThrottle app.) The makes track A (normally the main track on a DCC layout) a DC block for locomotive address 12. 5) You then need to assign the locomotive (12 in this example) in your throttle to control the train on the DC block. You can try all this out very easily in the EX-WebThrottle app. Connect to the command station and wait for it to boot. Make sure the track power is off and there are no locomotives on the track. In the debug console send an "=" command to display the track configuration. You should get something like: [S] <=> [R] <= A MAIN> [R] <= B PROG> Then send "=A DC 12". You should see some responses from DCC-EX. Then type "=" again and you should see: [S] <=> [R] <= A DC 12> [R] <= B PROG> Put a DC locomotive on the track. Assign locomotive 12 to the throttle in the id/address box and press return. Turn on the track power, and try running the locomotive with the throttle. One thing I noticed when I tried it was that I got some warning messages about the current draw on the track; I'm not sure what that was about. To switch back to DCC on the main, you would send an "=A MAIN" command. Hope this helps. Thanks again for your comments. Good luck and happy railroading! DD

@@DriverDTrains wow! thank you so much for all that. I did go into the DCCEX downloader and configure track manager that way, so instead of having Track A=prog and trackb= main like in your videos, it’s set to Track A=DC and Track B= Main (I think). But I did try to run DC on my little strip of programming track and it worked. I’ll definitely try your way as well to see if I get any warnings and to check DCCexs response

Thank you for your kind comments and questions. DCC-EX made some changes and I think that there are two things happening. 1) DCC-EX changed the way that the EX-WebThrottle app formats the information it receives. 2) DCC-EX made some changes to its WiFi handler and for some reason it is not responding as expected when we give AT commands such as the +GMR command to obtain the WiFi firmware version. However, the command station still sends out the firmware version number at boot up, so if you connect using the EX-WebThrottle app and wait for it to boot, then scroll up near the top of the debug console, you should see something that looks like this: [R] <* ++ Wifi Setup Try 1 ++ *> [R] <* Wifi Check: [+IPD] *> [R] <* TIMEOUT after 200ms *> [R] <* Wifi Check: [OK] *> [R] OK<* Found in 1ms *> [R] <* Wifi Check: [OK] *> [R] OK<* Found in 3ms *> [R] <* Wifi Check: [AT version:] *> [R] AT+GMR [R] AT version:<* Found in 4ms *> [R] 1.7.4.0(May<* Wifi Check: [OK] *> <<----THIS IS THE VERSION [R] 11 2020 19:13:04) [R] SDK version:3.0.4(9532ceb) [R] compile time:Ma0:12:22 [R] Bin version(Wroom 02):1.7.4 <<----ALSO HERE [R] OK The new version of DCC-EX is also supposed to send a message that "you need to upgrade/downgrade your firmware" if it detects an unsupported version of the firmware. One other thing you can try is to install an older version of DCC-EX from last year and see if you can use it just long enough to verify your firmware version with the +GMR command. I hope this helps! Thanks again for your comments! Good luck and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comment. Yes, I power the Arduino from its USB connector. As you indicated, I usually do that from the computer, but I also sometimes use a battery pack or a USB wall adapter. Aside from the Wi-Fi shield and a couple of LCD screens, I don't have a lot of current draw off the Arduino, so half an amp on the USB works fine for me. Thanks again and happy railroading! DD

