The ECOS can be accessed in different ways:
- By typing the IP address of the ECOS in a WEB browser, you will get a page, where you can upload user defined pictures of locomotives to the ECOS as well as update the ECOS software.
- By opening a VNC session to the ECOS IP address (use Mocha VNC on iPad), you can get a copy of the ECOS screen on your computer or iPad screen. In my network, there is a small but annoying delay, so I am not using this way to drive my trains.
- Using Putty from a windows PC or other Telnet clients from other platforms, you can open a Telnet session to port 15471 on your ECOS. That gives access to the raw communication protocol that for example JMRI uses to interface to the ECPS. Once you have opened the Telnet session, type “help()”. Note that there is no prompt. But just type the command anyway. The interface definition can be downloaded from ESU by registered ECOS users.
- There are smartphone apps that can be used as throttles towards the ECOS. For iPad, there is such an app called Touchcab. I have no experience with any such app.