DCC Commander is an application that allows you to communicate with your DCC-EX command station to control trains, accessories, and other DCC connected items. The application supports both iOS (Apple) and Android devices. DCC Commander supports both direct DCC-EX and JMRI WiThrottle connectivity.
The next step is the initial configuration of DCC Commander
This post assumes that you have built a DCC-EX command station and installed the firmware. If you have not completed those steps then please do so. The most challenging process of DCC-EX, assembling the DCC-EX command station, is now complete. Now it’s time to have some fun: verify your DCC-EX command station is fully functional and run some model trains.
The DCC-EX command station has two power supplies. One for the track power (the larger 12 volt supply) and one for the Mega power (the smaller 9 volt supply). It’s recommended to plug the AC adaptors of both of those power supplies into a single surge protector with multiple outlets. This will allow you to power on the DCC-EX command station with the flip of a single switch on the surge protector.
With all of the power connections complete you can now power on the DCC-EX command station via the switch on the surge protector.
The next step is Installing DCC Commander (iOS or Android) on your mobile device to use as a DCC throttle and actually run your model trains.
This article assumes that you’ve assembled a DCC-EX command station in a well-defined manner as detailed in this article. The DCC-EX firmware is a set of instructions that tell the Mega how to generate the DCC timing and signals to control your model railroad layout. The easiest method to install the firmware on the DCC-EX hardware is to use the DCC-EX Installer. If you experience any issues with firmware installation and you are not using the well-defined DCC-EX then review the full DCC-EX Installer documentation to find settings that will support your specific needs.
The WiFi SSID and password are the same you use to connect any wireless device to your network.
The next step is to attach your DCC-EX to your model railroad layout, verify your DCC-EX command station is fully functional, and start running trains!
DCC stands for Digital Command Control. It’s a standard used in model railroading that allows multiple locomotives to be independently controlled on the same section of track. National Model Railroad Association developed and maintains the DCC standards used by most manufacturers. For many hobbyists, DCC is the model railroad equivalent of moving from an old analog telephone system to a modern digital network. It transformed layouts from “control the track” to “control each locomotive individually.”
DCC Commander is a mobile control center for Digital Command Control (DCC) model railroads, allowing operators to control locomotives, turnouts, routes, and layout functions from their iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Features include:
Building a DCC-EX command station is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to get started with DCC. If you’re comfortable with basic electronics or have built an Arduino project before, you’ll find the process straightforward. For a deeper dive into DCC-EX, including build-versus-buy considerations and the many available hardware options, visit the DCC-EX website.
If you’d rather skip the research, build a DCC-EX command station using a proven set of parts and get your model trains running, this guide is for you. The following sections describe a simple DCC-EX command station configuration that has become the “standard” DIY DCC-EX build because the parts are inexpensive, widely available, and well supported. You’ll find a complete parts list along with easy-to-follow assembly instructions.
If you’d rather skip assembling your own DCC-EX command station then you can purchase a pre-assembled unit directly from the DCC-EX group or one of their resellers.
This guide assumes you’re comfortable with basic electronics or you’ve assembled simple Arduino projects before but have never built a DCC command station. No soldering is required. You’ll only need a screwdriver, wire stripper and about 30 minutes. Genuine Arduino or compatible Mega 2560 boards both work fine.
All assembly steps below are set apart as bullet-items for easy distinction between “wordy-words” and the steps required to assemble the DCC-EX. So, if you already have a good general understanding of assembling a DCC-EX then just look for the bullet-items and supported images.
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Notes: Genuine Arduino Mega 2560 boards and compatible clones both work well. The 9V power supply powers the Arduino and the electronics. The 12V supply powers the trains. They intentionally remain electrically separate as you will see below when you connect the Mega 2560 and the motor shield. Here is an image of all the parts you will need.
Gather the Mega 2560 Microcontroller board and the Motor Shield board. The Mega 2560 is the brains behind the entire DCC-EX command station. It generates the timing and signals required for DCC to control your layout. The motor shield is the brawn behind the DCC-EX command station. It generates the necessary power (voltage and current) and transfers the DCC signal to your layout to control your trains.
The motor shield plugs directly into the Mega 2560 and sits on top of it.
Aligning the Vin/VCC pin is the single most important step in the build. If the Vin/VCC pin is inserted into the Mega header, the Arduino and motor shield power supplies become connected together, which can damage the hardware.
Here’s an up-close image of the motor shield’s Vin/VCC pin slightly bent out so it does not sit in the female header of the Mega 2560 board. You can cut-off that extending pin if you prefer.