Thank you for your kind comments and question. I'm not entirely certain what is going on with your lights, but there are two broad areas of possibility. * The first is what kind of decoder you have in the locomotive, what kinds of headlight options it offers for switching the lights based on direction (or when stopped), and how it is currently programmed. Question 1: Does the light always switch to one side (i.e. to Front Headlight when moving backwards, but not the other way around) or does the behavior occur in both directions? Question 2: Do you also see both front and rear headlights come on at once? * The second possibility is that the NMRA DCC standard actually specifies two different values for no speed. The first is Speed Step 0, which means set the speed to 0 and let the locomotive do whatever it is programmed to do under that circumstance (which does not necessarily mean stop). Some controllers/throttles refer to this as the "Idle" position. If the locomotive decoder is programmed with a lot of momentum, the locomotive may still continue to move for quite a while even when the speed is set to 0 or Idle. Most of the controllers I have seen will not change the locomotive's direction (forward/reverse) when you move the throttle to 0 or use the "Idle" button. The other is no-speed setting is Speed Step 1, which means "Emergency Stop" or eStop. This instructs the locomotive to stop right now no matter what the other decoder settings are. I don't know whether this is a common (or universal behavior), but I have seen in some cases that when you use the eStop command to stop the locomotive, the locomotive will stop with the speed direction set to forward. This would therefore change the headlight to forwards when eStopping while moving backwards. Also, I don't know whether this applies to your scenario however, because you mentioned that the locomotive keeps moving in the appropriate direction when you start it up again. However, there is one more wrinkle in this, because there are actually two values for each speed step; one for forward and one for reverse. So Speed Step 0 is actually reverse speed 0, and Speed Step 128 is forward speed 0, and so on. So it could be that the locomotive is eStopping and changing its direction to forward, but then the throttle still knows it is supposed to be going in reverse and therefore the locomotive moves in the direction you expect when you apply the throttle again. I don't think I've ever seen this happen the other way though, so if you are having strange headlight behavior in both forward and reverse directions, I don't know that this would make sense. Anyway, hope this information helps you to figure out what is going on. Thanks again and good luck! DD

Thank you so much for your kind comments! I'm so glad you enjoyed the videos. And Scratchy-C says "Meow!" and thanks for all the love! : ) I am working on the next video and hope to have it out shortly. Thanks again! DD

Thank you so much for your kind comments, and for all your great work on JMRI. I really appreciate it! And I'm glad you enjoyed the video. : ) I am working now on my next video that will dive into more details on the JMRI throttles, and even then it will only scratch the surface. But I hope it will encourage more model railroaders to try it out. Thanks again! DD

Thank you for your kind comment! I finally released the new video. Enjoy! Thanks again! DD

Thank you again for all your kind comments. What a long, strange trippy trip it's been. ; )= Well, one year, so not that long really, but... you know. Thanks again and enjoy! DD

Yay! : ) DD

Thank you so much for your kind comments. I'm very glad you are enjoying the videos. : ) Thanks again! DD

Thank you!! >^-^< [Meow!] Off to make more! ;) Thanks again! DD

Thank you so much for your kind comments. I'm glad you've found the videos to be informative. Scratchy-C and I look forward to making many more. :) Thanks again! DD

Thank you!! >^-^< [Meow!] [Let's go Scratchy, time to start another video!] DD

Hi, thanks for your comment. Sorry about the difficulty getting started with JMRI. That error means that JMRI reached out to the locomotive but didn't get a response. I see that all the time when I forget to plug in my programming track lol. There are several possible reasons so check the following: 1. Make sure the locomotive is on the programming track, and is the only locomotive on the programming track. (There can only be one loco on the programming track at a time. Also make sure there are no other cars with resistor wheel sets, or cars that have lights, sounds, or anything else electrical in them on the programming track.) 2. Make sure the JMRI power button shows green (power on). This means the command station has communicated back to JMRI that at least as far as it's concerned the power is on. 3. Make sure the programming track is connected and powered on. It can be hard to know if the programming track power is on. I have a train car with a light in it that I use to check when I am unsure. 4. Make sure the locomotive has good contact on the rails. Also check to make sure there are no special instructions for programming your locomotive; I'm not familiar with every brand but some older locomotives had special programming instructions. I've got one 20yo loco with an old sound decoder in it that does not want to be programmed (not sure why). I've also put some old locos on the track that I thought were DCC that turned out not to be lol. I could have sworn they were! Anyway, hope something here helps. The most likely situation is just that there is a broken connection between the programming track and the command station, but it could be any of the above. Good luck and let me know if you are able to get it to work. Thanks again! DD

Thanks for the detailed reply. I will check things out tomorrow morning and get back with you. Again, thanks!

Used to get the infamous 308 error but not so often now after I increased the power supply voltage. Using an Arduino motor shield on Mega with DCC-EX, I use a 16V DC supply for HO scale engines. Gives me about 14.5 volts on the track. Just a suggestion for you to try.

