ghlawrence2000

I love the 'blandness' of your 'DCC' panel!!! Neat and uncluttered!!!..... However this is a "non-DCC' thread

Baby Deltic is correct in his statement about programmable or microcontroller regarding intelligent logic........ However in my case that was not actually what I meant. Our layout has twin controllers, each of which is capable of being used for any section on the layout. Eg. Section switch is up, the panel mounted controller is active, section switch is down, and the 'walkabout' controller is active........centre off and the section is dead. When this layout goes to exhibitions my parents receive help from a variety of people, and to be honest it is not the easiest of layouts to operate for someone who is unfamiliar with it. The main motivation was a practical one to make operation easier, however I have long wanted to see lights on the panel . My criteria for this was to indicate using bi-colour Led's which controller was active for any particular section and also which route was set. There are many ways to do this type of thing, however since the layout wiring is already complete, I decided all necessary wiring would be contained in the panel and not interact directly with the layout. Further more as has been mentioned elsewhere, it is possible to use the switch on many pointmotors to drive LEDs/BULBS, but the points on Pfaffenbrucke are 'Live frog' as such that was not an option for me. When the panel was initially built, I had various ideas for the future about diffent things i would like to do with lights, so it was already decided that section switches would be double pole - double throw - centre off (DPDT) from the beginning. I am not sure how far to go into detail on this, or if this is the correct thread for it? But I will give short form theory behind how I have done it on our layout. If You wish to PM me, I can elabborate in quite extensive detail if you wish..... Let me show you first how to achieve Red/Green from 1 switch per section. If you just have a single controller, this might be suitable to indicate ON/OFF for example, but in our case it is used to indicate the active controller. That is all that would be necessary for plain track without points....... Since most layouts have points........This is how I indicate the point direction AND active controller. The theory is one bi-stable relay per point motor wired in parallel with the point motor. From the included picture, it can be seen LED 'A' is just a function of the position of the switch, LED 'A1' and 'A2' are a function of the position of the switch and also the direction of the point motor. That is it in simple theory.......... I am not going to explain further here, but it does become a little more complex when cascading point motors....... This is the general overview of what was needed for our layout. Finally, here we see the finished circuit. Front centre is the +- 5V power supply for the LEDs, derived from a standard 16VAC transformer. If you would like further informtion, PM me. Graham

I got 'clever' with my LED's, and the circuit to drive them was quite sizeable........If you dont plan to use intelligent logic, then maybe your existing panel design will be fine

Not only do I agree with what you are saying, but also back it up................Electrics are not to be underestimated.........They DO kill.........But more accurately what I meant to say, is I personally have worked with live electrics for many years...... 3 Phase 415V does ACTUALLY hurt quite a lot.......... 1 phase 230V is just a tickle really Sorry for any misunderstood disregard for perceived risk of electrics....... Graham

Specific colour coding of what???....... Yes i am logical.......the LED common is white.......the rest are unique within the 12 colours I had available???

Specifically what?? Mains voltage has correct colour coding....... and we did try heat-shrinking the mains terminals.......although it split..... Incidentally, I am an electronics technician and mains voltage or otherwise holds no fear for me.... Graham

Source: Control Panels - show us yours

daveblueozzie I had the same idea as you!! Add the LED's later...... This is what happens... I am the creator of this wonderful project....... It is my parents' layout "Pfaffenbrucke", first of all, let us start with the original 'semi' neat version of the panel.... Here you see the front side, which was produced on a laminated A3 sheet of paper by our local printing shop. This was then attached to the Perspex lid of the panel using aerosol photo adhesive. Here you see the underside.... And finally, here you see the inside..... BUT............Then I decided I wanted "Pretty lights" !!!!! OOOOOps.......... That was not a bad idea......but it certainly spoiled the aesthetics of the panel..... Now let us see the result of adding LED's...... Here we see the 'new improved version' of the panel lid..... However the depth of the panel did increase almost by double to accomodate the extra circuitry to drive the LEDS So now we move on to the inside of the panel...... Not looking quite so neat now.... And finally the overall view of the inside of the panel.... There is however 1 positive aspect of such a scary looking panel........and that is.....it disuades would be wannabe faultfinders from 'dabbling'!!!! Incidentally, for the LED's alone, was an additional 96 wires in this case......... And to conclude this story, there is further work currenly underway to make this layout a 'one man' operation, as we are currently adding the fiddleyard control panel onto the main control panel....... Of course this will also include the necessary 'pretty lights'!! So you see, there is no "right way" or "wrong way" to build a control panel......So long as it does what you wish it to do.......That is all that matters.... I wish you well with your future projects...

Hi everybody, I just want to introduce myself, as the 'behind the scenes guy' responsible for all electrics on my parents' exhibition layouts. These include :- "Clayworth" dating back to the 80's which was an imaginary OO guage LNER branch line based near Retford.. "Kirkfield" mid 80's, which was also an imaginary OO guage LNER layout with station buildings scale modelled on Sutton Central, but designed to resemble Kirkby-in-Ashfield. "Saafeld-Am-Zee" early 90's which was an imaginary HO Austrian layout. Layout of the month in Continental Modeller March '93. "Pfaffenbrucke" present day which is an imaginary HOe Austrian layout. Layout of the month in Continental Modeller Sept '09. If anybody knows Eileen and Howard Lawrence I would be happy to hear from you, or if you know or remember any of our previous layouts, I would appreciate any recollections you may have... I look forward to being a part of this group. Latest news update......Saafeld-am-Zee lives again......... after almost 20 years in storage!!! My brother Richard and I have resurrected it. Photos to follow... Thanks for taking time to read this!! Regards to everyone, Graham. PS.....due to certain restrictions on this site...... If anyone would like to see the Continental Modeller "Pfaffenbrucke" and "Saafeld-am-Zee" articles, they are available here :- FTP://ghlawrence.myftp.org:2121 Random Pictures of Pfaffenbrucke are here :- http://www.rmweb.co....-miscellaneous/ Photos of Saafeld to follow.... NOTE......Apologies to all having problems with FTP. Should be working now..... 1/4/12 19.00hrs