EtherBridge

1. What EtherBridge does

Think of an old telephone exchange. Calls come in on numbered lines, and the operator plugs each one through to the right place.

EtherBridge is the operator. Your railway programs ring in: JMRI, iTrain, Rocrail, or an app on your phone. Each one speaks its own language and rings on its own extension number. EtherBridge answers each of them in its own language and puts the message through to your System2 boards. When a point has moved, the board's answer comes back the same way, so your program can show where your points really are.

It can put calls through to a DCC command station too, if you have one: a Roco Z21, an ESU ECoS, a DCC-EX and others. Then your trains and your System2 points can be worked from the same program, or the same phone.

2. Do you need it?

You need EtherBridge if any of these is true:

• You want JMRI, iTrain or Rocrail on your PC to work your System2 points and signals.
• You want to set points, or drive trains, from an app on your phone or tablet.
• You want your DCC command station and your System2 boards to agree about every point.

You do not need it if you work your layout only from System2 panels and buttons. Everything else in MegaConsole works without it.

3. Before you start

Getting EtherBridge

EtherBridge is an extra part of MegaConsole, and your MegaConsole licence decides whether you have it.

Once the PC is registered, you do not download anything yourself. MegaConsole fetches EtherBridge at its next check for updates, and the bottom of the menu asks you to press Restart to update. Press it, and the EtherBridge menu entry comes to life.

What you need

• A Windows PC beside the layout, with MegaConsole installed and registered.
• A way for that PC to reach your boards: our USB CAN adaptor plugged into the System2 cable, or your boards on Wi-Fi with a broker (see Boards on Wi-Fi).
• Your railway program or app.
• A point you can see from your chair, and ten minutes.

4. Three numbers you will meet

Every program asks for the same two things: where to ring, and which extension. You will only ever need these three numbers.

The PC's address

Its telephone number on your home network. It looks like 192.168.1.20: four numbers with dots between. You never have to work it out. On MegaConsole's EtherBridge page, on the Status tab, it is the one marked (the one to type), with a Copy button beside it.

The extension number

Computers call it the port. It tells EtherBridge which language is ringing. Each language has its own, and EtherBridge already uses the usual one for each, so leave them as they are.

127.0.0.1, the inside line

This address always means this same computer. If your program runs on the same PC as MegaConsole, type 127.0.0.1 and it will always work, whatever your router does.

5. Switching EtherBridge on

EtherBridge is not a page you sit and watch. Once it is set up it runs quietly for as long as MegaConsole is open, whether or not you are looking at it.

The first time: a short set-up card

In MegaConsole, click EtherBridge on the menu. The first time, a card called Set up the bridge appears. It has four steps, with Back, Next and Skip for now at the bottom, and the numbers below are its steps.

1. It asks Do you already own a command station the bridge should talk to? If you do not, choose No - MegaConsole is the central. If you do, choose it from the list and type its address (see Your command station). Press Next.
   With no command station, and iTrain, Rocrail or the Z21 app to come, also switch off Z21 concentrator afterwards, as the iTrain example explains.
2. It asks how the numbers in your program should match your boards. If your boards have joined your Wi-Fi, choose One to one. If they are on the CAN cable only, choose Sensors from 4097. Section 7 explains why. Press Next.
3. It lets you test a point straight away. Type the number one of your points answers to, press Throw, then Close, and watch it move. Press Next.
4. It says you are finished. Press Next.

You can open the card again at any time: on the Status tab, press Run the setup wizard....

Each language has its own switch

MegaConsole's Modules & services page lists everything that runs in the background, each with a switch. EtherBridge has a group of its own. A switch works the moment you flick it: nothing needs restarting.

The Z21 language has no switch: it is always listening, on extension 21105.

Let Windows Firewall put the calls through

Windows Firewall is the doorman of your PC, and it only lets in callers it has been told about. Programs on the same PC (using 127.0.0.1) do not need it. Phones and other PCs do.

1. On the EtherBridge page, Status tab, look at the Windows Firewall part.
2. If it offers Add the rules, press it. Windows asks you once for permission; say Yes.

