I have put together a DCC-EX command station with a 4x20 lcd. It shows the basic startup info, but nothing else. Can I get it to show any diagnostic info or perhaps commands coming in from my remote throttle? I understand that you can write text to the LCD from Ex-Rail scripts but I was hoping there might be some built in fuctions to show info on the LCD?
What kind of throttle is it? I can't answer the question but I'll bet it is possible depending on the throttle. I won't be of much more help but if you don't find an answer here maybe go to their Discord channel were I'll bet you would.... https://discord.com/invite/PuPnNMp8Qf They have support there pretty much 24/7. Sumner
Hi Sumner, the throttle is something I've built around an Adruino nano with a rotary encoder and a 2x16 lcd. It works fine, but as this was my first play with DCC-EX, I kind of expected the 4x20 lcd on the command station to show more stuff about what was going on. I'm on the discord, but I don't really like the format of discord! Too used to forums I guess, I still remember using newsgroups LOL!
I agree about the discord format especially for those of us that use it very rarely. I've mentioned it there before and suggested also a forum format in addition to it but got a resounding 'no' from some of those that are there all the time and 'hate' forums. Personally I think they are missing an opportunity to help many of us that are more comfortable with a forum. There are a few that are frequent posters there that also come here some so hopefully someone else might respond. But I did ask the question, hopefully the question you are asking and got a response... Sumner — Today at 11:29 AM Asking for some one else............ if you have a DCC-EX command station with a 4x20 lcd can you send a command to it so that a log shows up on the display similar to seeing the serial monitor for the Arduino on a computer connected to it? He can see the startup info on the display but would like to see any diagnostic info or perhaps commands coming in from his remote throttle? UKBloke (AKA Chris) — Today at 11:37 AM Short answer No. Long answer Noooo. Sumner
Thanks for asking on there. Maybe it's not set up right but I just see a jumble of interleaved chat on Discord.
Agreed, lots of places to possibly post a question and then the answers are all over the place on who is answering what to whom. For instance the answer I got was right after my post but didn't quote it so it could of been an answer to a question further up. At least on a forum you post a question like what you did here and the answers (minus off topic ones) are normally about that question. As I said I've brought that up and I don't see why they couldn't have a forum type place to post questions that was also looked at by the team in addition to discord where it is more about development. That place could be on a current site like here. There is actually a DCC++ forum in this section that has been used and could be used if they monitored it more frequently than what is happening now. Rename it to DCC-EX. They link to it in their documentation, monitor it here once a day or so, this site gets more traffic, there is now a place for forum orientate posters that are overwhelmed by discord to post their DCC-EX questions. I believe that would be a big win overall vs. trying to direct everyone to discord and the ones that want to go there still would have that option. Sumner
haha i too had a big problem figgering out discord what a pain... but after 2 years (maybe more) i finally got it fingered out... my setup is adruino mega with pi4 an 10 inch display maybe that could be something you can work with. im not real savvy about this kinda stuff , but with the jmri maybe something what your looking for might be possible to do with the sorta system. it took me seems like forever to get the pi4 working for me. i had a lot of problems (of my own making ) before i got it right....mostly power issues (i could not get just one power supply to work the whole system for that part alone i hate it. but for the rest i love it.....
Yes, if one has a computer (Pi or otherwise) connected with a display up and running then logs can be sent to the computer/display using the Arduino IDE and the serial monitor ( More Here ): With a Serial Monitor you can: Test your Command Station, View startup and other diagnostic logs to fix issues or help us support you, Turn on extra diagnostic commands, Get the ID of a loco on the programming track, Diagnose communication issues with your loco on the programming track (ACK failure/Error 308), Send commands to your WiFi board, Manually control your locos, Program CVs without the need for any other software. You can't turn it on or off from the throttle as far as I know, has to be done with the connected computer. I am a little surprised that they don't have a couple commands that could be sent from a throttle to toggle some of that on the CS display if you have one. One problem I see though is with the limited screen what is being logged would probably scroll off of it very quickly where with the serial monitor running on the computer one can save the log and then view it or send it to the discord team for help. Sumner
hummmmmm..... i have no use personally about monitoring anything ,BUT i do have interest in turning everything off with my throttle controller ???? dang it now you got me thinking about something i know nothing of
Yes I use serial monitor to see whats happening, just thought the LCD might show stuff like which train is running. I need to read more about the Ex-Rail scripting to see if its do-able from there.
