Lodi Lokstore digital DCC automation

[RvSwol]

Your response is entirely correct , not iTrain , but Traincontroler V10 does the check .

However The itrain licensee gets a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to install the software .

 

Conditions for commercial use or use within a club must first be discussed with us ( berros ) . 
This is not the case with Windigipet's dongle, which remains simply saleable. 

There is something to be said for both, however, in the event of the death of a model train enthusiast, the dongle still possesses a certain residual value. ( what the fool will give for it ) . 

 

My wife of 70 years knows what to do when I am no longer around.  Give the windigipet dongle as a gift to a young model railway enthusiast. 

[jTrackin]

Ok sounds good is the dashboard written in German 

[RvSwol]

Ok is see you have some interest in Windigipet. i will explain some small things . 

The dashboard depends on the basic language choice offered by windigipet. In this case, it is English. 

The signals on my model train layout are from Dapol namely the shunt signals and the semaphore signals in addition to the 3 modified german signals. You can design these signals for the dashboard by yourself in a bitmap editor, if there is a need foor .

The background colour can be set to your own choice by picking a Pantone colour and filling in the corresponding RGB values.

Wantstow Sidings is a model railway station in the scale 1:43.5 , which has some similarities with the disused station at Padstow

Wantstow Sidings is a non-existent station,  but has been designed as a Cornish former LSWR branch line terminus station for this  line, operating in the period around the year 1960.

The terminus station Wantstow sidings  served the line to Wadebridge and Bodmin.

The station network and the branch line to Wadebridge are monitored and controlled by the use of a computer and software Windigipet2021 or manual with the Wantstow Sidings signal box.

All points are operated with the  Cobalt IP Digital and the Cobalt S lever by the signal box. In Wantstow RD , three tracks are available for the main train movements. 

All Train movements are monitored by occupied detectors ,  track blocking signals and a group exit signal.

All the outbound shunting tracks are secured by waiting signals.

The Main track  towards Wadebridge can be used as a pull-out track,  if required and available.

The end of the pull-out track is marked by a signal. 

All train movements are based on the time table from 1939 see attached excel sheet and is fully included in widigipet's route automation. Communications and commands from the station master appear in the dashboard for the man with the shunterpole in the form of a command with a confirmation tick. 
In this way, I have retained a play element . 
I could go much further in automation by using Kadee couplings , but then boredom would quickly set in due to predictability. 
By acting manually, delays occur and if the timetable gets stuck, it is hard work to divert or hold the trains. 
A fully automatically controlled circular layout is not for me. 

 

All switches have occupancy notification and are powered by a Cobalt digital point motor.

The position of the points , Main or Branch are also passed to windigipet.

All information is displayed in the Turnout Monitor .

In this case, Point #3 ( colour status Red ) is Locomotive 1919 on the turnout , with the turnout in Mainline position. 

The choice to do this are mainly , a more natural shunt behaviour by the driver. Path monitoring while driving. If a switch position is changed (deliberately by people who can't keep their fingers off the track, usually Dutch), the train stops immediately in front of the next signal, Windigipet notifies and requests a manual action to set the switch in the correct position. Nice to have this safety feature with a 3.5 kg locomotive. 

 

Unlike itrain, the booster display is . Per booster output , voltage , amps and temperature are displayed , along with the Inactive and active trains present on the booster output . Each Lodi booster has two outputs , which can also be combined to 1 output. 

 

Train director  'single track'

Train director "single track" prevents, that two trains enter a single track route and later in the
traffic face each other and block each other. To avoid this, there were
previously several solutions in Win-Digipet. For instance, it was possible to use counters or direction arrows
which, however, had to be used and processed in different program sections.
parts of the programme. This is now very easy with the dispatcher "single track". Optionally
several trains, direction-dependent, enter the single track (run behind each other).
running). For this, the Train directorr "Single Track" must receive direction information.
The number of trains in Train director "single track" is shown in the status window, in the green part, if more trains can still enter it, and in the
red part, when the maximum number has been reached and no more trains can enter. In this case Max 2 trains. 

Much more is possible in windigipet such as interlocking turnouts among themselves and the signals linked to them.
Here is some insight into a little-known programme. It does require a bit more input if you want to achieve the maximum. Many users can be handled perfectly well by iTrain, but the high school of shunting requires a different approach that is not yet "present" in iTrain. Some "iTrain prophets " claim that it is however practice shows otherwise. .

