• History of Development of Features
• Implementation Details
• Host Computer Requirements
• Target DCC Systems
• Install Tips for Windows O/S
• How To Use This Program
• Future Features
• Run The Demo
• You Have a Powerhouse Pro and Want This Software Now
• History of Development of Features
1. Version 1 - Basic programming of speedcurves and some basic CVs. Only support for NCE command stations and locomotives that are on the programming track.
2. Version 1.1 - Programming on the main (ops mode short and long form) supported. Support for additional basic CVs added.
3. Version 1.2 - Support for all CV's of following decoders: NCE D102 EU, NCE DA102US, LENZ LE103XF. Support for sound related CV's SoundTrax DSD steam.
4. Version 1.22 - Support added for LENZ LE103XF version 45, complete SoundTrax DSD steam. Major revision of user interface providing support for all of the above within a single window.
5. Macintosh version of 1.22 provided for download

• Implementation Details

I choose to write this software in Java to increase portability across different systems. Included on this web site is a demo applet that may be run from your web browser. It is unlikely I will go through the trouble of creating a working version that can be run from a browser because of the complications involved in working around the browser security features that prevent access to the file system and I/O ports of your computer from a Java applet.
• Host Computer Requirements

The target computer system will need a Java Runtime Environment and Java's CommAPI extension installed in order to run. Both of the software packages can be downloaded free of charge for various operating systems. See instructions on this and the download page for more details for both Windows and Macintosh.

I have tried this program on Windows NT, Windows Millennium, Macintosh OS 9.04 and Solaris systems so far. Let me know if you get this program running on other systems.

• Target DCC Systems

Right now I have only programmed the software to talk to my Powerhouse Pro system, but it should be easily adaptable to other DCC systems. I would like to make this program also operate with Lenz, EasyDCC and Digitrax. At this point I know little about the Digitrax and the Lenz systems serial interfaces, but supporting the EasyDCC system should be a fairly easy addition. Send Email if you are computer literate, have a Lenz, EasyDCC or Digitrax system and would like to work with me in getting this program to operate on your system.
• Install Tips for Windows O/S

These instructions are for Windows, but other platforms may require similar techniques and processes.

I have been unable to run this program from the jre provided by Sun for some reason, so load the java software development kit (sdk) from this site at sun, instead.
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/download-jdk-windows.html
Go towards the bottom of the page to where it says -
"Download JDK 1.1.8_008 Software for Windows 95 / 98 / 2000 / NT 4.0 (Intel Platform) "
and click on the button. On the next page read the license agreement and click "accept" if you agree. On the next page click on the "FTP download" button for a location close to you. Select the folder into which the download will go and download the application using "windows explorer", go to the folder into which the file was downloaded. Double-click on the downloaded file follow the prompts given in the install program to complete installation of JDK1.1.8.

Get the java comm package from sun at the following link -
"http://java.sun.com/products/javacomm/ ".
Select the windows version and click on the "continue" button. Read the license agreement and click "accept" if you agree. Click on FTP download to download the install package. Select "open" and the install package will automatically start up whatever program you may have installed on your system that can extract winzip files. For instance, from winzip select extract from the menu system in the dialog select "All files" and the destination folder. In this case I saved the package into the following location)

"C:\Program Files\JavaSoft"

Copy certain commapi files to where they need to belong.
cd c:\program files\javasoft
C:\>copy commapi\win32com.dll jdk1.1.6\bin

Copy comm.jar to your <JDK>\lib directory.
C:\>copy commapi\comm.jar jdk1.1.6\lib

Copy javax.comm.properties to your <JDK>\lib directory.
C:\>copy commapi\javax.comm.properties jdk1.1.6\lib

Now download the railroadprogram applet using the same method as used to get the java comm package. In this case I created a new directory in which to put the application called "c:\Program Files\JavaSoft\railroad"

You have now installed all necessary elements onto your system to run RailRoadProgram.

Follow directions on this page to setup class paths and run the program

• How To Use This Program

These screen snap shots show the highlights of the user interface. The text will give some hints on operation. When the full program is run it will prompt you to select the com port that you have connected to your powerhouse pro command station. This dialog does not appear when running the demo applet, since the demo does not access any of your PC's hardware.

The operator configures a specific decoder type by selecting the decoder in the Decoder menu at the top of the RailRoadProgram window.

The operator configures a decoder CV's in logical groups called screens. Use the screen menu at the top of the RailRoadProgram window to select the screen of interest.

Version 1.22 supports the following screens.

