/
BasicThrottleWindow.shtml
284 lines (258 loc) · 12.9 KB
/
BasicThrottleWindow.shtml
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta name="generator" content=
"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 31 October 2006 - Apple Inc. build 15.17), see www.w3.org">
<title>Basic Throttle window usage</title>
<meta name="keywords" content=
"JMRI decoderpro dcc nmra throttlepro">
<meta name="Description" content=
"Throttle documentation for JMRI project">
<meta name="Author" content="Lionel Jeanson">
<meta name="Language" content="EN">
<meta name="Robots" content="Index, Follow">
<meta name="Revisit-After" content="7 Days">
<!-- The combination of "Define" and {Header,Style, Logo and Footer} comments -->
<!-- are an arbitrary design pattern used by the update.pl script to -->
<!-- easily replace the common header/footer code for all the web pages -->
<!-- delete the following 2 Defines if you want to use the default JMRI logo -->
<!-- or change them to reflect your alternative logo -->
<!-- Style -->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
"text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/default.css"
media="screen">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/print.css"
media="print">
<link rel="icon" href="/images/jmri.ico" type="image/png">
<link rel="home" title="Home" href="/">
<!-- /Style -->
</head>
<body>
<!--#include virtual="/Header.shtml" -->
<div id="mBody">
<!--#include virtual="Sidebar.shtml" -->
<div id="mainContent">
<h1>Using the Throttle Pane</h1><img src=
"images/BasicThrottleWindow.png" alt=
"BasicThrottleWindow.png"><br>
<h2>Basic structure of a Throttle Window</h2>There are three
panels (or sub-windows) associated with each Throttle window.
These are identified as:<br>
<ul>
<li>Control Panel - contains a throttle slider to control
the speed of the loco, a forward and reverse selector, an
Emergency Stop action button, and an Idle action button
(mostly used for sound equipped decoders).</li>
<li>Function Panel - is used to associate the function
buttons with the active output functions of the
decoder.</li>
<li>Address Panel - is used to identify the decoder's
address, and to dispatch or release the identified
address.</li>
</ul>Note that these three panels are actually windows
defined within an overall window, each of these panels
contain their own "minimize" and "close" buttons - as well as
can also be resized. You can actually minimize one or more of
these panels within the Throttle window. When one of these
subwindows is closed, is can be reopened through <a href=
"ThrottleWindowMenus.shtml">the View menu</a>.<br>
<br>
For details about usage of the <a href=
"ThrottleWindowMenus.shtml">Throttle window menus, see
there</a>.<br>
For details about usage of the <a href=
"ThrottleToolBar.shtml">Throttle window toolbar, see
there</a>.<br>
For details about usage of the <a href=
"ThrottlesPreferencesPane.shtml">Throttles Preferences, see
there</a>.<br>
<br>
For <a href="AdvancedThrottleControl.shtml">advanced control
of a Throttle, see there</a>.<br>
<br>
<h2>Address Panel - Assign a Decoder Address to a
Throttle</h2>The first thing that needs to happen before any
options or buttons in the window become active, is to assign
a decoder's address in the "Address Panel". There are two
ways that this can be accomplished.<br>
<br>
Manually enter the decoder's address in the large text box or
select an existing Roster entry though the drop down menu,
then click on the "Set" button.<br>
When manually entering an address, be sure to click on the
Set button. Without this step, all throttle actions remain
disabled.<br>
<br>
Note that there is an option in the <a href=
"ThrottlesPreferencesPane.shtml">Throttles Preferences
Pane</a> that will enable an automatic look back in the
roster DB when an address is entered, and eventually trigger
an automatic set up of the full throttle if any matching
Roster entry is found.<br>
<br>
After an address is selected, all other controls and options
in the throttle window will be enabled:<br>
<ul>
<li>Dispatch - releases the decoder address back to the
command station in a "dispatch" mode. Usually, only one
address can be in dispatch state at the command station -
all others are either "in use" or "idle" (released). The
controls and options in the throttle window will become
disabled until another address is "Set".</li>
<li>Release - releases the decoder address back to the
command station as "no longer needed". The controls and
options in the throttle window will become disabled until
another address is "Set".</li>
<li>Program - opens an ops-mode (programming on the main)
DecoderPro programmer for the selected locomotive. It's
only active when a roster entry has been selected on the
throttle.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Control Panel - Let's Run a Train</h2>Now that you have
established an address for the throttle, you should be able
to run the train on your layout (if your layout is active and
the address you entered is valid to a locomotive on the
track). You do this using the "Control Panel".<br>
<ul>
<li>The slider will control the throttle speed.</li>
<li>The Forward and Reverse button its direction.</li>
<li>The STOP! button will send a emergency stop (DCC speed
to -1) message to the locomotive.</li>
<li>The Idle one will stop the locomotive smoothly (DCC
speed to 0) (if the decoder has acceleration or braking
rates enabled, the loco will speed up or slow down
accordingly. If no momentum values are enabled, the loco
will speed up or slow down abruptly.).</li>
</ul>Beware of where you click with your mouse pointer in the
Control Panel. If you click anywhere near the slider, your
loco may take off on you unexpectedly (more on this below).
