ECoS 50200 Really great controller, but . . .

[JJGraphics]

I have recently acquired an ECoS 50200 and must say how impressed I am with the capability of this piece of kit. I moved over from a GaugeMaster DCC-02, which has done sterling service and is still working fine after five years, but once I saw the ECoS in use I was sold on it and supportive answers from other ECoS users on RMWeb to my questions sealed the deal.

 

I found it surprisingly easy to get to grips with the ECoS and all its features despite some slightly iffy bits of translation from the German in the manual. I have successfully added pictures of my locomotives, but on setting up the point and signal controls I have discovered, as I'm sure other people have, that only images of continental signals are offered in the library which is a bit of a disappointment.

 

I think it would be really good to have images of UK semaphore and colour light signals available in the built-in library even if they are generic in appearance or, better still, to have the option of adding your own images as you can for locomotives. 

 

I wonder if there is support for this idea amongst other UK ECoS users. Perhaps if enough people on RMWeb were interested in supporting this idea, we could make a joint approach to ESU on this matter which might carry a bit more weight than individual users contacting them?

 

I'll be interested to hear what everyone's views are about this, either negative or positive!

[David Todd]

I have recently acquired an ECoS 50200 and must say how impressed I am with the capability of this piece of kit. I moved over from a GaugeMaster DCC-02, which has done sterling service and is still working fine after five years, but once I saw the ECoS in use I was sold on it and supportive answers from other ECoS users on RMWeb to my questions sealed the deal.

 

I found it surprisingly easy to get to grips with the ECoS and all its features despite some slightly iffy bits of translation from the German in the manual. I have successfully added pictures of my locomotives, but on setting up the point and signal controls I have discovered, as I'm sure other people have, that only images of continental signals are offered in the library which is a bit of a disappointment.

 

I think it would be really good to have images of UK semaphore and colour light signals available in the built-in library even if they are generic in appearance or, better still, to have the option of adding your own images as you can for locomotives. 

 

I wonder if there is support for this idea amongst other UK ECoS users. Perhaps if enough people on RMWeb were interested in supporting this idea, we could make a joint approach to ESU on this matter which might carry a bit more weight than individual users contacting them?

 

I'll be interested to hear what everyone's views are about this, either negative or positive!

 

 

Write/remember, the serial No.of your ECoS.

 

Join Esu, Here,for UK support     https://www.esu.eu/en/myesu/register/

[JJGraphics]

Write/remember, the serial No.of your ECoS.

 

Join Esu, Here,for UK support     https://www.esu.eu/en/myesu/register/

 

 

Done those, thanks David . . . and have downloaded and installed the latest firmware via my Mac and backed-up the configuration file successfully.

 

I used Photoshop (I'm from a graphics background as per my username) to create the images for my DCC items and uploaded them to the ECoS . . .

 

John

[bgman]

Big outlay for a big Contoller and haven't looked back !

[BR Blue]

Yes. I am a big fan too.

[Phil Bullock]

That's a big agree from me too

 

Abbotswood at show is now so easy with all the routes and signals programmed in although the one frustration for me is that as yet I have failed to sort sub routes which can then be grouped together to form a complete route - would be so much easier if that worked. We also run a throttle ap on Ipads via a wireless router.

 

Need to get loco photos in though - how does that work in Photoshop please John?

 

Kind regards

 

Phil

[Clearwater]

Agreed Phil - I've been shown once but not mastered it. A quick and easy tutorial would be much appreciated !

[GoingUnderground]

That's a big agree from me too

 

Abbotswood at show is now so easy with all the routes and signals programmed in although the one frustration for me is that as yet I have failed to sort sub routes which can then be grouped together to form a complete route - would be so much easier if that worked. We also run a throttle ap on Ipads via a wireless router.

 

Need to get loco photos in though - how does that work in Photoshop please John?

 

Kind regards

 

Phil

 

 

Agreed Phil - I've been shown once but not mastered it. A quick and easy tutorial would be much appreciated !

 

I was asked how to do it in a PM a while ago, so here is my answer, below. I use Serif PhotoPlus, but the principles should be the same for all good photo editing programs.

 

How to create loco icons for the colour ECoS 2:

 

The process as outlined below refers to Serif Photoplus, which I have used it for over 20 years. on and off to edit photos. Currently I'm on version X3, it does all that I want for now. You can sometimes pick up discontinued versions cheaply from Serif.

 

I take a picture of a loco, and copy it to my PC, where I open it using PhotoPlus. I then use the crop tool to remove as much as I can of the background. This leaves me with an image that is predominantly loco. I then open an image that does have the grey background and use the pick-up colour tool (the dropper) to pick up the grey background. I then return to the cropped loco picture and use the brush tool to paint away the objects round the loco with the grey colour. It takes time and patience. Once I have just the loco surrounded by grey, I then use the image resize tool to resize the image so that it is only 40 pixels high, making sure that the lock aspect ratio option is ticked so that the picture remains in proportion. That most often results in an image that is less than 190 pixels long. The image can look a little blurred at this point so I use the Sharpen option to "crisp it up. Sometimes it takes two goes with the sharpen option, but don't overdo it, or the image can go a bit too "blocky".

 

I then resize the canvas, making sure that the aspect ratio option is unlocked, to increase the width to 190 pixels, but leave the height unchanged at 40 pixels.This now gives me the loco, still in proportion, surrounded by the grey background with two white panels on either side. I use the paint tool again, which should still have the grey colour, to paint the white panels grey. Bingo, I now have an image of the loco on a grey background that is 190 pixels with by 40 pixels high.

 

I use Save As to save the image in PhotoPlus's own format so that I can come back to it later and edit it if I don't like the results when I see them on the ECoS.

 

I then Export the image, making sure that it is exported in bmp format using 8 bit format.

 

Final stage is to upload the bmp file, created using the export process, to the ECoS to make sure that it will upload and display correctly on the ECoS.

 

If you prefer a white background to your loco icons, then pick up white instead of grey.

 

Hope this doesn't sound too complicated, but that's how I do it. The ones created by "Keith M" on the Loco Icon Bazaar are mine. Here are some of them

 

The process is the same for B&W icons for the original ECoS 1, except that the dimensions are different, 80 x 20 pixels, and you would have to turn the photo into a silhouette and probably clean up the image before you export the image as the bmp file. 

 

 

Do check to see if there is already an icon for your particular loco in the loco Icon Bazaar, there are a considerable number of UK outline locos and MUs on there already. Don't use BR when you search as BR is the abbvreviation for the german word Baureihe, i.e. Class, or you use it you will be swamped with german locos.