Two jumper wires are required to connect the Mega’s serial port to the ESP8266 WiFi module. TX1 transmits data from the Mega to the WiFi shield, while RX1 receives data back from the WiFi shield. This allows the Mega to communicate with a wireless throttle, such as DCC Commander, via a WiFi network connection.
The left-most and right-most pins are referenced when holding the Mega 2560 board such that the USB port is pointing upwards and the WiFi shield pointing towards you (also, see arrows on image below)
Jumper wires connected to the Mega 2560 and WiFi shield:
The assembled DCC-EX command station:
Assemble a power plug to be used for easily plugging in the power supply for the layout to control your DCC trains and accessories.
You will need wires to connect the output of the motor shield to your layout to control trains and accessories.
Congratulations! Your DCC-EX hardware is built and ready to use. It should look something like this:
Before applying power, confirm each item below:
A quick test to verify everything is looking good. After applying power, if you feel any heat from any of the boards or see any visible smoke then disconnect power immediately and review the checklist again. If you saw smoke then you’ll likely have to replace the part that smoked – extremely rare though!
The next step is installing the DCC-EX firmware. Once that’s done, you’ll be ready to connect your command station to your layout and begin running trains.
A router is a woodworkers best friend. The PRL from Woodpeckers makes it the perfect friend! I’ve been using my PRL V1 for almost 15 years without issue. The PRL V1 is no longer for sale – the PRL V2 has taken its place. Recently, the handle crank became hard to turn. After some digging-around and unscrewing, it turns out this was caused by dust between the nylon gear and the faceplate. Here’s how I fixed the issue.
Place the PRL on a sturdy surface:
You will need some tools: 9/16″ wrench, 4.5mm Allen wrench, and some lubricant (I used 3-1 oil but WD-40 or similar will work fine):
Place the PRL on its side with access to the 9/16″ bolts which hold the router in place:
Remove the router from the PRL for easier access to the gears and chain:
Once the router is removed, flip the PRL on its face with access to remove the gears and loosen the chain. Locate the gear underneath the crank handle (it’s the one with large metal stop-system and two Allen nuts) :
Unscrew the two Allen nuts to remove the stop-system:
One the adjacent side of the PRL, remove the single Allen nut holding the metallic gear:
the chain should flow freely to create slack to access the gears:
Now loosen the chain from around the nylon gear located below the hand crank:
Turn and pull the nylon gear by hand until it comes free from the face plate:
Now comes the fix! Clean the base of the gear and the inside hole on the face plate. First with a dry cloth or paper towel to get ride of the larger debris. Finally spray the areas with oil/WD-40. No need to use very much as it will dry eventually; use just enough to slide the gear back into the faceplate.
Once it’s all clean, slip the nylon gear back in the faceplate, place the chain back on the nylon gear, place the chain back on the metal gear, and screw the Allen nut so the metal gear is secure and the chain flows around all four gears. Re-secure the metal stop-system to the top of the nylon gear with the two Allen nuts. Finally, re-mount the router into the Lift.
Give the crank a whirl! Hopefully it’s back to new and cranks easily.
I run windows 10 and once in a while my second video monitor will remain dark after coming out of a suspend mode (sometimes even just turning off the monitors and turning them back on!). I believe this is an issue with the NVidia video card I have installed since I can get the monitor to refresh by restarting the device (or rebooting the PC).
Here’s how I solve this issue …
1. On the Windows Desktop (or some other folder if you prefer) create a new file named ResetVideoAdaptor.bat. You can use Windows Notepad or any text editor to do this. Just make sure the file extension is named ‘.bat’ and not ‘.txt’
2. Add the following lines to your ResetVideoAdaptor.bat file (see additional steps ‘how to customize for your system’ below)
@echo off REM see details on blog.electrongoo.com to set your specific adaptor id! SET MY_VID_ADAPTOR_ID=*PCI\VEN_XXXX*YYYY* "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Tools\x64\devcon" disable %MY_VID_ADAPTOR_ID% "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Tools\x64\devcon" enable %MY_VID_ADAPTOR_ID%
3. To use this batch file, whenever one of your video monitors goes dark, run ResetVideoAdaptor.bat as Administrator (right-click on ResetVideoAdaptor.bat and select “Run as Administrator”) and the video adaptor will be reset and the video monitor will come back to life.
How to customize for your system
You must have Microsoft’s devcon utility installed on your system for this to work. This utility is free and part of the Microsoft WDK which you can download here.
You must update the vendor id and device id in the ResetVideoAdaptor.bat file for your specific video card. You can find these values using Windows Device Manager. In the Windows Search bar type “Device Manager” and press Enter. You should see a window similar to this
Locate your video card under “display adaptors” and right-click and select Properties. From the Properties page select the Details tab and select “Hardware Ids” from the Property drop-down listbox. You should see something similar to this
Now jot-down the vendor id which will be the four digits after the “VIN_” tag (see example below) and the device id which will be the four digits after the “DEV_” tag (see example below).