 

all the best , 

Rupert 

 

 

 

 

Time table 1939.xlsx

[WIMorrison]

I thought Windigipet was no longer being supported or developed ? Certainly gives that impressions from the website which doesn't seem to have been updated since 2021 😒

[RvSwol]

Definitely not Iain, the last update is from 

 

this version is called 2021 but was not released until 2022. The next version 2025 is now in the final stages.

Don't forget that windigipet has been around for over 35 years .

Grant it that the GUI shows a bit outdated, but what matters is what the programme can deliver on the track.

Besides providing very comprehensive decoder support , dare even say the best you can have  

 

 

 

[melmerby]

I would like to know why when Viessmann are selling Windigipet 2021PE for €489 (£418 + Carriage £32.40,  + Vat 20%, total = £540), Gaugemaster want £815? (available to order)😀

That's a hell of a mark up

[WIMorrison]

At those prices it starts to make TC look affordable 😀

[RvSwol]

1 minute ago, WIMorrison said:

At those prices it starts to make TC look affordable 😀

In my opinion, Traincontroller is facing a stiile death. Given that the developer Herr Freiwald ok already in well into his 70s, does not want to support new systems that are too modern according to his opinion think of BiDiB and Lodi and Railcom he finds completely nonsense, as trains can stop just fine without using railcom. that has been going on for 8 years. A great pity the programme still has a lot of potential. But Windigipet employs several developers, of which Markus Herzog is still very young and very skilled. 

[RvSwol]

10 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I would like to know why when Viessmann are selling Windigipet 2021PE for €489 (£418 + Carriage £32.40,  + Vat 20%, total = £540), Gaugemaster want £815? (available to order)😀

That's a hell of a mark up

I myself do not go to an intermediary dealer who have nothing in stock .

Just do business directly with Peterlinn. save money and time.  Ask for DHL Express  most of the time max two day 

[melmerby]

17 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

At those prices it starts to make TC look affordable 😀

I forgot to remove German VAT from the selling price, so the price direct from Viessmann (who will ship to the UK), even with their extortionate shipping costs* will be more like £500.

Not sure where Gaugemaster get their price from, they are usually quite good on imported items e.g. Kadee wheelsets.

 

*for a jiffy bag with a memory stick!

Edited May 26 by melmerby

[RvSwol]

59 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I forgot to remove German VAT from the selling price, so the price direct from Viessmann (who will ship to the UK), even with their extortionate shipping costs* will be more like £500.

Not sure where Gaugemaster get their price from, they are usually quite good on imported items e.g. Kadee wheelsets.

 

*for a jiffy bag with a memory stick!

If I look WDP PE costs 489 euros. if we take off 21% tax we are left with 404 euros Shipping costs to England DHL express is 32.50 euros all in all I am at 436.63 euros if I convert this into pounds I come to 371.57 pounds sterling. multiply this by 1.2 for VAT the cost price comes to 445.88 pounds. I don't know what customs clearance costs are. but they are around 15 pounds in my experience. that brings us to 460 pounds.  

[Andymsa]

3 hours ago, melmerby said:

I forgot to remove German VAT from the selling price, so the price direct from Viessmann (who will ship to the UK), even with their extortionate shipping costs* will be more like £500.

Not sure where Gaugemaster get their price from, they are usually quite good on imported items e.g. Kadee wheelsets.

 

*for a jiffy bag with a memory stick!

This does seem to be a theme regarding viessmann prices at gaugemaster, I had the same with the new viessmann tamper. When I asked my local continental supplier who I really love to support who get their stuff through gaugemaster it was at least £160 cheaper even allowing for VAT and shipping buying from lippe. I don’t mind a small difference in price but with that kind of mark up what chance does the local retailer have.

[Andymsa]

Lodi does look like a good system but my concern is only one U.K. retailer has it, I’m in the midst of a major rebuild and have considered changing dcc systems. At this time I’m undecided but without a bigger U.K. retailer list Lodi currently is not on my list of contenders. 

[Andymsa]

4 hours ago, RvSwol said:

Definitely not Iain, the last update is from 

 

this version is called 2021 but was not released until 2022. The next version 2025 is now in the final stages.

Don't forget that windigipet has been around for over 35 years .

Grant it that the GUI shows a bit outdated, but what matters is what the programme can deliver on the track.