@@donaldkormos5529Thank you very much for posting your reply. In an hour or so I’m going to cross my fingers and give it a try. Should this work, I will be giving you many pats on your back!

That's a great idea and one I hadn't considered, as I also have a 16V power supply. I'll need to remember that. Thanks again! DD

Thank you for your kind comments, and a warm hello to Herbie! >^-^< So glad you are finding the videos enjoyable and informative. Scratchy-C and I look forward to making many more. Thanks again! DD

Thanks for the pointers! I somehow missed that there is a 2.42 inch version of the OLED; I have the 1.3 version. I ordered one to check it out. I'll post a video on all the options at some point in the future. Thanks again! DD

Thank you for your kind comments. I'm glad that the videos were helpful! Those are good questions and I'm not really sure I have answers for all of them. 1. Regarding the JMRI radio buttons, there is no way to communicate that directly to DCC-EX without re-writing JMRI. There probably *is* a way to insert some code into DCC-EX to have it display a message on the LCD when it receives a decoder programming command that could alert you to whether that programming is happening on the main or programming tracks, as the protocols for those are very different from each other. Unfortunately I don't know off the top of my head where that lives in DCC-EX. 2. As for displaying track status, DCC-EX will do that (in current versions) if you send it an "=" command over a serial connection (from IDE, WebThrottle, JMRI, etc.). It will come back and say something like <=A MAIN><-B PROG>. Separately DCC-EX will tell us the track power status (On/Off/Join/Main/Prog) depending on the track configuration (at least in the release version; the developer version doesn't seem to be working). It sounds like what we really want is something like "Track A: MAIN ON", "Track B: PROG OFF" in the LCD display. I'm certain that is doable but would need to do some research to figure out the best place to insert that code. I am guessing it would be in the TrackManager.cpp sketch but not 100% on that. You might try reaching out to the DCC-EX folks on their Discord server and see if they can help. I would be as specific as possible. "What code do I need to insert into TrackManager.cpp to have the LCD display include two lines that say "Track A: MAIN/PROG ON/OFF" and Track B: MAIN/PROG ON/OFF" and see what response you get. Let me know lol. 3. As for the short circuit; I don't know. DCC-EX monitors for short circuits on the main track, but I don't know about the programming track. I would have to look into that more. Hope some of this helps. Good luck and let me know how it goes! Thanks again, DD

Thank you for the kind comments. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. I'm already working on the next one. : ) Thanks again! DD

Thank you again for all your kind comments. I really appreciate it. Every time I finish one video the next one is waiting. ; ) Thanks again, DD

@DriverDTrains I'm always excited to see the notification for the next video. It is my pleasure to see them, so all the kind comments are more than well deserved! Hope you have a wonderful day

Thank you, and you as well! :) DD

Thank you very much for your kind comments, and also your question. Yes, DCC-EX has updated the EX-WebThrottle app, as well as the EX-Command Station software, so what you will see in the display is a little different from what I showed in the video. On the latest version of the EX-WebThrottle app, the debug console and the switch to turn it on are repositioned off to the right. Make sure you turn the debug console on before you connect the throttle to the command station. Also make sure you are using Google Chrome for your browser. When the command station boots you will see about 75 lines of text scroll quickly through the screen. The last 25 or so lines will look like this (below). The line that says LCD4 below has the IP address on my CS; you will need to get yours so you can enter it in the WiThrottle or Engine Driver app. Note that if you have never used the Wi-Fi on our DCC-EX Command Station before, it will probably be the default Access Point mode address 192.168.4.1. Be sure to watch video #4d for the explanation of Access Point vs. Station Mode. The line further down that says LCD5 has the port number; almost guaranteed to be 2560. You also need that for your throttle app. [R] AT+CIFSR [R] +CIFSR:STAIP,"<* Found in 4ms *> [R] 192.168.1.170"<* LCD4:192.168.1.170 *> [R] <* Wifi Check: [OK] *> [R] [R] +CIFSR:STAMAC,"3c:e9:0e:de:3c:4c" [R] [R] OK [R] <* Found in 6ms *> [R] <* LCD5:PORT=2560 *> [R] <* Wifi Check: [OK] *> [R] ATE0OK<* Found in 4ms *> [R] <* WiFi CONNECTED *> [R] <iDCC-EX V-5.0.7 / MEGA / STANDARD_MOTOR_SHIELD G-3bddf4d> [i] EX-CommandStation is READY [S] <JR> [R] <* LCD3:Ready *> [R] <p0> [R] <* LCD2:Power Off *> [R] <iDCC-EX V-5.0.7 / MEGA / STANDARD_MOTOR_SHIELD G-3bddf4d> [i] Version:5.00007 [R] <p0> [R] <* LCD2:Power Off *> [R] <* LCD3:Free RAM= 2591b *> [R] <jR> [S] <JA> [R] <jA> Hope this helps. If you are not seeing anything at all in the debug console, then there is some kind of communication issue between your computer and the DCC-EX command station. Again, make sure you are using Goggle Chrome as it is the only browser that can access the serial port needed to talk to DCC-EX. Let me know how if goes! Thanks again! DD

