Wi-Fi Available

     One of my Christmas presents this year was a WifiTrax WFD-31 Interface.  It's a neat little piece of electronics that will provide Wi-Fi to control DCC equipped locomotives using a phone app or Wi-Fi connected throttle.  You don't need JMRI to use this.

    The package contains the circuit board, a couple screws, and directions for installation.  It does not come with a fascia plate.  The circuit board mimics and NCE UTP-CAT5 panel and as such, I could use a NCE fascia panel.   However, the LED on the WifiTrax board is a little bigger and I needed to drill a 5 mm hole in the fascia panel.

     Installation was a piece of cake.   One word of caution, make sure the cab address is set to a number that has not already been used.  The default address is 10.  Other than that, I connected a coil cord from an NCE panel to the WFD-31 and turned the layout on.  Done!

    The WFD-31 is really intended to take the place of a control panel.  My original plan was to remove the NEC control bus panel on my workbench and reconnect the CAT5 cables in the back to the WFD-31, but the WifiTrax was a just a few millimeters wider than the NCE board and I really didn't want the mess of sawing a wider hole.  It was just as easy to connect the coil cord from one panel to the other. 

A coil cord was plugged into the back of the NCE UTP-CAT5 control bus panel (upper right) into the back of the WifiTrax WFD-31 (lower left).  The coil cord in the front of the NEC panel is plugged into the USB Interface (upper left) used to connect to JMRI.

     Last thing I needed to do was connect to WifiTrax on my iPhone.  It was as going into my phone settings, disconnect from my house's Wi-Fi, and connect to WifiTrax.  This instantly appeared in my settings.  

    When I opened the WiThrottle app on my phone, it controlled my locomotive flawlessly (if you have an Android phone, you'd use the Engine Driver app).

VIA 915 being operated using WiThrottle

       Larry Pucket (The DCC Guy) did a great video providing an overview and installation of this product.  Here's a link to it if you're interested. Want Wireless Throttles for Your layout—Don’t Skip This Video (369).  Although I don't use my phone to control my layout often, I like the flexibility of having it available.

VIA 915 leaves Toronto Union Station using my iPhone thanks to WifiTrax's WFD-31.