The standard MASTER and CLIENT firmware provide a range of capabilities that should satisfy most users and use cases. Nevertheless, there are special situations that can’t be addressed by the standard firmware. Accordingly, a feature of LCOS is the ability to change the firmware variant in use on a node.
Presently we offer variants for CLIENT nodes only; we may offer MASTER variants in the future.
Client Variants #
Layout objects can be either local or remote relative to a node. Local objects are directly controlled by a node. A node may listen to and track the state of objects controlled by other nodes for internal purposes, such as to support signals or a gateway.
Device Model DNIO1C #
Model DNIO1C is general purpose hardware for CLIENTS and supports several firmware variants: standard, scene and yard clients.
Standard Client #
The Standard Client is the “Swiss Army Knife” client firmware that does all standard layout control tasks, both running local objects and monitoring the state of remote objects. You should use the Standard Client firmware on any Client Node that you want to monitor block occupancy and/or run local signals.
Scene Client #
The Scene Client is optimized for managing the scenic elements of your layout. Scene Clients uniquely support Scene Objects that help you apply automation to your layout lighting and animations. The Scene Client uniquely supports crossings with gates (up to 2) and LED Flashers. Use the Scene Client to animate your city and town scenes with crossings, motorized objects and lighting that changes with layout time.
Yard Client #
The Yard Client (coming soon) supports more turnouts and local signals than the Standard Clients, and is optimized for yard operations.
Device Model DNDCC #
Device model DNDCC is a DCC Gateway that reads the DCC rail bus, functioning as a stationary decoder that can connect to any layout object. The device also supports an experimental, bi-directional serial gateway for more extensive access to the LCOS message stream.
DCC Gateway #
The DCC Gateway firmware currently supports DCC turnout commands. The firmware maps layout turnouts to a block of DCC accessory addresses that your specify allowing it to coexist with other DCC stationary decoders. The firmware assigns a DCC address from the address block to each turnout, giving you turnout control from your throttle. Extended accessory addresses are supported.
Changing Firmware Variant #
Use the Updater to manage the firmware installed on each node.
Before changing variants, be sure to use the Configurator to backup your configuration. Changing variants will wipe your current configuration data. You can restore configuration data after changing variants, but any configuration items not applicable to the new firmware variant will be discarded.
Next, with the Client hardware attached via USB, select the Client from My Device List and click the Update Device Firmware button. On the firmware loader window, select the firmware variant you wish to install then click Start.
