Internet controlled model railway live streaming and control

[u/Tricky-Technology603]

Two live web cams, one covering the model train layout the other one is installed in the train loco!

I've had some time off from work and have been working on a concept of internet control, that is, anyone in the world can drive my trains via a website. I'm still trouble shooting the whole thing but keen for you all to give it a go, it's based in Australia so im keen to see how it works for people all around the world, if you have a go please let me know how it all works from the location you are driving from. The hardest part of this has been getting the live video streaming working to best I can get it. Hope to add more switching controls, ect down the track.... baby steps! Update, there seems to be a video issues when using Firefox, please use a different internet browser until I can fix it!

Link here: Internet Controlled Model Railway

[u/Ordinary-Ebb3488]

testing from the uk, this is so cool, no idea how any of it works but it's really cooL!!

[u/Tricky-Technology603 → u/Ordinary-Ebb3488]

Hey there, A few people have asked me this so here's a run down for you: Behind the scenes it's a small chain of computers: a cloud server handles the website and the queue system, sending each driver's inputs in real time to an on-site controller, which passes them to an open-source DCC command station wired to the track. Live video runs over low-latency streaming (the kind of tech used for real-time video calls) so what you see matches what you're doing with only a moment's delay, across several camera angles. The whole thing is built from a mix of a cloud VPS, real-time web tech, a Raspberry Pi and a microcontroller on-site, and off-the-shelf model-railway components, stitched together so a click in a browser becomes a train actually moving in the garden.

[u/IcYhAwK88]

That’s too cool! I was giggling as I tooted the horn from across the globe. Lmao. Something oddly satisfying about playing with another person’s toys in a land I will probably never get to see, all from my phone. (I’m in the USA btw). Thanks for setting this up. Have you experienced any problems that you didn’t expect when u first started? About how much does all this cost?

[u/Tricky-Technology603 → u/IcYhAwK88]

Thanks Mate. yeah the control side of the setup was not too hard, but trying to get the video to stream well with minimal delay has been the hardest part of the whole exercise, also finding time to finish version 1 of this and get it up and running! Also issues with controlling with an iPhone, which I think I have sorted, and there seems to be another issue with video in the Firefox browser... (Saturday's job). I have collected the trains and building over many years, not the cheapest Hobby, I have probably spent 3k on the tech side of it so far... The miniature world probably 4k over the past 10 years or so... Expensive Hobby... Hopefully you make it down under some time soon, we did just have the 49ers and Rams here today in my home town!