Connecting devices

In this step you bring your LoDi devices into the layout: search for them, add them, bring them online and decide what each device is allowed to do. At the end, all devices are online, and a channel lights up in the feedback monitor when you put a wheelset on the rails.

How it all fits together

Three command stations share the work. Each one is connected to the network, and each one has its own bus with modules.

How the devices are wired is described on their own pages under Devices.

Before you start

• The devices are wired up, have power and are connected to the same network (router) as the layout computer.
• The layout has been created (Creating a layout).
• If the layout computer has several network adapters, e.g. Wi-Fi and cable, the right one is selected in the start window (Installing and starting).

Finding and adding devices

Open “System” › “Interfaces”. A search already ran when the program started; whatever it found is listed under “New Devices”.

1. SearchIf a device is missing, press “Search for devices”.
2. AddPress “Apply” for each device found. Only then does the device belong to the project. The device brings its own name – the network name given to it on the device, otherwise the device type.
3. Check nowIf a device isn't found, type its address into the “IP address” field under “LoDi Network” and press “Check now”. The IP address is enough, you don't need a port: LoDi-Aura works out by itself whether there's a LoDi device, a Märklin® CS3, an ESU ECoS, a Z21 or a Lenz interface behind it. If it doesn't work, LoDi-Aura gives the reason for each possibility. A match then appears in the list just the same.

Bringing devices online

Added doesn't mean connected yet. Only once a device is online does LoDi-Aura read its firmware, buses and modules.

1. Switch onPress “Set online” on the device card, or “All online” for all of them together – or the “Layout” switch in the header bar.
2. WaitThe in-between state takes a few seconds per device. Don't click several times: the switch is locked in the meantime.

Deciding what each device may do

Open the device card and, in its “Device” tab, the “Capabilities & Usage” section.

When adding a device, LoDi-Aura ticks every job the device can do – even if another device already has it. Only a ticked device will be offered later when you wire up a turnout, a feedback sensor or a loco. So here you are more likely to remove something than to tick something.

Two devices for the same job are allowed. Then you choose for each turnout, block and loco which one applies: “Switching command station”, “Feedback command station”, “Driving interface”. A loco without a fixed driving interface uses the default command station.

The devices in detail

LoDi-Rektor

The LoDi-Rektor's device card has the “Rektor protocols” card with the “CDE connection”, the “Default track protocol” and the “Active track protocols”: DCC, Motorola and M3 / MFX.

1. Choose protocolsCheck which protocols your decoders speak and tick them.
2. WritePress “Write to Rektor”. The button is only active while the LoDi-Rektor is online.

The same card also has “Short circuit switches off the command station”, “Switch boosters automatically with start/stop” and “DCC turnout offset”. If your LoDi-Rektor's firmware can drive analogue DC locos without a decoder, there is also an “Analog” field (Off/Allowed) below the active track protocols. Analogue only runs if the default track protocol is DCC, DCC is ticked and Motorola is unticked. Everything else is explained in Setting up the LoDi-Rektor.

The LoDi-Bus is connected to the LoDi-Rektor. The middle button “LoDi bus” on the device card takes you there. Without a scan, LoDi-Aura doesn't see the modules, even if they are plugged in. Open the booster overview with “Booster ⧉” on the right of the tab bar: current, voltage and temperature per channel, with short circuit as a state of its own.

More about the modules: Setting up the LoDi-Booster, Setting up the LoDi-CV-Programmer.

LoDi-Shift-Commander

The LoDi-Shift-Commander switches turnouts, signals and lights. Open its device page and there “Shift buses & modules”: on the left is the tree of device, buses and Operators, on the right the view of the selected entry.

1. OnlineThe device has to be online – otherwise the tree stays empty.
2. Search for modulesPress “⟳” for each bus. LoDi-Aura reads what is really plugged in.
3. Look at an OperatorClick an Operator: at the top, the row with its outputs; below it, one tile per command, e.g. a turnout with its address. Switching only happens via the “⟲ Switch” button at the bottom of the tile, not via the tile itself.

If the fitted modules differ from the saved state, the bus turns red and the Operators are locked. First sort out the bus in the comparison view, then carry on with the tiles. How to assign the Operators' outputs is described in Setting up the LoDi-Shift-Commander and Setting up LoDi operators.

LoDi-S88-Commander LX

Adding it to the project, bringing it online and “Use feedback” – you do that in LoDi-Aura. Addressing modules, setting names and thresholds and updating the module firmware you do from firmware 7 onwards on the device itself, on its own web interface.

1. Open the web interfaceOn the device page, press “Configure on the device” or “Open the device interface”. The web interface of the LoDi-S88-Commander LX opens in a web browser window; the address is shown next to the button so you can copy it down.
2. Set up the modulesAddress the modules there and give them names, see Web interface (WebUI).
3. Back to LoDi-AuraThe feedback monitor (“Feedback ⧉” on the right of the tab bar) shows live what the modules see.

The practice layout needs eleven feedback sensors, so two modules with eight channels each. You continue to set up a LoDi-S88-Commander with older firmware in LoDi-Aura – see Setting up the LoDi-S88-Commander LX and Setting up the LoDi-8-GBM(-P).

With a third-party command station

Instead of the LoDi-Rektor, a Roco/Fleischmann Z21, a Märklin® CS3, an ESU ECoS or a Lenz LZV200 with interface 23151 can do the driving. “Search for devices” finds it just the same, and after that it appears like a LoDi device. For this you need a command station licence together with Basic or Standard – or Professional, which includes all command stations (Signing in and licences). What each command station can do and where the limits are is described in Devices and command stations.

Checking the result

• On the right of the header bar, under “Layout”, all devices are shown online, e.g. “3/3 online”.
• The device cards show real firmware numbers.
• Every job – driving, switching, feedback – has exactly the device that is meant to do it.
• A channel lights up in the feedback monitor when you put a wheelset on the rails.

Problems?

All settings on the device pages – network, firmware, booster overview, third-party command stations – are explained in Devices and command stations.