Keep it running

EtherBridge stops when MegaConsole closes. To have it always there, switch on Start with Windows on Modules & services (it is also on the EtherBridge page's Advanced tab). MegaConsole then starts by itself, out of the way, whenever the PC is switched on.

Saving changes on the EtherBridge page

The EtherBridge page has eight tabs: Status, Servers, Stations, Concentrator, Advanced, Address map, Trace and Activity. Above them is a Save button. Whatever you change on any tab takes effect only when you press Save, and until you do, the line beside it says Unsaved changes - press Save to apply them.

6. Worked examples

Each worked example is a card, like a recipe: what you will need, the steps in order, how to tell it has worked, and what to do if it has not. Pick the one that matches what you have. You can follow more than one; they all work side by side.

7. How point numbers match up

In a signal box, every lever has a number plate. On a System2 layout, every point, signal and button answers to a number too. We call it a vPort. Your program has numbers for its points as well, and EtherBridge's job is to match the two up.

Keep the numbers the same

The simplest way is to give each point the same number in your program as on your boards. Point 5 in JMRI (LT5), in iTrain or in the Z21 app is vPort 5 on your layout. That is the One to one choice, and it is what EtherBridge does unless you change it.

Point or detector?

Your program treats points and detectors differently. (JMRI calls a point a turnout and a detector a sensor.) EtherBridge has to tell your program which each number is:

• If your boards have joined your Wi-Fi, even if they talk to each other on the cable, EtherBridge reads each board's own settings and knows. You need do nothing.
• If your boards are on the CAN cable only, EtherBridge has to go by the number, using your answer in step 2 of the set-up card. With One to one, numbers 1 to 160 are treated as detectors and higher numbers as points, except that a point your program has just moved is always treated as a point. With Sensors from 4097, every number up to 4096 is treated as a point.

So on a cable-only layout with points numbered from 1, choose Sensors from 4097. If you have detectors as well, keep One to one, put the detectors on numbers 1 to 160 and the points on numbers above 160. Easier still, join your boards to your Wi-Fi so EtherBridge can read them.

When the numbers cannot be the same

Sometimes your program already uses point 12 for something that is vPort 40 on your boards. The Address map tab lets you match numbers one by one, and the rest carry on as before. Most people never need it. It reads and writes the same file as the EtherBridge box, so a map made for one drops straight into the other.

8. Keeping your trains safe

Points and signals are a different matter: a System2 point that has moved simply stays where it is.

9. When something does not work

10. How sure we are

We would rather tell you how we know than print one long list of names. There are three labels.

• Proved on our bench: we have done it here, with that equipment, and kept the record.
• Reported working: a customer has told us it works, and we have not seen it ourselves. There are none of these yet.
• Same protocol, untested: it speaks a language EtherBridge speaks, and we have not had one on our bench.

A command station or program not in these tables may well work, and we would like to hear either way. Tell us which one, which version of its software, and what you tried. It goes into the table under the label it has earned.

11. Words explained

Address

A computer's telephone number on your home network, such as 192.168.1.20.

Broker

A small post-office program that passes messages between boards on Wi-Fi. MegaConsole can run one for you.

CAN cable and CAN adaptor

The System2 cable that links your boards, and our USB plug that joins your PC to it.

Client

Something that makes a call. EtherBridge is a client when it rings your command station: that is the Stations tab.

Command station

The box that puts DCC on your track and drives your trains: a Roco Z21, an ESU ECoS, a DCC-EX and so on. Some people call it the central.

Concentrator

The part of EtherBridge that lets many tablets share one Roco Z21.

Extension number, or port

Which line on the PC a program rings. Each language has its own.

Firewall

The doorman of your PC, who lets in only the callers he has been told about.

Language, or protocol

The set of messages a program speaks: LocoNet over TCP, Z21, WiThrottle, DCC-EX and others.

Server

Something that answers calls. EtherBridge is a server when your programs ring it: that is the Servers tab.

Sensor

JMRI's word for a detector: something that reports a train is there.

Turnout

JMRI's and iTrain's word for a point.

vPort

The number a System2 point, signal or button answers to, like the number plate on a lever.