Controlling trains with an iPhone / iPod Touch

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm not sure about the vertical speed controls. I think maybe removing the tab bar in the bottom, and replace it with the speed controls. Just 4 buttons next to each other. My reasoning is that people are quite used to having a 4 button tab bar, and they're generally easy to reach with your thumb. Not sure how easy the top button would be to reach in a vertical set up.

What's the idea behind the loco 1 and loco 2 buttons btw? Fast switching between 2 loco's?

I'll make a quick version of the interface in Xcode soon, and check the controls.

[inobu]

I'm not sure about the vertical speed controls. I think maybe removing the tab bar in the bottom, and replace it with the speed controls. Just 4 buttons next to each other. My reasoning is that people are quite used to having a 4 button tab bar, and they're generally easy to reach with your thumb. Not sure how easy the top button would be to reach in a vertical set up.

What's the idea behind the loco 1 and loco 2 buttons btw? Fast switching between 2 loco's?

I'll make a quick version of the interface in Xcode soon, and check the controls.

Vertical buttons for thumb are better, natural steady movement verses horizontal movements. It causes the thumb to reach across other buttons losing position. 

Fast switching... Yes

Inobu

[KenS]

My two cents:

A vertical slider is better than a button for the throttle, and as someone else mentioned, relative sliders are better than absolute ones (i.e., just because my thumb starts at the 2/3rds possition, doesn't mean I want the train going 2/3rds of full speed.  What matters is the difference between where I start the slide, and where I end, and it should take several full slides to go from stop to full throttle.  Anything more exact than that is hard to do one-handed while holding the iPhone.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of leftys in the world, and even us rightys sometimes need to use our left hands. The ability to swap the left-side function buttons and the right-side throttle slider would be useful if there's only one set of controls on-screen at a time.

Fast-switching of two locos is very useful.  I love my Digitrax DT400 with two throttle knobs (but it's most certainly not for one-hand operation). A tabbed method for switching between the two feels to me like the most natural (I'd like to have both on screen, but I think that would make the display cluttered, and reduce the usability).

What might be useful along with that is a way to quickly select locos (addresses) to control from a favorites list, not for switching between running locos, but for parking one and setting off with another with the minimum of fuss. Perhaps a tap on the address display to bring up the favorites list...

[Martijn Meerts]

A relative vertical slider, at least a traditional looking one, would be confusing I think. In stead you could use the scroll wheel idea you see on a computer mouse. People will recognize it and know it won't be some absolute control.

Selecting a loco on an iPhone is real easy. Earlier in this thread are some screenshots of a test app I made, which is really just a tableview, like the song list, and selecting a train will take you to the throttle. Of course it'd be possible to have a quick select button in the throttle view itself, which allows you to pick from a favorites list for example.

Multiple throttle knobs on the iPhone won't work, but on the iPad it's definitely possible. You could probably even have 4 very functional mini-throttles on the iPad, but on the other hand, keeping track of 4 trains at a time is quite challenging :)

[Martijn Meerts]

Quick update ..

I'm still (sort of) working on this stuff, it's just low priority. One of the things I wanted to do was to be able to sync the iOS app with the OS X app. However, considering I'm well underway with the Locowerks database thing, I'm going to hook up the iOS app to that database directly (initially, eventually there'll still be an option to sync with the OS X app, and have the OS X app sync with Locowerks. This basically turns the iOS device into a slave of the OS X app.)

I've also been playing around with connecting to the ECoS, and I have code that connects to the ECoS and sets up input and output streams. The code is universal, so basically I can control the ECoS (and therefor the layout) using OS X or one of the iOS devices.


Other than that, I'm getting used to Xcode 4, which is probably going to be released soon (there's developer previews available), which makes development, and especially debugging, quite a bit easier. However, they changed the IDE quite a lot, and they added a completely new compiler and debugger, so there's a whole bunch of new stuff to go through =)

[Webskipper]

With the sale of my 11 year old iBook, I am now ready to add another Apple to the Orchard.

Digitrax is 30 days out from releasing a $140 package to control your DCC Loco with iPad2.

Maybe this topic should be updated to "Controlling Trains With an iPhone/iPod/iPad"

Oh yeah, no computer required with the iPad. I guess they'll still recommend the PR3.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vxh2ex5Iyqc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Vxh2ex5Iyqc</a>

[The_Ghan]

Makes it almost worthwhile buying an eyepad, skip!  I better check if TrainController works in it.  THAT could be a deal breaker!

Cheers

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

$140?! Damn.. All you need is an interface with either wifi or ethernet connection, and that shouldn't cost $140 ...

[KenS]

I think, although it's unclear, that the $140 is essentially for a Wifi/Loconet bridge.  That's a bit pricey, but when you consider their proprietary wireless UR92 lists for $160 this is a good price.  Sales volume is going to be low, so you'll never see the low price a Wifi/Ethernet bridge sells for.

And if this replaces both the UR92 for throttles and the $100 PR2 (computer to loconet) interface for things like JMRI, then it's a bargain.

[The_Ghan]

Good point KenS,

And can they really sell the app for $10 and make money?  I was thinking that some of the software development cost might be recouped from the hardware sale.

Cheers

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

There's a lot of talk about something like the ECoS or Marklin CS2 being expensive, but if you look at it, it's not so bad. Take the ECoS with color screen, costs about 600 euro. But, you get a good power supply, 4amp booster built in, 2 controllers built in, wifi interface built in, turnout and accessory control built in, automated routes and point to point with stops built in, and much more. Get all that stuff from a different brand, and you'll probably end up having to pay more than 600 euro, plus you don't have everything in 1 reasonably sized device.

As for the throttle app, the code itself takes a day or 2 at most for an experienced developer. The iOS SDK makes things real easy there. I had the basics working within a day, and I'm no experienced developer :) The biggest time sink is designing the app, which is something that all developers of currently available throttle apps have basically not done at all.

[Nozomi4ever]

Controlling trains are not really that straight forward. First , you have to connect certain controllers ( Like Marklin CS2) to the Modem.. Yes , to the modem and you need to set up some kind of computer address to it. @ Martijn---> I have tested DCC on the CS2 and it works great. No pain the in %&$...   The CS2 is design for people who are dummies like me who knows nothing about DCC and wants to try something new. Very easy.. :)

[Webskipper]

We gained 5 new members.

I show up after a month and there's a PC and a router.

Behold, my iPhone picks up a local wifi and something tells me to open my wifi throttle.

I'm connected to my loco with my iPhone!

No more 9v batts for me.

[Webskipper]

So cool operating trains with iPhone.  JRMI WiThrottle Lite app. Paid version has two throttles and other stuff.

This is exactly what this hobby needs to capture a new generation of members.