For many years our club have longed for a decent wireless DCC system.  We have tried several solutions from various manufactures and have found them to be either too expensive or lacking in features. So we were resolved with having to put up with having to “connect” to our layout by our tethered Lenz throttles to operate the layout.

Now there is a solution which is very inexpensive and has the more features than the latest duplex radio systems at a fraction of the cost. If you have JMRI, a wireless router and a Smartphone you are set to go.

In the 2021 Rails In The Rockies train show the club introduced the option for club members to use their phones with the WiThrottle app as throttles on the club layout over a WiFi connection via JMRI running on a laptop connected to our Lenz DCC system.

About WiThrottle

WiThrottle is a method of controlling trains via a mobile device like a Smartphone or tablet PC. It turns your Smartphone, tablet device into DCC throttles. What is a Smartphone and tablet device you may ask? A Smartphone is one of the new touch screen phones such as the Apple iPhone or one of the Android devices. But basically if you have a touch screen phone you have a Smartphone and the system should work. A tablet device relates to the Apple iPad, iPod and equivalent devices. As this system resides in JMRI environment it will operate on any DCC system that is capable of being controlled by JMRI. No need for specific manufactures equipment as this app via JMRI work on all DCC systems.