Harvey, come to find out that my partner already purchased your software. The issue is that the customer has one computer in the convenience store and does not allow his employees access to it. The store opens at five a.m. so the train control must be independent of a computer so which ever employee opens, they are able to start the train by simply turning on specific equipment. That is also a reason why the remote handheld is locked away as well, because not all employees are adept at operating said unit. Some have a tendency just to push buttons willy-nilly and we get called in to reset, a lot. Hence why I suggested Arduino for control. Some folks, when given many options, choose them all! I would prefer that a single power switch will control power to everything, and at most, simply pressing the reset button on the arduino will start the train operation for the day. We have toyed with using the remote to program the sequences in, but several issues arise from that. The first being that the complete circuit of the train once around the track varies in time according to friction in the curves. By using an IR receiver, we can let the program "adjust" the command timing. The train is mounted 8 foot up on a wall that separates the main store from the deli/kitchen. So half of the track is in the main store, the back half is in the kitchen and is covered in an eight inch accordion style tunnel. The track is mounted to expanded metal mesh which is cut and bolted in place. It took us a good month to get the track leveled and mounted. We did this by cutting 1/8th inch plywood veneer to the exact shape and width of the assembled track, then used this to mount the track to. The veneer was assembled in four separate pieces in order to give as much stability to the track as possible. We actually mounted the veneer to the expanded metal mesh and leveled it as we assembled, then attached the track to the veneer, thus making repairs on the track much easier. As the train passes in to the kitchen area, we want all train noises to stop, then start again once in enters back into the main store. I believe we can accomplish this with a simple IR receiver which will trigger as the engine passes, given the multi spectrum receiver can "sense" the IR signal from the engine. This trigger event will be read by the arduino for each pass and used to by the program to perform different commands for each lap. After the fourth lap, the train will stop, every so often do a whistle, or make some locomotive sounds. After a half hour or so, it starts the lap sequence again, and so on, until closing time when the employee simply turns off the master power switch. If I had a dedicated laptop or computer, we could probably make your software work just fine, as long as we can idiot proof it from employees. The office is located some 30 to 40 feet from where the train is mounted, so any wiring will need to be pulled through the attic. This in itself is a non issue as I have spent many hours pulling cat6 communications wire, power, and video security cable through the attic in the past.
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