Having your MTH app struggling to find engines, WIU/TIU???

If available, test the functionality of your TIU & WIU on your layout with another tablet or phone. Should help you narrow it down to a Device or App problem.

Have you retried MU's/lash ups yet?

I'm not asking for help here. I'm describing how I fixed it.

I ran one lash-up and it worked. I'll try more tomorrow after a good night's rest.

I should beta test for these things......

Yep Joe, Just offing my suggestion as well.

If anyone can find those bugs in an app, it's you! You've got my vote for a beta tester!

Hope all is well & good in your train world now and have fun!

Yes for anyone wondering, I did some extra things well before this came up. So I'll share those here too. and obviously...

I AM NOT A TECH OR DO I WORK FOR MTH!!!!

I do get tired of seeing posts of people struggling with the app or dcs and then see them selling off their equipment.

and after weeks of waiting for a new app update I'm really not in the best mood after stuff crashed again!

I think I've had this WIFI for years and could not run lash-ups. SO now......

- If this is running on something extra like an old phone or tablet, delete or get all the pictures, videos, and other apps off of the device to make sure you have extra storage. I did that last week. 

 - I select the MTH icon in the "wifi" device settings so that it drops the house's router and the app is just talking directly to the WIU. When an issue comes up and you need to report it, slide the phone's wifi settings screen down from the top and select your house's router so you can talk straight to MTH. When something goes wrong, a report it screen should pop up or you can do it in the more ... tab at the bottom of the screen, and then select the "app settings" tab, and finally "app support". If your device is connected to the internet (house's router with the wifi settings) the app will send info straight to MTH.

 -You need good signal strength with your TIU to the engines. If you don't have that with your remote, the app won't cure it!

- If you are just starting and only have the app, run an engine once loaded and check the track signal strength. Do that regularly when anything changes. Especially when you run more than one engine. The signal can go down when the voltage does too! Also, If your pulling many lighted cars it can drop.

- Barry's book is a great resource to help people get their layout in top operating state. This helps the app and the remote do their job.

- Remember that DCS is a 2 way communication, so when engines don't or can't report back things can go south fast. Everything will get sluggish waiting for results that may not be happening and how would you know this?

 After running DCS since the first chance I got back in the early 2000's and having to learn the hard way, it's nice for new people to come here for answers.

Now I'm open to all the corrections that will follow I'm sure.........

 Ok part 2 or 3 or...

If you start adding engines to the app and you get strange results like engines with no info, some will tell you it's from poor signal. I suppose it surely could be. I can tell you I have perfect signal and the remote works great. So why does the app do this?

 I'm guessing it's a bug or just a twerk or whatever you chose to call it....

I do know that it's not right and continued adds or builds of lash-ups led me to have the app crashing. So a fix is needed right away. Someone suggested resetting the TIU and I like that. I could believe that the app is seeing something like old info in the TIU that is confusing it. The fact that I was swapping TIU's with a single WIU led to some type of confusion of the app anyways. Until I get a report from MTH on what happened I'll have to guess a little while more.

 So, try resetting the TIU if you see weird engine add results, after you're sure that you have good signal. Whatever you do if you have MTH remotes, keep track of engine IDs and make sure the app doesn't change engine IDs so that the remote won't talk to them. Then you'll end up like me where nothing works.

 I'm thinking of having two sets of dry erase boards in the train room where I can list what engine is in what ID (address). One board for each scale. I have too many engines and lash-ups for 99 addresses to work. Maybe some day MTH will fix that when they dump the remote?

Engineer-Joe posted:

 Ok part 2 or 3 or...

If you start adding engines to the app and you get strange results like engines with no info, some will tell you it's from poor signal. I suppose it surely could be. I can tell you I have perfect signal and the remote works great. So why does the app do this?

 I'm guessing it's a bug or just a twerk or whatever you chose to call it....

I do know that it's not right and continued adds or builds of lash-ups led me to have the app crashing. So a fix is needed right away. Someone suggested resetting the TIU and I like that. I could believe that the app is seeing something like old info in the TIU that is confusing it. The fact that I was swapping TIU's with a single WIU led to some type of confusion of the app anyways. Until I get a report from MTH on what happened I'll have to guess a little while more.

 So, try resetting the TIU if you see weird engine add results, after you're sure that you have good signal. Whatever you do if you have MTH remotes, keep track of engine IDs and make sure the app doesn't change engine IDs so that the remote won't talk to them. Then you'll end up like me where nothing works.

 I'm thinking of having two sets of dry erase boards in the train room where I can list what engine is in what ID (address). One board for each scale. I have too many engines and lash-ups for 99 addresses to work. Maybe some day MTH will fix that when they dump the remote?

While not selling it short, Wi-Fi DCS is relatively new to us and the world.  It's complex.  It adds another layer, or two, of communication between you and your trains.  As the system evolves into being able to do more and more things and yet retain legacy operation (as in historical, not Lionel) there are infinite opportunities for bugs.  As we move forward, and largely thanks to people like you, we will identify and kill most all of those bugs.  Certainly the common pests.  Others can be more illusive and environment based so, it makes it difficult for us to replicate.  It's tough to kill bugs you can't see.

So, and not taking any personal credit or trying to over blow the MTH horn but, the Wi-Fi DCS system, overall, works pretty **** well given all that it's doing.  Remember, we aren't Apple or Google.  There are literally about 6 -7 guys responsible for developing the entire system.  Some of them are brilliant (author excluded).  Other's are practical and get things done.

Again, we very much appreciate your patience and sticking with the issues you were having.  Yes, resetting the app can sometimes clear something up that otherwise can't be found.  Those types of issues can be caused by the device OS and how the app interacts with it.  Just remember to export your data first.