Great for DCS/TMCC/Legacy. Not so good for variable voltage. – Wi-Fi DCS Review

I was very excited to get this app in conjunction with a new TIU and WIU. I was sold on the idea of integrating control of all my equipment: DCS, Legacy, TMCC and conventional. This system promised them all. So I went out and purchased a Lionel SER2 serial converter, powered DB9 cable, and MTH's TIU to Legacy base crossover connector cable. DCS engines work perfectly as expected. After all, this is an MTH program and they want their products to shine. Legacy and TMCC locomotives also work mostly as expected, with a majority of Legacy features including an adjustable labor effect and quilling whistle/horn being well implemented in the software. The developer also recently introduced diesel RPM ramping. RPM levels are tied directly to the speedometer and behave differently than they would using the Legacy system. Conventional control is a mess. The app will randomly become stuck at certain voltages, causing runaway trains. After 5 to 10 seconds, the app will unfreeze. Other times, the voltage will surge or drop without warning. At low voltages, there is an irritating flickering (+/- 2 Volts) of the power which causes a campfire like effect on bulbs, and causes chatter in reversing units. From what I understand, there is a hardware issue with the TIU and the manner in which lower voltages are simulated with drastically chopped waveforms, and latency issues with the app whereby it freezes up trying to communicate with he TIU. As a workaround, I recommend assigning a Lionel Powermaster as an engine, and use it to vary voltage in a nice, smooth and predictable way. Hopefully, the app developers will address these issues as we move forward, or at least as much as possible given the insurmountable issues of trying make a new app control an outdated 19-year old TIU.
Review by Gregster2343 on Wi-Fi DCS.