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Direct Control from Cellphone

I have a LocoFi 3 installed and working off my home WiFi router network.

I am would like to control the LocoFi 3 directly from my cellphone, without the WiFi router.

My plan is to take the engine (with LocoFi 3) and the cellphone to our club which does not have a WiFi router. I am not sure of the procedure to accomplish this and cannot locate information on the LocoFi company website. Thank you for any assistance. Brian K

3 comments

3 Comments

Ken Myers

Jan 01, 2023

Thank you Brian Krupicka for the question. It was one that I had, but hadn't asked yet. Also thanks to the LocoFi LocoFi™ Team for the great response. It was all very useful.

Ken

Brian Krupicka

Dec 30, 2022

I received a call from LocoFi and they walked me through the process.

It appears once the LocoFi 3 is disconnected to my WiFi router, you need to remove the engine from the track and then replace it on the track. Once this is done the LocoFi 3 will send a signal to the cellphone and reconnect to the cellphone directly.

Thank you LocoFi for the fast response

Admin

Dec 30, 2022

Replying to

Hello Brian,

You're very welcome!

Indeed, there are two ways to get to direct connection if you are already connected via your home router.

1. The preferred method is to click on the 'Tools' icon on the left of the loco name on the main screen while the loco is un-managed. From there, click on 'Remove from Network' and it will disassociate from the home WiFi (and delete the home WiFi router info) and reboot itself. When it comes back up after rebooting, it will immediately broadcast its own SSID that you can connect to from your smartphone by going to smartphone settings -> WiFi -> Wireless Networks and clicking on it. Once connected, go back to the app and the loco will appear on the main screen.

2. The other method is to switch off your home WiFi router. Obviously neither is it ideal nor is it recommended. This is equivalent to your WiFi network going down accidentally as opposed to doing it on purpose. In this scenario, the loco (acting as client to the home WiFi network) will siply try to reconnect just like any other device in your home connected to the WiFi will behave if the network was to suddenly go down. However, when the loco is rebooted while the network isn't available e.g. if you were to take it to your club where your home WiFi will not be obviously accessible, your loco will first try to connect to the network stored in its memory i.e. the home WiFi. After searching for it for about a minute, it will quit trying and boot itself up in as an access point (aka router mode). That is, it will be a network that other devices can connect to. As mentioned above, it is available to be connected to directly.

A helpful video to watch that shows direct connection vs adding to a WiFi network can be seen here: https://youtu.be/1TpPpiLbM90

Hope that helps. Please feel free to comment below or ask any other questions you may have.

Best regards,

LocoFi™ Team