WIMorrison

Nope, that is why you need to use USB, until the YD9401 becomes available, or the YD7101 command station successor is produced. There are far to many options and configurations to be able to do it using DCC CVs

Because you need to configure it ... 😉

overkill for a single unit, great if you are creating a DC bus to feed multiple items at a later date

You buy one of these http://yamorc.de/products/?singleproduct=1261

Correct, but if you do a direct connection you will need to put in a static IP address into the laptop. i suggest 192.168.0.100, with a 255.255.255.0 subnet.

An interesting challenge that is a bit more complex under the surface than it might appear on the top. I agree that the use of RFID is possibly the only solution that will answer the DC and DCC identification though it does then beg the question of what software you will be using for the automation as that software will need to be able to use the RFID tag information to either display the tag ID or better, to read the tag ID and then use that in a lookup to display the actual train name on the output device(s). It may also be useful to display the decoder ID for the DCC system. DC might want to use some other form of ID. Train Positioning can be done reasonably accurately in DCC, with the appropriate software, to certainly +/- 10mm and decent software will allow you to adjust the tag position on the loco relative to the front and back of the loco. You may also be able to use the tag for ID of the wagons which is what McKinley does. On the software from there are open source programs - JMRI and Rocrail as the main contenders that will work for DCC, and commercially iTrain and TrainController. but the RFID integration is, for me, an unknown presently, though iTRain is considering it as a potential for iTrain v6.x and I think JMRI is also considering it. These will not work with DC - unless you are using Dinamo from VPEB, but that is far from cheap! For positioning I suggest you also consider Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) which can be bought as complete boards ready for use from China for 70-90p per board - and the light sensitivity is adjustable on them.

Nigel, if the home wifi is using 192.168.0.x the I agree you need to switch the WiFi off, however if the home network is using a different network then it won’t be an issue as the laptop will route the two networks to the appropriate port. and if the home network is 192.168.0.x then you can simply connect the Z21 into the home network 😀 ( though advisable to exclude 192.168.0.from the DHCP range)

I assume that you have the Z21 connected to the TP Link router using a cable. You should then connect the laptop to the TP Link router either using WiFi or cable. In both cases if you are using the Roco supplied router then the correct address will be issues to enable the laptop to connect correctly to the Z21 using 192.168.0.111 as the Z21 address. if you are using another router ie not the supplied router you may need to change the IP address range within the router to 192.168.0.x

A good place to start is the Met Police, but a google search for Photographers rights will also throw them all up 😉

As a photographer I know the 'rules' applicable to photography and I often have to quote them to people trying to stop me taking a picture of their building, monument, view, etc. The key is that I cannot be stopped taking the image provided I am standing in a public space, and it is that definition of a public space that it critical. I have even had recourse to asking the police to assist me with unruly security people who are not conversant with the law. Many buildings are set back from the road, and they will often have marks on the pavement indicating where the footprint of the building actually extends to. These marks may be brass dots, they may be what appears to be a draining line, or sometimes they are even painted. Outside that line is a public space, inside belongs to the property owner and as such you must have their permission to photograph within the curtilage of their property. It is also the case that if you have to pay to enter somewhere the it is not public property and as such you will need to owners permission to take photographs and they would be within their rights to say that the images you take are their copyright. However, fortunately many places choose not to take up their rights and waive such requirements. In the case of the NEC it is private, though they seem to allow photography, though it is dependent upon the exhibition management to state whether photography is allowed, most will allow photographs, but not all do and it is always polite to ask permission from the owner of the exhibit if photography is permitted. Again, most will say yes because they are exhibiting and are happy to see them images taken - when someone asks me I always ask who the images are being taken for, when it is personal I have no objection, when it is commercial e.g. newspaper, magazine, etc. I always ask for their contact details and when I see them in print I ask for payment (though most make payment before hand) The simple rule is, if in doubt ask permission, you will find that it is almost always provided and it is better to have permission than have an argument later.

Was this set of images all the layouts?

