Thank you again, Ken.
I have EasyDCC and a home brew computer interface that worked previously. I'm reassembling my railroad after a move, with some main line changes. I plan to reuse the EasyDCC which I have reinstalled and working now, plus as much of the computer software I wrote as I can, along with the hardware it used previously. I'm in the process of reinstalling it now. It inputs turnout positions, and from control panel switches, block occupancy detectors and photodetectors. It controls block power, LED indicators, and turnout positions. I'd like to add main line signalling, using JMRI for the logic, and sending the control data to my interface to drive LED signals.
My challenges will be translating and transferring data between JMRI and my home brew interface, along with my EasyDCC. I'm pretty confident the EasyDCC part will work, but as pointed out, it lacks any way to input railroad data. My other railroad input and output data are mapped in computer RAM, but directing the data to and getting it from the right spots will be the challenge: which bits in which bytes correspond to the JMRI labels, and in what format is it sent and received between JMRI and my hardware. As suggested, C/MRI may be a good choice, as the JMRI end is done, I just need to translate it to work with my home brew. At the moment, I don't know why it should be easier to make my control computer "speak" C/MRI than native JMRI, but someone in this group probably will tell me which will be easier.
I started learning JMRI by entering part of my track plan in Layout Editor. That will give me some experience with JMRI and something to use for developing the communication to my system.
Thanks again for all your help, some of your recent information has cleared up a lot of mystery for me!
Don Weigt
