@Dennis-LaRock posted:We don't want to hijack Dave's thread here.... is it worth a thread to try and winnow it out or is there to much to chew on?
My own 2 cents is there is a fair amount of discussion to be had as to what features a handheld must control as well as what features would be nice to have. At the end of the day, features will just send a bunch of bytes out the wifi interface to the Base 3 (or a PyTrain server so we have the Ser2 feedback). PyTrain knows how to send out all of the published TMCC and Legacy commands, so it can handle any features the discussion arrives at. I think it would be better to have these discussions in a separate thread. I promise to follow it 
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Just to stir the pot, here are some things to ponder:
- Is it acceptable to just support TMCC and Legacy engines (PyTrain doesn't do Bluetooth yet, and many LionChief engines also support Legacy)
- Must it control turnouts? (requires a dynamic LCD and GUI)
- Must it fire routes? (requires a dynamic LCD and GUI)
- Must it operate accessories? (requires a dynamic LCD and GUI)
- Must it be able to build/configure trains? (Gui work and I need to add a few more commands)
- Must it allow editing of road names and numbers?
- Must it allow the addition and configuration of new components (Set address, set command type, etc)
One of the issues with dynamic displays required to implement the more involved GUIs is they may drive the design to something that needs more than a simple 4 line, 20 character LED Matrix display. Inexpensive OLED displays do exist for the Pi, and some even support touch screens. However, this will mean more software. The OLED displays take a few more pins than the LCD screens do (I drive mine off the 2 pin I2C bus on the Pi), which means fewer pins for switches. I do have I2C support for GPIO extenders up and running, but now you need to make room and have power in the handheld for these boards too
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Fun stuff to talk about, and certainly a nice distraction.
-- Dave
