What DCC systems have a centralised Layout/Loco definition??

[NedFlanders]

Hi,

I have a ROCO/Fleichmann z21 ( yes the small z, white unit) and while I like the interface on the app which is where it do most of my control, what i dislike is that I either have to setup each loco/track change on all app devices (currently 3) or use one as my core app device and backup that one device and restore that backup on each other app device. The Multimaus handheld must also be set up manually, no facility to do otherwise.

I had previously used Hornby railmaster ( and still do for cvc programming) and what I liked about that was that there was a central "Database" of the layout/loco config which each device would check in to in order to get any changes. I did not like the clunky app interface though.

I'm looking to go down the route of Block Detection/interlocking and automation soon, but in an ideal world I would prefer to get a DCC system that has the central DB of Railmaster and the app of the z21 to go with the Block detection/automation.

I understand that the automation etc will probably be Train Controller or similar but is there a DCC system out there that has the ability to just enter the track/locos in one place or am i missing a trick with the z21?

Any experiences, recommendations, etc. will be gratefully received.

I dont have a local shop that i could go to to discuss this in but I am giving serious though to travelling to the UK in the next few months to one of the specialists to see what the different systems are like - any recommendations here would be great too.

Thanks

Ned.

[aleopardstail]

JMRI has a central roster of all locomotives, can also have the same tor sets of points, signals, lights and pretty much everything else - to use it all you need is a DCC system that supports a computer interface.

this supports a WiThrottle server so any hand held thing that uses that will be sent the roster etc on startup, it also supports automation, block detectgion, RFID and a fair bit more

not sure with the z21, I'm using the Arduino based DCC-EX and not sure how easy it is to use basic handsets with JMRI, I suspect is the z21 can connect its base unit then the handset will still work