Besides providing very comprehensive decoder support , dare even say the best you can have  

 

 

 

I do fully agree that TC is in slow decline but one thing I do like about it that you can have a picture of the loco or train in the block symbol, but that doesn’t detract from I train or win diggipet. Is there a trial version of win digipet as I’m going to develop TC / ITrain side by side so I can get a direct comparison as I rebuild my layout.

[RvSwol]

 Yes the demo is here ; 

https://www.windigipet.de/foren/index.php?page=menu_en_0701_01_00_page_downloadseng

 

 

the manual is here;

https://www.windigipet.de/foren/index.php?topic=87484.0

 

If you click on the name you get all the data with distances of the trains 
 

[jTrackin]

So do you use itrains as well and if you do why what would  you use itrains?

[WIMorrison]

The program is called iTrain 😉

[Andymsa]

3 hours ago, jTrackin said:

So do you use itrains as well and if you do why what would  you use itrains?

who is the question for, the question doesn’t make sense 

[RvSwol]

The question is difficult to answer.

I was an iTrain user for many years.

But with the scale increase from HO ( 1:87 ) to O 1:45, the requirements also changed.

The subsequent total transition to British model railway 0 1:43. was even more dramatic .

I was completely fed up with my German layout then sold everything labelled "Lenz " to Hattons and the rest at auction. 

The decision to continue with Windipet and stop using iTrain lies in the fact that I wanted to have more control over the driving process.

A very important point was . stopping and turning on a turnout instead of compulsory driving to the adjacent block behind the turnout.

iTrain is a versatile programme.

But not for me at the moment.

Who knows iTrain version 6 may come more to my liking. 

kind regards 

Rupert 

[jTrackin]

thanks for sharing.  it helps for my decission making.

[WIMorrison]

1 hour ago, RvSwol said:

But with the scale increase from HO ( 1:87 ) to O 1:45, the requirements also changed.

The subsequent total transition to British model railway 0 1:43. was even more dramatic

 

iTrain is used very successfully by many people using larger gauges, even garden railways - the only change that is made within iTrain is the scale being used, everything else remains the same - even the ability to run iTrain on Mac, Windows, Linux and even Raspberry Pi 😉

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, RvSwol said:

stopping and turning on a turnout

Is that so? If so, I'm surprised you can't as you can with TrainController.

 

I have a place where the train needs to uncouple at a platform and it straddles the run-round turnout when doing so,before moving forwards and reversing back through the loop to get to the front of the train.

[RvSwol]

42 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Is that so? If so, I'm surprised you can't as you can with TrainController.

 

I have a place where the train needs to uncouple at a platform and it straddles the run-round turnout when doing so,before moving forwards and reversing back through the loop to get to the front of the train.

Indeed with train controller from mister Freiwald, it is also possible. However Traincontroller to this day does not support the Lodi system with the exception of the Lodi LX, but without the railcom capabilities. 

[RvSwol]

58 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

 

iTrain is used very successfully by many people using larger gauges, even garden railways - the only change that is made within iTrain is the scale being used, everything else remains the same - even the ability to run iTrain on Mac, Windows, Linux and even Raspberry Pi 😉

All nice and correct Iain.  
However some possibilities are limited and restricted in IiTrain or very difficult to achieve via actions. Or they are planned for future development. 

Would say take up the challenge and let iTrain demonstrate that it can make an LMS Jinty stop , turn in 1 and in 1 action . The Germans call this the ZIC ZAC method.
Drawing diagram from iTrain attached. with length measurements of the turnouts.  

 

 

[RvSwol]

Considering Windigipet is a route-oriented programme and not like iTrain and Tranconroller are block-oriented programmes.

Things are much easier in Windigipet,

A route has a start point and a destination point.

In this case the LMS Jinty  starts from an Information display it looks like a block , but is not. with the destination the double slip with feedback # 40.  

A keen observer would say as soon as the Jinty activates feedback #40 then the loco stops immediately. and then the three-way switch is not free.

That's right.

However, there is also a route profile made up,  that is semi-automatic and with some tick box  work,  you indicate that the locomotive may only stop when the feedback # 26 of the three-way switch comes on free , and then has to continue driving for another 3 cm.

If the profile is finished then the route stops and so does the locomotive.

I assure you that all six wheels are on the double slip .

Then the two routes are merged into a sequence .

Pay attention to the Indicator of the double slip which is shown Blue , that means the locomotive makes an intermediate stop in this case of 5 seconds .

After the stop , the Jinty turns and drives to the other track . 
How much time does this take to make , not more than 8 minutes.