If you click anywhere on the words "Forward" or "Reverse",
you might change current train direction.<br>
<br>
<h3>Control Panel config pane</h3><img src=
"images/ControlPanelPreferences.png" alt=
"ControlPanelPreferences.png"><br>
This pane if accessible by right clicking in the Control
Panel pane and opening Properties menu entry<br>
<br>
<h2>The Function Panel</h2>The Function Panel has 28 function
buttons available for each throttle. Most decoders currently
don't handle 28 functions. The function panel displays the
buttons in two groups, press the "*" button in the lower left
corner to see the second set of function buttons.<br>
<br>
Clicking on the function buttons correlate to pressing the
same function button on a hand-held throttle. The F0 function
is normally used for the lights.<br>
<br>
This is the basic functionality of the Function Panel. All
buttons function like an on/off toggle - click once to turn
"on"; click again to turn "off".<br>
<br>
<h3>Function Button config pane</h3><img src=
"images/FunctionButtonProperties.png" alt=
"FunctionButtonProperties.png"><br>
This pane if accessible by right clicking in the AddressPanel
pane, on a specific Function Button and opening Properties
menu entry.<br>
<br>
Note that for Throttles that have an associated Roster, it is
better to define these settings in the <a href=
"RostersMediaPane.shtml">Function label pane</a> in
DecoderPro (however if you change them here, you can still
export these changes to the Roster through the <a href=
"ThrottleWindowMenus.shtml">Export to Roster</a> menu
entry).<br>
<ul>
<li>Function Number - associates the button with a function
number</li>
<li>Text - customizable button label text</li>
<li>Font Size - size of text displayed on button</li>
<li>Lockable - identifies whether the button acts as an
"on/off" toggle switch; or as a momentary switch</li>
<li>Visible - identifies whether the button is visible in
the Function Panel window</li>
</ul>By default, the Function Number is associated with the
button number that you initially right-clicked on. For
example, in the figures shown above, function number "3" (F3)
is being edited. It is recommended that you leave this number
as is, however, you can change this to a different function
number if you really wish. An example of why you might want
to do this is if you really want the "lights" button - which
is usually F0 (located as the last/bottom button by default)
- to be located as the first button in the Function
Panel.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Warning!</span> If any
modifications are done to the "Function Number" field, verify
to make sure that no two buttons are assigned the same
function number - some unwanted consequences may occur.<br>
<br>
The Text field will be the most welcome and modified field.
By default, it is set similar to hand-held throttles:
F1...F2...F3...etc. The content of the field is pretty much
open to the imagination, however, there is going to be a
point where the length of the text is not going to fit on the
button. The Font Size field is available to also assist in
getting the wanted text to fit on the button. A little
experimentation will be required here to determine what looks
good for you - and what will fit.<br>
The Lockable check box may be a little confusing at first.
When enabled - as it is by default - it simply means that
when the button is clicked on, it will "lock" itself in
either an "on" state or an "off" state. In other words, the
button will act as a toggle switch - click once to turn the
function "on"; click again to turn the function "off". The
opposite of this action is what happens when the check box is
disabled. Then the button acts like a momentary switch -
supplying a momentary "on" command for as long as the mouse
button is clicked and held over the button. When the mouse
button is released, an "off" command is sent to the function.
A good example of where one might want to use this is when
customizing a throttle setup for a sound decoder. The
horn/whistle is closer to functional when this option is
disabled. Depending on the speed of the computer system and
the DCC system, short and quick click and releases would
provide a short blast of the horn or whistle. Holding down
the button a little longer would produce a longer held blast
of the whistle.<br>
The Visible check box allows for the "removal" of unwanted
buttons. By default, all function buttons are enabled as
"visible" so that they can obviously be seen. But if there is
only a single function being used - for example the "lights"
(F0) - then this option does provide the ability to "hide"
all of the other buttons.<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Warning!</span> Disabling
the "Visible" check box should be one of the last steps
performed during this customization process. The reason for
this is that once the button is marked as "invisible" (by
removing the check box), it is indeed invisible to the user
and therefore can't be right-clicked on with the mouse in
order to get the "Edit Function Button" window back. To make
all buttons visible select <a href=
"ThrottleWindowMenus.shtml">"View->Show All Function
Buttons."</a><br>
<h2>Jynstruments</h2>See <a href=
"../scripting/Jynstruments.shtml">there for more informations
about Jynstruments</a>.<br>
<br>
The Throttle Window is Jynstrumentable, particularly with
more advanced function controls.<br>
<br>
At the moment <a href=
"http://jmri.org/jython/Jynstruments/ThrottleFrame/">3 sample
Jynstruments are delivered</a>, one for Light, one for Horn
and one for Whistle (function 0, 1 and 2). But this is only a
sample, have a look at the code and customize at will for
your specific decoder needs.<br>
<span style="font-style: italic;">Note that Throttle Window
toolbar is Jynstrumentable too, so here we drop the
Jynstruments on the window content</span><span style=
"font-style: italic;">itself, not on the toolbar.</span>
<!--#include virtual="/Footer.shtml" -->
</div><!-- closes #mainContent-->
</div><!-- closes #mBody-->
</body>
</html>