Virtual signals with JMRI
I am glad to know the tiny effort I made to help Bob Bucklew learn PanelPro was successful. His panels are far more intricate and wonderful than anything I might have conceived during the early days of this great FREE program we have today thanks to the efforts of all of the members of the JMRI yahoo group.
When Bob Jacobsen emailed me in regards to a request for help in writing a VB 6 program that would be capable of working with both the serial port-based, CMRI hardware and my Digitrax DCC system, I never would have dreamed that his help would turn into the opportunity to help literally hundreds of model railroader in their attempt to add signaling to their layouts. I already used DecoderPro for programming decoders using the original Loco buffer kit. It was a LOT easier than the complicated "knob-twiddling" Digitrax users had to do back then. I was literally using two computers to dispatch my small Cornwall Railroad. The main QBASIC display showed a linear diagram of the layout and the signals, detectors, and switches as a point-to point dispatchers panel. A small Compaq "laptop" was running a separate program written by Jeff Warner, the same person that wrote the QBASIC program for the signaling I was using. The dispatcher would have to use the laptop th throw the DCC controlled switches while watching the other monitor to insure they actually changed. It was not fun to use but it did work. My dispatcher pasted small "dots" on my monitor to identify the keys on the Compaq laptop. At the end of each session, I had to peel off the stickers to use the system.
I sent Bob the QBASIC source code I was using for my C/MRI signaling system and an overhead viw=ew drawing of my track plan plus a linear diagram of that plan to show where the signals and detection was in regards to the track work. Although I had some computer programming experience and was comfortable with writing small programs, I was in no way a "Programmer". Later on, through my work with the Navy I became comfortable building and designing system networks as well as administrating them. In a way, PanelPro helped me to understand how to link my hobby with my career.
Bob sent me a small test program to make sure his JAVA-based program did what he expected with a few of the signals on my layout. I did a test based on his instructions and it worked perfectly. In less than a week, Bob sent a "complete" program that had all of my signals and detectors included. He also gave me instructions on how to add new signals and items as the layout expanded. We had a few speed bumps that worked out and as things progresses more icons were added to the library by other members of the small group we had.
In the April issue of MRH, Dick Bronson of rr-cirkits.com described how he attended my first clinic at Timonium, Md. Great Scale Train Show. I decided I needed to "give back" something to acknowledge all of the effort that Bob and his friends did to help me. I created a PowerPoint presentation showing the steps needed to start building the controls using PanelPro. I stressed the facts on how easy it was and no programming knowledge was needed. The clinic Dick attended was very crude but it also showed that a model railroader did not need to become a "computer nerd" to add signals to his layout while using a computer. My old clinic is still in the files section of the JMRI group but JMRI has far exceeded anything I could imagine when I created that old clinic.
This group has done so much for model railroaders all over the world and IMOHO, there is not one commercial piece of software out there that can do 1/100th of what this group's program is capable of. I am proud to be a tiny part of this group's effort by getting people like Bob accomplish their dream of adding signals to their layouts.
Links to Bob's clinics are available on the JMRI website. Today, my role as teacher has become one of the student. They are truly amazing and I am glad I was a small part of the history of this program.
Nick Kulp
President and Hired Lackey Grade 3 Cornwall Railroad
