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Definitely need to focus..

jeff_p

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..on the modelling.  But, to be honest, this really grabbed my interest as a bit of a technical "can I actually get that to work?" way.  The answer is "Yes", but what is it?

 

I decided to see if I could make a simple hand held railway controller that be used to operate a DCC layout.  When I say "a" DCC layout, I really ought to be clear and say that I meant "our" DCC layout:  JMRI with a DCC++ interface.

 

I wanted it to be as simple as possible to operate, and as simple as possible to configure, and this is the first completed prototype in a 3D printed case (a story in its own right):

 

20200503_103904.jpg.fc2ac84bc5ad71ef26852f570d4da178.jpg  20200503_103857.jpg.db66dfb4e67850a0eebf20339bec17b3.jpg

 

So how does it work?  Hopefully fairly intuitively.  The rotary knob will control the currently selected engine shown in the bottom box (faster/slower, forwards/backwards, etc).  Click the dial to change direction, long click to flip between driving mode and shunting mode.  The "cross" (actually a joystick component from an Xbox controller) is used to move up/down the menu, or left/right between menus.  Press to activate the selected item.

 

Technically, it's not the handset doing the clever stuff.  All it does is manage its display and report buttons, dials or joystick activity communicating with a computer via a USB lead.  The fiddly stuff is done in a program on the computer which picks up a menu configuration from a text file and (for the moment) talks to the WiFi Service in JMRI to make things happen.

 

So far I can turn power on/off, select and drive an engine and toggle points.

 

One of the aims was to make it as easy as possible to "play" trains, so once an engine has been selected (and appears in the bottom of the screen) it can be driven while any other menu is shown (and used).  Here the points menu is active with Engine 51 moving forwards:

 

20200503_114152.jpg.8b770e0c47ada1145318db854b1bf78e.jpg

 

Anyway, all I need to do now is make the management her own controller (no doubt in a different colour), and we'll be away and perhaps (with this now nearly out of my system) I can get back to what I ought to be doing: building the layout itself :D

 

 

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justin1985

This looks amazing! I'd love to know a bit more about how you made it?

 

It looks like you've got a few Arduino Nano boards there, is that what's running the handset? The display you've got on the little LCD there looks very clear and intuitive. 

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jeff_p

Hi Justin,

 

Yes, the "brains" in the handset is the cheapest Nano compatible board I could find on eBay.  Working on the premise that I was likely to blow at least one up, I didn't want to spend too much.  I think one was about £3.50.  The MCU in the bread board in the title picture is an STM32 based MCU (so a 32 bit ARM processor rather than the 8 bit Atmel AVR chip).  I've had this working too, thinking that the extra speed and memory would improve things, but the tiny Nano works just fine so there was nothing significant to be gained.  The screen is an SPI attached 1.8 inch Colour TFT Display with 128 x 160 Pixels, the most expensive component in the handset!

 

There's a few things still to polish yet, the development hasn't finished.

 

Jeff

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