G.M.R.

Yes Nigel the sniffer port looks interesting. I may try that once I have very thing cabled up neatly. Just been using a test track so far. The Xpressnet is not quite so straightforward as ZTC decided to use a different connector. I have a wiring diagram for the conversion, but I will only consider it if I feel I need to use the ZTC handsets. The function handling of the Z21 is so much better than the ZTC handset.

Thanks for the invite, but I couldn't wait. Thanks to a wonderful service from Scograil (no connection other than as customer), I already have a Z21 up and running. What a simple controller to set up and use. My old ZTC511 is not going to get much of a look in now. I have loaded a few locos on the android, and controlled from there. I found that you can export to the android device on board card or to email. Using email I was able to send the layout file to my wifes email on her iPad. I could then open the attachment and it loaded straight into Z21 for iPad HD, no problem at all. I decided to try the other way around and set up a trial layout on the iPad with a few locos. I then emailed that to the account I use with the android. When trying to open the z21 mail attachment on the android, it told me there was no compatible app, but instead I detached the file and saved it in the on board card. I then found I could locate the file in the file manager, still in the download area. Clicking the file started up the z21 app and imported the layout from the iPad just like that. So I can easily transfer from device to device, albeit by using the inbuilt email facility within the app. Excellent. Now to invite some friends to play. Thanks again for the initial answers and for those sharing their experiences in this thread.

Thanks Paul. I guess I will have to go with the double entries then when I get visitors as I have an android, and I expect they will usually have iPhones. I have 50 locos, so quite a bit to enter.

Thank you to all the above posters. I am considering purchasing the Z21 and this thread has helped me enormously. One question I can't find an answer for. How does data get transferred from one tablet to another? I'm presuming that loco and layout info does not have to be entered into each device separately.