@@DriverDTrains sorry for the long delay. I just gave up and was busy with other parts of my railroad. The problem was the firmware version in the WIFI shield. It ws old! Rather than buying additional items, that I probable won't use in the future, I ordered a new Deek Robot WIFI Shield with the required firmware. I"m still waiting for it to arrive. However I think, with your excellent videos, I will be able to get this thing hooked up this time. Thanks so mych for your help...Bill

Thank you so much for the kind comments. I'm very glad you enjoyed the video. I just posted a new one in the JMRI series, with more to come. Thanks again! DD

Thank you for your kind comments and suggestions. I have a couple of OLED panels I need to hook up and try out. My eyesight isn't the best anymore so I am curious so see whether the OLEDs are too small; I wonder if I can find some kind of magnifying plastic case to put them in. I also have a second LCD display configured for my DCC-EX command station; I need to make a video about that sometime as well. Thanks again and enjoy! DD

@@DriverDTrains My eyesight isn't great either!! Look into the 2.42 inch 128x64 1306 OLED (white) ... available online for about $10. You get 8 lines of very bright white text displayed all at once on black background. Have three of them on three DCC-EX command stations for different layouts. Al the best ...

Thank you! It was a nice surprise. : ) DD

Thank you for your kind comments. Sorry about the delayed response. The way you export the JMRI roster to DCC-EX is to choose "Roster Export to DCC-EX" in JMRI, then copy and paste that information into the "myAutomation.h" sketch in DCC-EX using the Arduino IDE. I will definitely be including that in one of my next videos (probably the one after next). Also if you have not seen it yet, I just published my latest video on getting started with JMRI, and I show how to configure JMRI to work with DCC-EX over Wi-Fi. You might consider that as an option to running a cable. Thanks again! DD

: )

Thank you so much for your kinds comments! I glad you enjoyed the video! Cheers! DD

Thank you for your kind comments! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. So you noticed that little device I was using as a throttle? Not many people have noticed that. I will have to make a video on it at some point. It is, as you say, an alternate input device for a computer. One of the nice things about JMRI throttles is that when you run JMRI on your computer you can use almost any input device including your mouse, keyboard, and quite a few other things as a throttle. What you saw there is a drawing tablet controller, that also doubles as an application keyboard shortcut device, called a Xencelabs Quick Keys. It is customizable with 8 buttons, a dial, and an OLED display, each of which can have multiple settings that you can cycle through. I really need to learn how to use it more. It does have a few limitations. It requires that you run JMRI on a computer (Mac or Windows) and does not support Raspberry Pi. It requires that you use an included USB dongle for 2.4ghz wireless connection as it's not bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The dial does not have any stops or detents; it just spins. And it does not display any information received back from JMRI, such as set locomotive ID, speed, functions, etc. But I find it quite handy as a handheld controller. It's light weight, easy to hold, and the build quality is top notch. And of course I use it for other things on my computer lol. It's not super cheap, but it costs less than a DCC throttle. It is regularly $100, but I found it on sale for $80 at Amazon. Here is the link. www.amazon.com/dp/B08VNCLDTK Thanks again for your comments and enjoy! DD

Thank you so much for your kind comments, and I'm so glad you found the videos informative. I'll keep making more! : ) And of course thank you for subscribing! Best, DD