More programming of the Panel Pro - Panel...

Whilst waiting for my next lot of track and turnouts to arrive I decided to work on the programming of the turnouts and blocks into the layout panel.

It is quite a mind numbing and repetitive task, but it is made a lot easier as JMRI can be quite portable even though our layout is run by a fixed desktop PC running Windows - XP.

JMRI has a neat little feature called WebServer, this allows you to remotely run or see what screens you have open in JMRI.  So yesterday whilst programming the turnouts I need to record each of them on paper and the location and if they had an associated block (detection section) connected to them.

To do this I had WiThrottle running on my iPad (which has WebServer in the app too) and had the LocoNet Monitor tab up and running on it.

To ensure that the fascia push buttons are corresponding with the turnout address on the SE8C and that what is recorded is correct I can use the LocoNet Monitor to see the exact address being used by JMRI.

This allows me to move around under the layout and record on the layout sheets and label them as well without having to continually move back and forward from the PC to the area I'm working in.  I can also bring the physical layout panel up to in WebServer to check block detection as well.

When all of this is recorded it's time to input it the information into the panel in Edit Mode.  This is time consuming and requires a lot of double checking, sometimes need to be "inverted" so that they are showing the correct position on the panel and layout.

This is also a great time to see if the panel is corresponding to the physical layout relating to block and turnout positions.  Once completed it will be time to add the signal logic to the centre peninsula area, we will be running the APB System on the layout.

Jas...