The WiFi-Monitor is available as of CTC App version 4.15. It displays the signal strength of a locomotive’s Wi-Fi as a graph over time.

You can open the WiFi-Monitor via the “WiFi-Monitor” button in the locomotive configuration of the respective locomotive.

The example shows the trajectory of the Wi-Fi signal during one round on our garden railway test facility (see article Automation in the Garden):

WiFi-Monitor Garden

The vertical scale shows the signal strength in dB, the horizontal scale shows the time. The labeling of the time axis is the time in tenths of seconds (x 0.1 s), followed by the last passed balise. In the example, the reception signal strength of the locomotive was thus -79 dB after 23.0 seconds (and after bailse TS5). Between 44.8 seconds and 55.3 seconds between balises TS1 and ST3, there were two short outages (-100 dB).

The following image shows the system on which the measurements were carried out:

  • At the front, the Outdoor Access Point (TP-Link AC1200) that the locomotive was logged into all the time is circling
  • Labeled “A” at the back are the two places where the Wi-Fi briefly fails: A slight dip and red currant bushes in front of it.
  • The arrow labeled with “T” points to an approx. 2 meter long tunnel, which obviously does not pose a problem. However, it is also only covered with concrete slabs (no soil above) and is open towards the access point.
  • The two unlabeled horizontal arrows mark the track course. The route circles the apple tree, then runs along the concrete wall all the way to the end of the garden, which is about 15 meters away from the access point, and finally comes back through the tunnel.
  • The test drive was carried out with the red BR 251 which can be seen in the middle of the picture on the left.

WiFi-Monitor Garden

After three rounds, the graph looks as follows. The three repetitions are also clearly visible graphically:

WiFi-Monitor Garden

Note: For those who want to know the exact details, the data transferred during the measurement can be found as “Wifi-XXX.csv” in their user directory (XXX is the name of the locomotive). This can be opened with Excel or LibreOffice, for example, where it can be evaluated in detail.