• Basic - CV's common to most decoders (such as addresses and CV29) and CV's that don't fit into other groups (such as user data).
• Consist - CV's associated with consisting.
• Lighting - CV's associated with lighting functions.
• Output Map - CV's 33 to 42 - mapping of functions.
• Steam Sound - CV's associated with SoundTrax sound functions.
• Speed Curve - CV's associated with speed curves.

The Basic, Consist, Lighting and Steam Sound screens all have a similar look and feel, which is described in the next section.
Use the check boxes, radio buttons, and integer fields to setup CV values for programming. The actual CV bits affected are indicated by the description attached to the button or textbox.

Clicking on the "Prog" button next to each check box, radio button or textbox will cause only that specific value to be programmed to the loco on the main track. This is known as ops mode programming. The loco is selected by the loco number at the bottom left hand corner of the window. Programming on the main track is fire and forget. There is no way to have this program verify results without placing the loco on the programming track to read back the CVs. To read the CVs or program on the programming track, use the buttons at the bottom of the screen described next.

The "Read PTrk" and "Prog PTrk" buttons at the bottom of each screen will either read or write the current screens CV's to a loco on the programming track. Remember these buttons only affect the CV's for the current screen. Note that when reading the CV's the program will read manufacturer and version number and attempt to configure itself automatically for the actual decoder detected. If the program cannot determine exact decoder type, the user must select the decoder through the decoder menu described previously.

The "Read File" and "Write File" buttons will write the programs current values for all CV's to the file named by the loco number in the textbox on the bottom left corner of the window. Note that the program assumes default values for all CV's until either modified by user input or by reading the CV's from the programming track. These buttons affect all CV's for the current locomotive, not just the ones for the current screen.

The Output Map screen is a little different that the other screens. It consists of a series of red and green squares that indicate which functions affect which outputs. Red indicates an output feature is affected by a function, green that it does not. For example F8 could affect the Mute, Coupler, Dynamo and F5 outputs of a SoundTrax's steam decoder. In the screen depicted here, only the Mute function is enabled to be affected by F8..



The speed curve can be altered through several mechanisms. Values can be entered directly into the boxes along the left side of this window. The values can also be altered by dragging the small black squares on the curve itself left or right. The violet and blue lines show previous curves that have been loaded into this screen. The last two curves are maintained as reference in this way.

"1234" - A loco address can be entered into the textbox.

"Read File" - This button reads speed curve from the file "loco_address.spd". Loco_address is the loco address entered into the textbox in the upper left hand corner of the screen. This allows fetching speed curve information from a speed curve file without altering other CV's.

"Save File" - This button writes the speed curve to the file "loco_address.spd". Loco_address is the loco address entered into the textbox in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Only the speed curve information is saved into this file, information pertaining to other CV's is omitted.

"Prog Main" - This button will write the contents of the speed curve to a loco the main. This is also known as ops mode programming. The loco is identified by the address entered into the loco address box on the upper left hand corner of the screen. Programming on the main is pretty much fire and forget, there is no way to have this program verify results without placing the loco on the programming track to read back the speed curve. If the selected decoder supports forward and reverse trim, they are also programmed at this time.

"Smooth Dn" - Helps you to create a smooth speed curve by smoothing the curve, rounding down results.

"Smooth Up" - Helps you to create a smooth speed curve by smoothing the curve, rounding up results.

• Future Features

Here is a list of some in the order of likely implementation. If enough folks are interested in this application, it is much more likely that I will be motivated to continue to add features.
1. support for more specific decoders
2. locomotive operating controls
3. printing of save configurations
Send email, if you have more suggestions on other features or decoders you wish to have supported.
• Run The Demo

You will need a fairly new browser because of the JAVA 1.1 features I have used in this implementation. In fact, I only recently got this demo to start on Netscape for Macintosh, by downloading Nescapte version 6, but there are still issues with accessing the menus. The full version does work fine on a Macintosh, though.

This demo only shows the user interface and will not actually talk to a command station or save the configuration values to disk. You can setup all parameters like you were about to program them. Also you can drag the speed curve settings by clicking on the little squares on the curve. Note that the previous setting shows up as a colored line on the graph. Use the smooth buttons to smooth out your curve. This demo is the exact same program as the operational version, only the command station and file system interface have been disabled.

Start RailRoadProgram Demo




• You Have a Powerhouse Pro and Want This Software Now

The assumption is that you tried the demo applet on this web site and think you may like to use to operational program. You will also need a working cable that connects from your host computer to your command station. You can use any terminal emulation program to verify that the connection works.

This version of the program is free, but if you do try it out, send email and let me know what you think about it and the ways in which you think it could be improved.

Download RailRoadProgram