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Locked Zimo MX10 support

 

I have the new Zimo MX10, and they finally released the Ethernet support.

They have the system working with several other softwares, but I would prefer to use JMRI.

I know the support is not there, how can I help?

I have a software engineering background, and can set up an Ethernet "sniffer" if need be, or whatever.

Is there a particular group within JMRI I need to contact?

Regards,

Greg Elmassian
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Greg,



Biggest thing is find any of the documentation about what they are
supporting and how. That's the first step. Next is if they offer any support
software, it might give clues about what the interface can do. Then if
that's still not giving the clues, we start sniffing.



-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team

www.jmri.org

www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org

www.cnymod.com

www.syracusemodelrr.org
 

Greg,

We have support for the old MX1 system both with the ASCII and Binary protocols, but only over Serial.

Now, the MX10 does seem to support a direct cable connection via the mini-USB port on the back which presents itself as a COM port on the PC.

If possible, it would be handy if you could hook up the MX10 via a suitable USB lead and see if it works with the MX1 Binary protocol. This would then confirm if the already implemented protocol is good enough to work with, just needing to add support for a network connection. I doubt that the ASCII protocol will work as they were deprecating that a few years before halting production of the MX1.

If this doesn't work, then we need to find out more information about the protocol in-use.

Digging around the Zimo site, I found what I think is the protocol documentation but it's not currently available in English so without some work cannot exactly confirm that this is the case.

Anyhow, if you are able to connect the PC and MX10 via USB, that would be a great start.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Matt H
[email protected]
 

Dear Matt,

I am sure you found this documentation for the ZIM CAN Protocol on the MX10 :-



If you need this translating into English, just let me know. I can always get hold of the Word doc from ZIMO and bash out a quick translation. Most of it is prety obvious to anyone familiar with this type of protocol, as the words are not that different to the English.

Regards
John Russell
Austria


---In jmriusers@..., <matthew.john.harris@...> wrote :

Greg,

We have support for the old MX1 system both with the ASCII and Binary protocols, but only over Serial.

Now, the MX10 does seem to support a direct cable connection via the mini-USB port on the back which presents itself as a COM port on the PC.

If possible, it would be handy if you could hook up the MX10 via a suitable USB lead and see if it works with the MX1 Binary protocol. This would then confirm if the already implemented protocol is good enough to work with, just needing to add support for a network connection. I doubt that the ASCII protocol will work as they were deprecating that a few years before halting production of the MX1.

If this doesn't work, then we need to find out more information about the protocol in-use.

Digging around the Zimo site, I found what I think is the protocol documentation but it's not currently available in English so without some work cannot exactly confirm that this is the case.

Anyhow, if you are able to connect the PC and MX10 via USB, that would be a great start.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Matt H
 

I could hook the usb up, but I'm really interested in the Ethernet connection. Also the Ethernet protocol is apparently working well enough to support some other softwares.

The other thing that I also already stated is if they have software working with it on Ethernet, it's a simple task to "sniff" the data.

I would suspect the packet data over Ethernet is a superset of the data over serial.

I'm not sure we want to talk over the CAN bus, since it's used to communicate with throttles, and Zimo might not want to support this... but I will start working with them.

I'll contact Zimo to see if they can give me the protocol/command set over Ethernet.

What is the easiest way to get an "Ethernet" interface and have it use the MX1 serial commands?

Greg
 

Sorry, I will try the USB to see if it is a go, although the firmware is not finished, so if it does not work, that does not prove the protocol is different.

They are still adding features and support... the dang thing still does not support advanced consisting, and the command station is $1,600 !!

Greg
Andreas Priebe
 

Hi there!

As far as I can see they will support the Roco Z21 protocol cause the
Roco Apps will be supported.

So there is probably no need to add an additional protocol.
Just get the Z21 to work. :-)




Andreas
 

So buy a Z21 also?

No thanks, my $1600 MX10 should be enough. No one seems very interested.. .I guess I need to look for an interface to JMRI via Ethernet, and then get the zimo protocol in that.

Greg
 

Greg, wonder if you had any luck with experimenting with the MX10 Ethernet port?

I have an MX10 as well and Zimo's own software is pending for a long time (and focused on supporting their own products like many other manufacturers do). So JMRI would be my preferred option, but I don't have the technical background to configure connectivity myself. So any insight is appreciated.
 

Well a few years later, and about to revisit this.

I have an M10, and run outdoors, so the connection needs to be Ethernet.
I have been able to use the Roco android app to control trains, so the ZCAN20 must be working over Ethernet
So all I need is JMRI to be able to direct that protocol over Ethernet.

So how do I do this?

Greg
 

ZIMO offer the support for connection via USB or LAN (Ethernet) using the CAN 2.0 Protocol, as described in this pdf :-



This is described as the instructions for developers of computer control programs for model railways for the MX10. So, if you can interpret this protocol, then it can be used for either USB or Ethernet connection, if I understand this correctly. Page 9 has the PC/USB interface defined and the next page (p. 10) has the LAN/Ethernet info. If I translate these 2 pages, would that help? Is there anyone who can do write the code that JMRI needs to start talking to the MX10? looking at the details on this 58 page document, it seems a big project to develop this from scratch.

Regards

John Russell
 

Thanks for the quick response! I will try to digest the info. probably not as easy as I hoped!
Regards,
Marcus Staehling

On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 11:09 AM John Russell <john@...> wrote:

ZIMO offer the support for connection via USB or LAN (Ethernet) using the CAN 2.0 Protocol, as described in this pdf :-



This is described as the instructions for developers of computer control programs for model railways for the MX10. So, if you can interpret this protocol, then it can be used for either USB or Ethernet connection, if I understand this correctly. Page 9 has the PC/USB interface defined and the next page (p. 10) has the LAN/Ethernet info. If I translate these 2 pages, would that help? Is there anyone who can do write the code that JMRI needs to start talking to the MX10? looking at the details on this 58 page document, it seems a big project to develop this from scratch.

Regards

John Russell
 

I am going to go with a raspberry pi for JMRI and use tablet and cellphone for throttles


On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 11:21 AM Marcus Staehling via Groups.Io <marcus0903=[email protected]> wrote:
Thanks for the quick response! I will try to digest the info. probably not as easy as I hoped!
Regards,
Marcus Staehling

On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 11:09 AM John Russell <john@...> wrote:

ZIMO offer the support for connection via USB or LAN (Ethernet) using the CAN 2.0 Protocol, as described in this pdf :-



This is described as the instructions for developers of computer control programs for model railways for the MX10. So, if you can interpret this protocol, then it can be used for either USB or Ethernet connection, if I understand this correctly. Page 9 has the PC/USB interface defined and the next page (p. 10) has the LAN/Ethernet info. If I translate these 2 pages, would that help? Is there anyone who can do write the code that JMRI needs to start talking to the MX10? looking at the details on this 58 page document, it seems a big project to develop this from scratch.

Regards

John Russell

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