Devices and command stations

Before LoDi-Aura can drive, switch and receive feedback, it has to know your devices. On this page you search for and add the LoDi-Rektor, LoDi-S88-Commander, LoDi-Shift-Commander and – if you have one – your existing command station, switch them online and decide what each device may be used for.

Where your devices are

In the “System” tab, the “My layout” section shows every device you have set up as a card. Below it come the “System areas”, including “Interfaces”. That's where you set up new devices.

Each card has three buttons: “Online” or “Offline” switches the device, the middle button takes you straight to its bus (“LoDi bus” for the LoDi-Rektor, “Modules” for the S88-Commander, “Buses” for the Shift-Commander, otherwise “Overview”), and “Open” shows the device page. “All interfaces” takes you to the “Interfaces & Devices” page.

Searching for and adding devices

LoDi-Aura searches for devices once by itself when the program starts. After that it only searches when you tell it to – there is no continuous search. The search finds LoDi devices and the supported third-party command stations on the same network as the layout computer.

1. Open the pageOpen “System” › “Interfaces”. The page is called “Interfaces & Devices”.
2. SearchIn the “LoDi Network” card, click “Search for devices”. During the search it says “Scanning LoDi network …”. The result is split into “New Devices” and “Already set up”.
3. AddClick “Apply” for each new device. It appears under “Configured Interfaces” and as a card under “My layout”.
4. Switch onlineSwitch the device online with “Set online” on its card. “All online” above the list or the “Layout” switch in the header connects all devices at once.
5. Turn on track powerSwitch on “Booster” in the header. Only then is there track power on the rails.

Checking a device with a known address

If the search doesn't find a device – because it is on a different network, for example – enter its address under “IP address” in the “LoDi Network” card and click “Check now”. The IP address is enough; you don't enter 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, and asks each on its own port. If it doesn't work, LoDi-Aura gives the reason for each possibility.

Z21-compatible command stations from YaMoRC are also entered by hand this way, because they don't respond to the search.

Device without firmware

If a device is in the bootloader, it has no firmware. The search still shows it, with the note “In the bootloader — no firmware”. Add it as usual and then install the firmware on the device page in the “Firmware” card.

Bringing a device into the network with “Prog IP”

Older devices – the LoDi-Rektor, LoDi-Shift-Commander and the old LoDi-S88-Commander – get their network address by broadcast. You do this with the “Prog IP” button in the “LoDi Network” card. The LoDi-S88-Commander LX gets its address via DHCP and doesn't need this.

1. Press the button on the devicePress the Prog IP button on the device. The red LED shows that it is ready.
2. Open the dialogClick “Prog IP”. The “Prog IP — bring the device into the network” dialog opens.
3. Enter the valuesChoose the “Device name” (or “custom name …” with at most 16 characters, without umlauts or spaces), the computer's “Network interface” and an “IP address”. “check” tests whether the address is free, “Suggestion” proposes one. Add “Gateway” and “MAC address” (with “generate”) if needed.
4. ApplyClick “Apply”. LoDi-Aura sends the settings, the device restarts and a new search runs automatically.

The device page

“Open” on a card under “My layout” or “Open device ›” on the “Interfaces & Devices” page shows the device page. At the top are the name, address, firmware and transport, next to them the status and the “Set online” or “Set offline” button. “← All Interfaces” takes you back to the overview.

The “Device” card

Capabilities and usage

Under “Capabilities & Usage” you use tick boxes to decide what LoDi-Aura may use the device for. Only what the device can do is offered.

Disabled devices

“Disabled” means: the device doesn't go online with the “Layout” switch, and the header doesn't count it. To switch it back on, open the device page and tick “Go online with the layout switch (top)” in the “Device” tab. Anything another window sets up or removes appears in every open window without reloading.

Network / IP

The “Network / IP” card shows the device's network data. What you can do there depends on whether the device is online.

Firmware

The “Firmware” card shows the “Installed” version and what the “Update server” offers: “up to date” or “Update available”. In the version list, “Install” installs a version and “Flash again” writes the existing one once more. “⟳” reads the versions again.

The device is switched offline automatically for the update and restarts afterwards. At the end, LoDi-Aura reports “Firmware update finished — device has restarted.”

The LoDi-Shift-Commander LX and the LoDi-S88-Commander LX from firmware 7 update their firmware themselves, on their own web interface. The “Firmware” card then points you there.

Removing a device

“Remove interface from the project” at the bottom of the device page – or the bin icon “Remove from project” on the card on the “Interfaces & Devices” page – takes the device out of the project.

LoDi devices

How to configure the individual LoDi devices – buses, modules, outputs, boosters – is described on the devices' setup pages. Here you only find what LoDi-Aura uses them for.

Third-party command stations

Your existing command station can stay. LoDi-Aura integrates the Roco/Fleischmann Z21, Märklin® CS3, ESU ECoS and Lenz command stations with XpressNet (LZV200 on the 23151 interface). “Search for devices” finds them on your own network; if the command station is somewhere else, enter it with “Check now”. After that it appears just like a LoDi device, with a card, device page and capabilities.

Z21 settings

Turnout 1 in LoDi-Aura is turnout 1 in the Z21 app – both when switching and when reading accessory CVs. How the Z21 counts turnouts is set in the Z21 itself: Z21 Maintenance Tool › Settings › “DCC turnout addressing compliant with RCN-213”. Switched on, it counts like other command stations (turnout 1 = decoder 1); by default it is off (turnout 1 = decoder 0).

“Feedback modules on the R-Bus” (1 to 20, default 20): the Z21 doesn't tell how many modules are connected – a missing module simply reports “free”. Modules 1 to 20 are the R-Bus addresses set on the modules, and each has eight inputs. A changed number applies the next time you switch online.

“Keep the Z21's model clock in step”: when ticked, the Z21's clock follows LoDi-Aura's model time – to the minute and with whole-number factors from 1 to 63. When unticked, it runs on its own.

XpressNet command station settings

The “DCC turnout offset (RCN-213)” tick box sets how LoDi-Aura counts the turnouts on this command station. When ticked, it counts like the XpressNet command station itself and like the ECoS – that's the normal case. When unticked, it counts four lower, like a Z21 with factory settings, a multiMaus or the LoDi-Rektor without this tick. Use that if your decoders were given their numbers there.

How you notice it: you switch number 1, and the turnout you set up as 5 moves. Turnouts 1 to 4 don't exist on the XpressNet command station without the tick.

On the LoDi-Rektor, the same tick box is called “DCC turnout offset” and is in the “Rektor protocols” card (see Turnouts and signals). If a single turnout switches the wrong way round, change that on the turnout itself – with “Connection swapped (straight ↔ diverging)”, not on the command station.

Importing locos from the command station

When a CS3 or ECoS is online, “⤵ Import” in the “Vehicles” tab asks where the locos should come from: “From the Märklin CS3” or “From the ESU ECoS” imports all the command station's locos – only locos, no turnouts – and “From file (iTrain)” reads a file. The locos are copied once; after that you maintain them in LoDi-Aura. More on this under Locos, cars and trains.

Booster overview and track power

You open the booster overview with “Booster ⧉” on the right of the tab bar. It shows all boosters with live current per channel. A short circuit is a state of its own, not just an error message.

At the top, under “Command station current”, the command stations are shown as cards, each with its own track power switch. A LoDi-Rektor with its own boosters groups them on its card; its switch switches them all. “⏻ All on” or “⏻ All off” switches everything connected to the main switch. “Separate window” moves the overview into a window of its own.

You can also switch the track power of all boosters with “Booster” in the header.

Problems?