ISE ProtoThrottle User manual

ProtoThrottle
www.protothrottle.com
IOWA SCALED ENGINEERING – ELECTRONICS MADE EASY!
Receiver for ESU CabControl,
JMRI WiFi Throttle, and Digitrax LNWI
© 2018 Iowa Scaled Engineering, LLC and Designgrid, LLC
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and store to learn more about our full line
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Getting Started
When using the receiver with an ESU Cab Control system using
default settings, go right to Step 1. If you are using the receiver
with JMRI WiFi Throttle or Digitrax LNWI-based systems, or need
to change the network settings, see the System Setup instructions.
Step 1: Connect the short USB cable between the Raspberry Pi
board and the XBee board as shown above.
Step 2: Verify that the SD card is seated firmly in the socket
Step 3: Connect the long USB cable from power supply as shown
above. Plug in the power supply.
Step 4: Wait about 30 seconds for Raspberry Pi to boot. During
this time the activity light on the Raspberry Pi will blink and D6,
D7, D8, and D9 may light dimly. Once D8 and D9 are on fully,
the receiver is ready and connected to the command station.
If a mini-HDMI cable is plugged in when power is applied to
the Raspberry Pi, and connected to a monitor, a running log of
debug information will be displayed.
Step 5: Configure the ProtoThrottle. The default receiver base
address is zero (0).
Have Fun!
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The ProtoThrottle Receiver is based on a stripped-down but other-
wise stock version of Raspbian, an open source Linux distribution
available from the Raspberry Pi Foundation website:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
The ProtoThrottle Receiver code is open source
under the GPL v3 and is available from Github:
https://github.com/IowaScaledEngineering/esu-bridge

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Power and Data LEDs
LED Function
Green (D1, PWR) Power is present
Orange (D2, XBEE RX) Data received from XBee module
Orange (D3, XBEE TX) Data transmitted to XBee module
USB cable from
Power Supply
SD Card
Mini-HDMI Connector
Activity LED
Raspberry Pi
XBee
Receiver Status LEDs
LED Function
Blue (D9) The RasPi is running and communicating
with the XBee
Blue (D8) A command station was found
Blue (D7) A valid ProtoThrottle command was received
Red (D6) (Blinking) Another receiver is transmitting on
the same Base Address
Radio Module Status LEDs
LED Function
Yellow (D4, RSSI) RF data is being
received by the radio
module
Red (D5, ASSOC) (Blinking) Radio
module is working
Notes
To change the receiver base address, put a new value in the baseAddress
line. Example:
baseAddress = 3
Advanced Options
The “serverIP” option in the protothrottle-config.txt file can be set if the
server cannot be found from scanning your network.
If your JMRI WiFi Throttle server is running on a port other than 12090, you
will need to set the “serverPort” option in the protothrottle-config.txt file.
Note: the throttle and receiver ship with a default base address
of zero (0). Any address will work as long as both the throttle and
receiver are configured to the same value. The only time to change it
would be to avoid conflicts with other ProtoThrottle systems nearby.

System Setup
Follow the steps below to configure the receiver to work with
JMRI WiFi Throttle or Digitrax LNWI-based systems, to change the
wireless network setup, or to change the receiver base address.
Remove the SD card from the Raspberry Pi
Insert the SD card into the provided adapter
Insert the adapter into your computer or laptop’s card reader slot
If prompted to “Scan and Fix”, select “Continue without scanning”
When prompted, select “Open folder to view files”
Wireless Configuration
Open the file wireless-config.txt. Make sure only one network
configuration is active (uncommented). All other network configu-
rations should be commented out (# at the beginning of the line).
See the wireless-config.txt file for examples.
ESU Cab Control: If you changed the ESU Cab Control network settings
from their factory defaults, the receiver needs to be reconfigured. Change
the ssid and psk strings to match the custom SSID and password of your
ESU Cab Control system.
network={
ssid=”MY-ESU-SSID”
psk=”MY-ESU-PASSWORD”
}
Digitrax LNWI: Uncomment the following lines by deleting the pound
sign (#). Change the SSID string to match the ssid of your LNWI module.
NOTE: this string MUST be changed to match the unique string of your
module – the default value listed is just an example. Make sure all other
network configurations are commented out.
network={
ssid=”Dtx1-LnServer_0ACC-7”
key_mgmt=NONE
}
Home Network: Uncomment the following lines by deleting the pound sign
(#). Change the SSID and psk strings to match the ssid and password of your
home network. Make sure all other network configurations are commented out.
network={
ssid=”MY-HOME-NETWORK-NAME”
psk=”MY-HOME-NETWORK-PASSWORD”
}
Receiver Configuration
Open the file protothrottle-config.txt. Change the mode line to match the
system you are using.
ESU Cab Control:
mode = esu
JMRI Wifi Throttle (a.k.a. WiThrottle or Engine Driver):
mode = withrottle
Digitrax LNWI (subset of JMRI WiFi Throttle protocol):
mode = lnwi
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