I suspect there may be some users who do not create and load a panel file to
preserve the turnouts (and user names if created). LocoNet for example will
learn the turnouts from many of the devices (that have a LocoNet connection,
not track connection) without load a panel file. But the timing is
different. The learning starts late enough in the sequence that the throttle
service might start before all turnouts are learned. Using a panel file, you
can control the startup sequence by loading the panel first and then
starting the throttle server. So you are insured that everything is known.
Sometimes some devices don't respond in time during the discovery, so they
might get missed. Same if everything is powered on before starting JMRI. But
if you load the panel file, everything is known from the file. I strongly
suggest the use of user names. And if you have many of them, consider using
the separator char in the name. Then the phone will group them for you by
the prefix. I find it very handy to only have to pick from a short list of
turnouts (no scrolling needed most of the time) by picking the prefix (town
usually) from the pull down. Makes it very quick and easy.
-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team
www.jmri.org
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org
www.cnymod.com
www.syracusemodelrr.org
Ken Cameron