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Okay,  the brave new world isn't working out so far.  I got my new wiu on pre-order and didn't use it  until just a couple days ago.  I took my tiu, wiu, and remote down to the dcs users group meeting to get the updates installed. 

Now that everything is up to date I plugged it all in and waited for all the lights to look right.  

Initially I was able to load one engine but it wouldn't move and the whistle didn't work.  The whistle feature gave me a prompt saying I needed to buy the $5 upgrade, which I knew was foolish just to get one train working but I did it anyway. Still no luck.

Now during this whole process my tablet, a samsung tab 3, kept switching back to my home wifi.  To alleviate this issue I actually made my tablet forget the home wifi and latch onto the wiu.  Even with that arrangement my tablet keeps losing the wifi connection to the wiu and  then telling me there is no tiu to find.   All the while my tiu is working just fine with the remote .  Is there something wrong with my wiu, or maybe just with set-up?  I have it switched to mth mode.

I explored using the home mode but there is no wps button on my modem and I haven't gotten to a hard computer to try the advanced method yet.  I am really concerned that I have a bad wiu unit, but I want to be sure before doing anything drastic.  All help appreciated, 

John Z

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RJR posted:

John, I have the same switch-back problem when I use my Samsung S3 phone.  I have been unable to correct it; tried many things.  I do not have it when I run my Samsung S6 (Android v6) or my Samsung tablet Note 10.1. Therefore, I think its not a problem with the wifi.

My Samsung Galaxy S3 has been working flawlessly with the DCS WiFi Module thru my home WiFi network.

What WiFi channel is your home router set to?  The WIU uses channel 1 by default and your home wireless signal can interfere if it is on the same channel.

Is the WIU located somewhat close to your home wireless router? Most likely not but if so, you can connect the WIU directly to your wireless modem/router with an ethernet cable and connect to the WIU from your home wireless without using WPS.

I don't have time to play with it tonight. 

To answer some of the feedback, my home wifi router is very basic. I don't believe it has a channel select switch. 

The wifi router and the wiu are in the same room directly across from each other.  To move one close to the other for a direct connection would mean some long wiring somewhere, but is not totally impossible.  It is however rather impractical and inconvenient.  We will be moving in a few months and I want the new equipment to work as advertised because in the next house they will likely be far apart.

I have found another tablet to try to download the app to but its a pretty cheap device, not sure how well it will work outside proof of concept. 

I will keep you all posted. I am sure others will have similar issues.

 

Different hardware, but my grandson had a similar problem a couple weeks ago with his iPad mini and the free app. We have him set up to connect to our home wifi automatically when he comes over. His ipad kept switching back to our home network while he was trying to use the app. He wasn't here long enough for me to do any trouble shooting and he sometimes gets impatient when I fiddle with stuff like that when he wants to run the trains. He now has the pay app so we will see what happens on his next visit.

I only have an ipad myself, so I have not really fiddles with the WIU much either. The times I have my ipad didn't switch back to our home network though, but I had the pay app when trying it. There have been a couple of other similar threads, but I haven't paid a lot of attention to the problems/solutions in those because I didn't have my WIU at the time. I need to study up some more myself as well, and I may also try connecting the WIU to our home wifi. 

RTR12,

The issue with switching from the WIU's WiFi server to the home network's router has nothing at all to do with the app, free or paid-for. The issue is in one of the following areas:

  • The smart device itself, either it's WiFi hardware or the operating system's software
  • The WIU hardware or it's firmware.

Something is causing the connection between the WIU's MTH network and the smart device to be broken. It's an operating system connection to which the app is oblivious.

The router isn't likely to be the culprit, either. I suspect, rather, that the router simply automatically connects to the smart device when the connection between the smart device and the WIU is broken.

If you want to definitively rule out the router as being part of the problem,in WiFi Settings, tell your grandson's iPad to "Forget this Network" for your home network and also turn off "Ask to Join Networks". Then, see if the iPad still drops the connection to the WIU. If it no longer drops the connection, the router may actually be involved. If the connection is still dropped, the router may be ruled out as initiating the problem.

Last edited by Barry Broskowitz

Ok, so this morning before work I tried it again with my wife's tablet.  She has a Rca tablet that runs on the android os.  This time everything fired up just like it was supposed to do. No switch back to the home network, whistle worked, and my Yuengling GS4 made a lap and fired the couplr when told. Too bad I still have to go to work ��

As soon as I was done however her tablet launched into a firmware update,  so we will have to wait and see if it works next time.

fyi- my wife and son have tablets that work just fine without the switching problem.  I checked and they are running android OS 5.0.  I have no idea if I can upgrade the OS or not. They have nearly full size tablets like I-pads, which are much to unwieldy for my taste.   I like the size of mine as a good compromise as being just small enough to fit into my back pocket, but still plenty large to manipulate without constantly fat-fingering icons. Anyway, at least I know the wiu hardware works.

 

Now the next question will be how long after Mth gets the bugs worked out of the full size app will we be seeing a single piece of hardware with both tiu and wiu functions?

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