habazut
commented
4 months ago Since the CVP command station interrogates the receiver with a continuous stream of 10us to 8ms pulses the app should probably run on a separate processor.
Yes. The seperate uCPU can use Serial or for example in case of the CS on the ESP32 even TCP/IP to send the throttle info. I have a DCC sniffer that sniffs any legacy DCC system and does the same thing.
Seems to be quite a wasteful way to do wireless communication. Even other things like the F coax connector for wired throttles leaves me a bit like "what?". That is not something I would like to plug and unplug more often than once a year.
The reason I am writing to you is that I have no experience with copy-right infringement laws, but would like to submit this app for public use. I have not contacted CVP.
DCC-EX folks are not lawyers either but if you did not copy any code why would you get copyright problems? In what way a company can protect a technical solution depends on your legislation. Lego would love to copyright the stud distance but can', at least not in Europe. They have however protected the look of their minifigs (and fight that armed to the teeth).
Then patent law applies to things you sell. It is not allowed to market and sell a product that is based on someone elses patented idea. I do not think patent law covers giving away a software, but again your legislation may vary.
Then it might not be OK that you call it CVP. You might say that "we think it works with equipment from company Y" instead of "it does talk protocol Z" if "Z" is a protected name.
If you are in the US you might want to contact Fred of our team who is in the US and has more insight in the US situation.
why no EX-WebThrottle Firefox support?
Webthrottle depends on browser opening USB Serial. Firefox can't do that. I hope we have a Webthrottle2 some day as the one we have now has too many bugs for my taste.
Regards, Harald.
ecam1308
Sent by Eric Amundsen (ecam@clevelandnet.com). Created by fire.
Guys,
My local group, Santrak.org, operates a modular N-scale layout at local train shows in conjunction with another group. We use EasyDCC and they use something else. Since they prefer to use WiThrottles, we tried to adapt but found that we much prefer the CVP throttle.
To that end, I have developed an Arduino app that emulates the EasyDCC command station allowing CVP receiver-based throttles to be used with DCC-EX via one of the MEGA serial ports. Since the CVP command station interrogates the receiver with a continuous stream of 10us to 8ms pulses the app should probably run on a separate processor. This is necessary because a given receiver can handle up to 8 throttles. The good thing is that the receiver response stream is only active during throttle updates.
Currently the app only sends <t...> and <F...> commands to DCC-EX and ignores feedback as the CVP system is only one-way. While it seems to work ok, it has not been stress-tested yet as I need to package it along with my DCC-EX hardware for portable use.
The reason I am writing to you is that I have no experience with copy-right infringement laws, but would like to submit this app for public use. I have not contacted CVP.
Your thoughts?
BTW, why no EX-WebThrottle Firefox support? Us Linux guys do not trust Google....!
Thanks for viewing,
Eric Amundsen
ecam@clevelandnet.com ( I moved from Cleveland to San Antonio in 2009 )
3538 Copper Rim
San Antonio,TX 78245