Dave,
Your work defining the requirements for the system and the coders who executed it are definitely going to have a great impact on our hobby! I'm really looking forward to trying it out for myself and am glad to see that Mike Wolf and the other tallented folks at MTH see the value in it.
I've been putting together a video system that allows me to monitor trains while backing into/pulling out of my storage sidings that are hidden under the upper level of my layout. My goal originally was very basic, display the video on a small screen (like a portable car DVD player), but then I decided to make use of my Thrive Android tablet and stream the video over my home wireless network using an iCam DVR to collect the camera feeds.
Being able to also control the rest of the layout and trains using your app on the tablet as well is really going to be cool! I'm sure this will pique the interest of many young hobbyists too.
A couple questions though:
1) What's the hardware interface to the command control system? I run DCS on my layout with an older (serial) TIU and AIUs. Is there a physical connection between the server and the TIU(s) or is there an RF transceiver that connects to the server?
2) Dave Zucal mentioned the text interface and you have a nice but limited solution for it. What about the possibility of video integration? I can see a neat interface that would allow cameras like the ones on my layout that could be selected for viewing from one of the app control panels. I wouldn't want to try to use the cameras as optical detection devices, but I'm sure there could be additional uses for a video interface.
3) I'm still using my cheap Atlas turntable controlled by your DCS AIU rectifier diode. It still works great using my Mark 1 Mod 1 optical sensor (eyeball) for indexing. Do you think the turntable could be accurately controlled using the app?
Thanks so much for all the help over the years and for making the next several years equally exciting, challenging and costly!
Bob