Finally update your specific four digit vendor id and four digit device id in the ResetVideoAdapter.bat file. Search for “XXXX” and “YYYY” and replace those values with your specific id’s. As an example, for my video card I updated the line
SET MY_VID_ADAPTOR_ID=*PCI\VEN_XXXX*YYYY*
to
SET MY_VID_ADAPTOR_ID=*PCI\VEN_10DE*1187*
Save your final changes to ResetVideoAdapter.bat and your done.
I hope this helps!
I have a multi-user configuration setup on my Windows 10 PC at home. My entire family can log into their own Windows account and have their own desktop and storage space. This works nicely but I noticed that iTunes is not very friendly with this multi-user configuration – iTunes hangs after sync’ing with an iPhone/ipad and can’t be used again until after a system reboot. Here’s how I resolved this issue: I created a batch file which terminates iTunes and creates a “clean” state …
@echo off taskkill /F /IM itunes.exe taskkill /F /IM distnoted.exe
3. Now, whenever you close iTunes, simply run ResetITunes.bat as Administrator (right-click and select “Run as Administrator”) and iTunes will terminate and be ready for the next user to sync their iPhone or iPad.
Hope this helps!
When managing projects I use a few different off-the-shelf products. But, it always seems there is some task I need to do that can’t be done efficiently with these tools so I make sure to include MS Excel (Office 365) in my suite of project management utilities. VBA macros within Excel give me the power to complete any custom tasks I require.
I needed to copy a set of folders (an entire recursive tree) to a new location. VBA does not natively include this feature. I searched the web for solutions but it seemed all were either out-of-date (non functional) or simply incomplete (never worked!). So, I thought I’d share my solution built on the VBA scripting.filesystemobject. Hopefully it will help others. Here it is …
Public Sub TestCopyFiles()
' Call the recursive copy operation
CopyFiles "c:\temp\a", "c:\temp\b"
End Sub
Public Sub CopyFiles(ByVal strPath As String, ByVal strTarget As String, Optional ByVal basePath As String, Optional ByVal baseTarget As String)
If basePath = "" Then basePath = strPath
If baseTarget = "" Then baseTarget = strTarget
Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
' First loop through files in this folder
For Each nextFile In FSO.getfolder(strPath).Files
fullTargetPath = strTarget + "\" + nextFile.Name
mkdir (strTarget)
' Copy one file
FileInFromFolder.Copy fullTargetPath
Next
' Next loop through folders in this folder
For Each nextFolder In FSO.getfolder(strPath).SubFolders
nextStrTarget = baseTarget + Right(nextFolder, Len(nextFolder) - Len(basePath))
mkdir (nextStrTarget)
CopyFiles nextFolder.Path, nextStrTarget, basePath, baseTarget
Next
End Sub
Private Sub mkdir(folder As String)
' Create a folder if it doesn't exist
Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
On Error Resume Next
FSO.CreateFolder (folder)
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub
As a recent cross-over user of Subversion to Git, I occasionally need a refresher of some command-line git operations … and I find myself searching the web. So, I created this list in a single, easy to locate post. Here is a list of Git operations I find most useful. Listed in order of a typical workflow. Hence more interesting (and more easily forgotten) operations are listed at the end.
sudo apt-get install git |
git config --global user.name "Iam me"git config --global user.email me@here.comgit config --global core.editor nanogit config --global credential.helper "cache --timeout=900" |
nano .gitignore*.onohup.outdoc/*.txt.vscode.idea |
git help <command> |
git initORgit clone git://your.git.url.goes.here |
git statusgit diff |
git add <filename>git commitORgit commit -am "commit message goes here" (add all tracked files and commit them in a single command) |
git rm <filename |
git mv <filename> <newfilename> |
git commit -am 'initial commit'git add <somefile>git commit --amend |
git status |
git checkout -- <file |
git reset HEAD <file |
git revert <commit-id>git push |
git reset --hard origin/master |
git checkout -b <name_of_your_new_branch>git push origin <name_of_your_new_branch |
git stash***change branches or whatevergit stash pop |
git push origin --delete <branchName>git fetch -p "to refresh local repro" |
git branch -d <branch_name>git fetch -p #"to refresh local repro" |
git tag -a <tagname> <commitid>git push origin <tagname> |
git checkout <tagname> |
git checkout mastergit pullgit checkout <branch>git merge master# if you have conflicts ... edit the conflicts and then run "git add <files_edited>" "git commit"git push |