As you are only able to write CVs and cannot read them this suggests to me that you are always using the main and you are nit switching into programming track mode. You can only read CVs on main if using Railcom and Digitrax doesn’t utilise Railcom and can only read CVs using the programming track. May I suggest that you check your setup carefully. Until you get the Digitrax working correctly you cannot consider any issues with JMRI.

Can you read and write when just using the DT602 handset? Assuming you can it suggests that the issue is with the JMRI configuration and not the decoder. I have several MX617 decoders and have no issues with any of them.

Perhaps they were trying to make the hall sound like a real station concourse 😂 A tip for next year is to use a female voice to make the announcements. The female voice doesn't have the bass note in it and hence always sounds much clearer over PA systems 😉

I suspect that would mean no layouts being shown at all on the model railway circuit if that approach was adopted 😂 There are a couple of shows that I exhibit at which are for genuine worthwhile causes (in my view) and I do not charge them any expenses at all when asked to exhibit, and to date they haven't asked for a donation.

Zimo also has a large library of free sounds which are really easy to install - all you need is a Z21, and lots of people have that 😉. Even the coded versions are not expensive with most being around €20. Unusually though, there are no free sounds for UK locos unlike most other countries, and only one that can be downloaded and installed yourself. I think that says something about the UK market, rather than anything else.

All you had to do was ask, I was provided with one when I asked a person wearing a Warley badge 😉

Hmm, not sure that £6 odd for a mount counts as cheap, especially when compared to others from £1 upwards 😉

All this talk about the show being quiet is making me wonder if I was at the same show? The boundaries for the show had been moved back from previous shows and as a result there was much more exhibition space resulting in all the aisles being noticeably very much wider and this may what is giving the impression that the show was quieter than previously experienced. I know that at my layout - which had several trains running all the time - had the frontage full for the two days with visitors and it was very nice to meet so many people from here which let me put faces to the nom de plumes used by many. I also had some very interesting discussions with visitors, several of whom said they had come especially to see me which was very humbling. a couple of commercial stands have said that they had record sales over the show which would also suggest that it wasn't quiet! All in all a superb couple of days at a very well organised show which I enjoyed immensely - although sadly I wasn't able to see as much as I would have like due to number of discussions with visitors at my layout 😊

The same ladies come to me asking for my expenses from and when I informed them that I had handed them in already and the Information Stand, together with a VAT receipt they simply say Thank You and moved on. Regarding the HMRC rates they that not the rates that businesses must pay, they do not actually have to pay anything - they are the maximum rates that the can be reclaimed from the HMRC. The 25p rate is the standard rate paid by most businesses in line with the HMRC above 10000 miles rate. As a business I would also expect that you are reclaiming the costs against your tax liabilities for the year as a business expense. Warley has paid my expenses in full without quibble, and other exhibitors that I know are also being paid in full, whether just fuel or additional such as van hire.

Hornby does seem to have a bit of history in creating products that look intriguing and that could have a future but which never seem to reach the level of maturity or interoperability that was promised in the early product releases.

@Stevio778 May I recommend this website with a suggestion that you spend some time reading the contents of Getting Started and Core Concepts because you need to understand the basic principles of DCC to be able to progress. You are going to have significant challenges going forward if you do not have a totally solid grounding in what you are trying to work with, especially as your intention is to end up with some form of automation. DCC Wiki

any multimeter will work, it may be a slightly wring in the absolute value displayed, but it will slightly wrong everywhere therefore good enough for testing and fault tracing.

The Roco Multimuas will work with XPresset and the interface you describe will handle 128 S88 feedbacks. In theory it should work with iTrain and others however I would first want to find out what version of Xpressnet it is using - you should be looking for at least v3.6. It is also important to find out what protocol it will use on the USB connection, I suspect it will be Xpressnet, but it doesn't say and it is that interface that will determine whether the software will connect, again check the version of whatever protocol is being used.

Please look at the diagram properly - it doesn't show what you suggest at all. The RED wire goes from the command station to the C terminals of the YD6016LN and the monitored track is fed by the GREEN wires. The unmonitored track which is NOT being fed from the YD6016LN e.g. the turnouts are also fed by the RED wire, as well as the YD6016LN.