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Model Train Control Using Your PDA

Posted by michael on from the obsessive-compulsive dept.

VP writes "Forget that crap about PDAs making you more productive by keeping useless contact lists and appointment reminders. Here is the real reason PDAs exist: locopalm.com. You might want to check out the TechTV spot as well."

4 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, memories by TheBracket · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This reminds me of when I was young. My father and I built a trainset controller from Maplin Electronics; each train had a small circuit board added (with a unique ID number), and we could give each train individual commands. Once we had that running smoothly, we used an old Dragon 32 to build a complete train management system (in 6502 assembly, if I remember rightly; the Dragon was a bit limited, so we ended up writing the programs on graph paper, validating them, converting the notation to hex and poking it - before saving a memory dump). I remember being particularly happy with our simulated inertia system, even if it did make crashes more likely!


    Projects like this are a lot of fun, and a great way to get into electronics.

    --
    Lead developer, http://wisptools.net
  2. ... the real thing. by hopscotch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The locopalm is nice, however ...what is really amazing are the goals my 9 year old met to be able to Rent-A-Locomotive at the Golden Gate Museum Railroad!

    His face was full of delight as he drove an actual locomotive (under an engineer's instruction, of course).

    Sometimes there's nothing quite like the real thing.

    --Hopscotch

  3. Re:What about other electrical devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Palms are great for reading in the dark at night or in the morning under the covers. The palms with green backlighting are actually especially good at this, since the lighting is so soft. Recently I've been thinking about hooking up some bluetooth connectivity to my desktop which I leave on at night to mask out background noise (I live in LA.) With bluetooth I could browse through the library I have on the desktop and download whatever I feel like reading.

    Similarly, a bluetooth enabled palm could make household control comfortable and simple enough to be practical -- even just for basic things like lights and heat. Since I already have the thing there to read with anyway I might actually use it to turn a light on sometime.

    The point here is that the utility doesn't really come from the Palm, it comes from the Palm plus a bluetooth connection, which is something we're just getting started with.

    (In real life this would probably be a lot more easy to implement on a Zaurus, but if I feel like writing the code on both sides for the Palm I *could* do it.)

  4. Re:Sorry, but ... by Skater · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, you can. Having used a DCC system, you'd be amazed at how quickly and easily things can get out of control, even with only two trains! The good news is that the Digitrax system has a "panic stop" button that stops all the trains. The bad news is that sometimes that's easy to forget when you need it.

    Last time I visited my parents, I had to catch one of my dad's engines as it rolled off the platform from just such an incident. (Fortunately, he was controlling them at the time; I just happened to be standing in the right area.)

    --RJ