Pc Control - tams elektronik mc2 EasyControl Digital System Silver Edition Manual

Output of the driving and switching commands
For the track output of the integrated booster and the interfaces for Märklin-compatible and
DCC-compliant boosters it is set separately whether

driving and switching commands or

only driving commands
are to be output. The setting for the integrated booster also applies to boosters on the BiDiB
interface.

3.6. PC control

Protocols: BiDiB or p50x
For the encryption of the data exchanged between the central unit and the PC control
software, the mc² uses the BiDiB protocol or - if this is not supported by the software - the
p50x protocol.
With software that supports BiDiB, all the possibilities offered by bidirectional communication
via the BiDiBus can be used. These include e.g.:

the direct sending of digital commands to the stationary BiDiB nodes via the BiDiBus cables
(e.g. to the accessory decoders)

receiving feedback from the stationary BiDiB nodes (e.g. from boosters and accessory
decoders).

the reception of messages from the global RailCom detector integrated in the mc².
If these possibilities are utilised, the safety and the transmission speed in PC-controlled
systems are significantly increased.
If the BiDiB protocol is not supported by the PC control software, the data transmission
between mc² and PC is automatically carried out via the p50x protocol. BiDiB nodes can then
not be used or only to a limited extent. BiDiB feedback modules are treated like s88
feedbacks, for example. The transmission of RailCom messages of the integrated global
RailCom detector to the PC control software is then not possible.
TCP to TCP
By default, the data is transmitted from the mc² to the PC or router via the LAN interface
using the network protocol TCP ("Transmission Control Protocol"). Whether the data is
encrypted in the BiDiB or p50x protocol is irrelevant. Many newer versions of model railway
control programs support TCP.
TCP to COM: Setting up a virtual COM port
With older model railway control programmes or older versions of the control programmes,
the data transfer between PC and digital control unit is usually based on the RS-232 standard
for serial interfaces. In most cases, these programmes use only the p50x protocol for
encoding the data.
The prerequisite for using these programmes is the setting up of a virtual serial interface (or
in other words: a virtual COM port). Various programmes are available on the internet for this
purpose, with the help of which a driver for a virtual COM port can be set up on the PC.
3.8 | Your mc²