Poll: How have you integrated your Idevices into the hobby?

[John]

I have an old linksys router set up -- with an SSID of Railroad -- It uses both B/G in unencrypted form (it's only on when the railroad computer is on) .. its connected to a Windows 7 computer running JMRI from http://jmri.sourceforge.net/ through a Locobuffer USB from http://www.rr-cirkits.com/. 

On JMRI, its fairly easy to set up remote access through the network by using WiThrottle http://www.withrottle.com/WiThrottle/Home.html for iPad/IPhone and Engine Driver for Android http://enginedriver.rrclubs.org/

You should be able to use any of the cheap Android tablets that are now showing up eBay or TigerDirect ...

[jnevis]

Don't "I"anything, but would like to eventually set up one of the spare (read old and should really be gotten rid of) laptops for a controller when we move and I can start on a layout.

[mplsjct]

I use an iPad almost exclusively now, it's great for detailing models, I'll capture images and use them when decaling as reference. As far as using it while running trains, I haven't found a way to do that.

My wife uses a laptop, and I find that thing incredibly cumbersome to move around the house, she likes it, so I'm OK with it, still, when she needs to look something up on the Internet, most of the time she's reaching for the iPad.

[sd45elect2000]

I use my I phone for holding up bridges and my laptop for holding down foam.

Randy

[u18b]

More seriously...

I use my iPhone app Tapatalk to keep up with another forum.

I really wish there was an app designed for railwire.  Trying to read railwire on the web browser on my phone is kind of a hassle.   Hope the powers that be might be thinking of this.

[Iain]

I'm a software engineer; I don't have an idevice

[robert3985]

I use my soldering iRon in bridge building quite alot.

+2  Hahaha! 

[Ron McF]

I don't have an iThingy, but I do have an Android phone with JMRI Engine Driver.  The latest version of Engine Driver allows me to control 3 trains on the smart phone, which is really handy when I just want to run multiple trains for visitors. (For operating sessions I prefer to use a Digitrax throttle.)

I also really like how Frank Kenny is using 7" tablets on his layout:
http://centralpacificrailway.blogspot.com.au/

Regards,
Ron

[sirenwerks]

I have a Blackberry.  And trying to download unapproved apps to my Kindle is like shooting craps.     Seriously, if anyone out there can successfully install a non-Amazon version of the Android OS without turning the unit into a brick, I will pay you good money.  The Kindle version is like a police state when it comes trying to install Google apps.

[PAL_Houston]

I have a Blackberry.  And trying to download unapproved apps to my Kindle is like shooting craps.     Seriously, if anyone out there can successfully install a non-Amazon version of the Android OS without turning the unit into a brick, I will pay you good money.  The Kindle version is like a police state when it comes trying to install Google apps.

...and a Nook is no better in that regard:  Barnes & Noble is a police state in a different uniform, with different guns & bullets & truncheons.

[Scottl]

I use my phone to take pictures.  It often does a better job than my new SLR 

[railnerd]

In terms of "devices", Silicon Valley Lines (HO) makes heavy use of iPhones running WiThrottle and Androids running EngineDriver.

In addition to WiThrottle, we've created a web-application which allows the use of tablets (iPads, Android, or even touchscreen PCs) to control turnouts on the layout:



The web app is built using nodejs (http://nodejs.org/) and communicates with the JMRI xmlio server to speak to the NCE DCC system.

Our switch lists are computer-generated, and are actually also HTML files.

   http://www.siliconvalleylines.com/SVL_Switchster_Examples/Session18_Examples/SLR-C-899.html


Using Web technology, in lieu of native apps has enabled us to use PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Androids, etc. to do all sorts of things.

Yeah, it is overkill, but that is why we're called "Silicon Valley" Lines.

-Dave

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I am not a huge Apple fan. I never liked Google because of their privacy policies, but now that the NSA spies on EVERYTHING, I guess its a moot point. Scary to think we have truly become 1984 in the last 5 years. As a police employee, I see the benefit from all this data... but the amount even I have access to is alarming. I digress...

I did most of my posts on TRW using my Nokia Lumia Windows Phone. The camera is killer:




Nokia has some of the very best camera apps of any smart phone, including an image stacker that gives results similar to Helicon. The fire engine photo shows this at work. Image stabilization, large sensor and good optics really help too. After shooting photos, I can upload them directly to Flickr or use the Flickr app. Photos can be quickly edited with the on board photo editing tools or one of the many great apps like Fotor.

I now have two W8.1 laptops. The first is a small convertible tablet, an HP Envy X2. Besides the obligatory touch screen, the screen detached from the laptop base to become a true tablet. Though a bit underpowered (Clover Trail Atom), it easily does about 80% of the work I need to do including typing, web use and minor photo editing.

My other laptop is an HP Envy 17T, a 3GHz Haswell I7 with a 24GB SSD and dual 1TB hard drives. This system also has a touch screen but I have use the click pad most of the time. This is the system I use for hard core photo editing, video editing and network storage for movies and videos.

All my equipment is networked and shared so I can move from one computer to another and pick up where I left off. Libraries are shared across the network. I use Skydrive for most of my non-sensitive Office docs, including a full roster in Excel. This lets my check my collection from my phone when looking to purchase new equipment at train shows.

[conrail98]

In terms of "devices", Silicon Valley Lines (HO) makes heavy use of iPhones running WiThrottle and Androids running EngineDriver.

In addition to WiThrottle, we've created a web-application which allows the use of tablets (iPads, Android, or even touchscreen PCs) to control turnouts on the layout:



The web app is built using nodejs (http://nodejs.org/) and communicates with the JMRI xmlio server to speak to the NCE DCC system.

Our switch lists are computer-generated, and are actually also HTML files.

   http://www.siliconvalleylines.com/SVL_Switchster_Examples/Session18_Examples/SLR-C-899.html


Using Web technology, in lieu of native apps has enabled us to use PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Androids, etc. to do all sorts of things.

Yeah, it is overkill, but that is why we're called "Silicon Valley" Lines.

-Dave

Dave, do you guys have these as open source repos somewhere? I had been playing with some things and was looking at nodejs and Arduiino's for some things,

Phil

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Dave, do you guys have these as open source repos somewhere? I had been playing with some things and was looking at nodejs and Arduiino's for some things,

Phil

I was just about to ask the same thing.