Welcome to the Internet of Toy Trains.

Digital Command Control Systems have been around for about 40 years and little has changed to their fundamental structure. Yes, some devices were modernized, but new technologies like the Internet of Things have not yet found their way into a typical model railroad.

Over the last 10 years, there was a remarkable development going on in the field of IoT in both, hardware and software. Microcontrollers became cheaper and more powerful, with onboard integration of WiFi and Blue Tooth, and many software tools and even hardware designs were put in the public domain. These developments allow for placing good parts of the traditional layout control system in the cloud, which opens model railroads for the application of all these new technologies.

Overall, this is an exciting new world that opens up before us. The promise is higher performance at reduced cost as we make use of devices and procedures that are used in much larger scale in all kind of applications.

This site is dedicated to support these efforts by creating videos showing innovative approaches to common problems around model railroad layouts and train control. 

The focus thereby is using cheap sensors and microcontrollers as much as possible. And where there is a gap, to make some simple hardware devices to bridge it.

As always, get on board, have fun and stay creative!

Hans R. Tanner

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Thank you!