Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Offer
save $10* on Train Tools software 

There is something magical about seeing a train running on a circle of track. Now imagine that you have the ability to program that model train, and you can add switches and other trains with the use of a graphical interface.   You can do this all with Visual Studio 2008 Express - shipped with all Train Tools software products!**

	Fig 1.  Train Server networked model railroad layout. Complete set of all Train Tools video tutorials...
Train Tools Overview		Train Interface

C# Tutorial (pdf)	Train Tools Overview	VB Tutorial (pdf)
C# - Complete Solution		VB - Complete Solution

With computer chips in model trains (we call them decoders), you now have the capability to program those trains! That is the power of KAM’s Train Tools software - a set of software programming tools that allows you to write computer programs to control the operation of model trains and the complete model railroad layout.  You can mix and match the applications, and run them together or standalone. It is pretty cool.

ZTC Controls starter Kit for the UK		Lenz Starter Kit from DCC Train

Fig 2.  Computer ready starter kits form ZTC Controls and Lenz

• Visual Studio Express Model Train starter kits range from ~$450 - $550 USD.
  Check the above sites for details (click above pictures for details).
  
  
• ZTC Controls, Ltd. in the UK and Lenz and DCCtrain in the US
  (click the above pictures for more details).

Looking to write your own Train software?

KAM software supports any .NET managed interface. Just follow the tutorial instructions using Microsoft Visual Studio Express tool kits.  KAM's managed Software development kit supports Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++ and Visual J#.

Writing a train program is simple. You can do this in less than 15 lines of code and it takes no more than 30 minutes to complete. Download our white paper and try out our software with Visual Studio Express!. It is cool!

	Fig 3.   Simple Throttle
	Visual Basic Express Tutorial (pdf)
	Visual C# Express Tutorial pdf...
	Download s/w eval...

So how do we program our trains? Simple - Pick one of the supported command station interfaces to use, and pick the development tool.  The tutorial will use Visual Studio Express and Visual Basic .net.  Our tutorial has a step by step sample program and the solution. Just see how easy it is to run your model trains with Visual Studio Express and our Train Tools software developer's kit.

Fig 4.  Adding Train Tools into Visual Studio is as easy as 1-2-3

In the above diagram, I added the Train Tools libraries “KamTcpLib.dll” as a UI control to the Visual Studio tool bar. Just drag the dll from windows explorer and drop it on the (1) tool bar. The next step was to dragged the (2) TrainServerRemoteClient control to a blank form. This action creates a reference to the library. The final step was to rename the control to something simple(3) such as ‘tsServer’.

Fig 3.  Adding the import statement for the code library on the code page

There is one other step you need to do to turn on the help features.  That is to add the following information to the top of your Visual Studio code page (for the form).   So switch to code view, and add the syntax shown above.  That is it. Now you are off and running using Visual Studio Express and programming your model trains.

What does the API code look Like?

The Train Server API's are simple and easy to use.  We have compelted most of the work for you.  If you would like to build your own API interface from scratch, here is the Train Server XML protocol specification that we use for Train Server and that is the base of the Train server Remote Client libs.  The Xml specification a third generation implementation built from KAM's proposed distributed network programming API's from the late 90's.

Fig 5.  Adding the throttle code from Train server interface to update UI

It is simple to add the code to the interface. In the above example, we wired the throttle controls from the form to generate the correct control signals and the model railroad. In the old days, this would have been extremely difficult to do, and with trainserver it is very simple to do. The complete solution is documented in our tutorial.

Train Tools API are fully documented in our Remote Client API manual. The API's are fully supported .Net managed code libraries. Just install Visual Studio Express and install train Tools software - and lets have fun programming model trains. One of the nice features of the Train Tools interface is that it is thread safe, and designed for multi users. So you can write as many train control applications that you wish and run them all at the same time.

Microsoft Visual Studio Express tools are included with every Train Tools software application purchased, so order your Train Tools software today. Don’t forget your benefit code from the Microsoft Visual Express site to receive your $10 discount on your first software purchase*.

 

If you have not registered at the Microsoft Visual studio site, here is the link. After you downloaded Visual Studio Express, at Microsoft Visual Studio Express site to get your discount code.   Register here for the discount

*$10 discount applies to one of the following suite products, Classic Panel, Layout Commander, Loco Ce, Engine Commander, Train Control Tools or Decoder Commander

**Microsoft's Visual Express 2008 shipped with Train Tools software build 313 and later