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Lionel has published the TMCC and Legacy digital command protocols.  This has made it possible for JMRI and Train Controller computer apps to control TMCC engines.  I also wanted to map the Legacy TMCC remote buttons to the TMCC digital commands to make them consistent with Train Controller .  Some of the Legacy TMCC remote buttons are specified in the Lionel published protocols others are not.  Professor Chaos’s Legacy to DCS bridge has a serial interface monitor that records the Legacy base TMCC or Legacy commands.  The mapping of the Legacy TMCC remote buttons to the TMCC digital commands shown in the table.  The Train Controller app is connected to the Legacy base through the LCS Serial unit.  The Train Controller app only issues TMCC commands and has a window for each engine that has a throttle, a direction selector, a brake, a speedometer and up to 19 auxiliary functions.  The throttle, direction selector and brake map into the TMCC digital commands.  The Train Controller commands are shown in the table.  (Train Controller commands can be made to toggle between 2 digital commands i.e. on/off.  Only the first command is shown in the table.)  To control a DCS engine from the Train Controller app the TMCC-DCS bridge has to be programmed to convert the TMCC commands to DCS commands.  The mapping of the TMCC-DCS bridge commands is shown in the table.  The mapping of the TMCC-DCS bridge commands was made to be as consistent as possible between the Legacy remote and the Train Controller app.  As a reference the Lionel Legacy/TMCC protocol document is an attached file.

TMCC to DCS Protocols

Carl

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I just knew that someone would complain at some point in this thread.  I understand the consternation.  How can anyone overcomplicate something so simple?

Carl, you're a gem, but there are very, very few people on this forum and in our hobby that would go through so much effort with signaling and control, and even fewer who would appreciate the results.

Having said this, effort is the name of the game.  Consider our talented colleagues who make their visual detail so real to the eye that you'd swear that they actual are.  These folks also overcomplicate.  However look at the beauty of the outcome.

In my mind your quest is no different.

Ignore those who are dismissive, and keep going, and let us know every once in a while how things are turning out.

Rod, I'm embarrassed, yet pleased, that I recognize and understand all the stuff that Carl's bringing together.  I asked myself today how that came to be.

It started with my Lionel 1513s freight set, which showed up under the Christmas Tree one year.  Next Santa brought me a Radio Shack 100-in-1 electronics breadboarding set.  There were a few other related technical things over those early years, technical things that teach what we now call S.T.E.M., culminating in a TRS-80 Model III which I've kept to this day, and which still boots up.

Putting my head down and and going to work building on these I've had a long and wonderful career in electronics and software.  Now nearing retirement, as I finally look up, I can fully appreciate Carl's effort and the significant importance of our hobby in inspiring and teaching the young.

Although it might not seem like it now, there are those in today's generation who will appreciate the effort of Carl and those like him and build on it going forward, just like I did with my 1513s freight set, the 100-in-1, and the TRS-80.

Thank you Carl.  Thank you Rod.

Mike

Last edited by Mellow Hudson Mike

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