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Hi there. You are of course right. I tend to get caught up in my own needs - I needed feedback (which some like to have from points and signals too) but most control is done (even by me) on the DCC bus.

Hi again Nigel. Yes this is all cheapskate stuff. Which is why I make up things so they can be easily extracted and replaced. Obviously this is for a small homw layout so costs need to be kept down. I quite understand that a large and complex layout needs more robust electronics. I certainly would not use this solution in your instance! Actually I cannot find anything but cheap Chinese stuff for this purpose. Anybody got sources?

This all looks very interesting, but there may be cheaper ways. Try looking at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayOoUkdjHtg It's about using Arduino hardware to control servos. Other videos in the series show how to make Arduinos into Nodes on a CMRI BUS for use in JMRI. This is NOT to everybody's taste I quite understand. The problem that all model railway hardware suppliers face is small quantities (100s of units) - whereas more general purpose pieces of kit can be ridiculously cheap (100,0000+ units). Much of the hardware suppliers produce excellent equipment and I have always been impressed by Digikeijs. This stuff looks to be the equivalent. For DCC control you need some hardware/computer interface which can add another £60 to the price of the - unless of course you already have a Loconet or some other network set up. I didn't when looking at this problem so that was another hurdle. NCE bus is proprietary so I had to go elsewhere.

Don't be sorry - my inclarity. But sorry I don't understand what you mean by "endpoint"? Each node will consist of one Arduino Nano and one RS485 interface board. That will theoretically support up to 16 BODs: if you want more have another Node or buy a bigger Arduino I guess. So a node on my Amazon purchases costs about £7 + 2 * 40 pin breadboards and a few jumpers (depends on how much you pay for the boards a regulation Arduino Nano is about £20) + n * £6 where n is the number of BODs. The USB to TTL/RS485 converter is a one off and you daisy chain nodes off that. I have only 2 at the moment. To reduce wiring complexities, if I had done my Station this way I would have used 4 scattered nodes each with 4 to 6 Bods attached. You only need two wires (RS485) between nodes and I gather the number of nodes and length of bus is beyond normal mortal's requirements (100 and 1>km!) The "programming" (Sketches) is very small and easy to do cutting down the stff provided via Little Wicket. Obviously the JMRI stuff isn't straightforward, but defining and using CMRI within JMRI is easy. Again the Little Wicket videos are easy to watch and even make some JMRI understandable. Attached is a photo of a node. The black thing to the left is the USB to RS485 converter (on the end of a USB extension lead).

I don't know how far to go with this, as it may be of little interest here. I started off on this journey by being interested in computer control of my layout. A journey which led me through using NCE Mini-panels in myown DIY switch panel to finally understanding(?) JMRI and getting a "glass panel" One Function Switch style UK set up. I am very pleased with the resuts. It dawned on me that I would need Block Occupancy detection to interlock points, signals and routes. The cost appaled me but I carried on. To get BOD for my small station cost over £350 using an NCE Auxilliary Input Unit and BOD20s, not counting the kilograms of copper wire! It was fraught with problems cutting into laid track to get the block splits I needed. Plan first, then lay track! Easier said than done! I really wanted to move on to my fiddle yard - but I kept delaying every time I costed it out. Scots blood you know! The BOD20s are £18-£20 if you can find them plus another AIU at £55. Now what follows isn't original, nor is anything (except my implementation of it) my own work. By serendipity I fell accross "Little Wicket Railway" on YouTube. The bloke is a genius level teacher and demonstrator. Clearly he was wanting to do automation but was horrified at the costs. There are a series of videos of his development of his solutions, the key one for me was "Arduino, CMRI and JRMI - Part 3 - Multi Node CMRI Networks" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsfczIPbhsU&t=1234s What this is all about is using an RS485 network from a PC using Computer Model Railway Interface (CMRI) protocol to link several "nodes" to JMRI software on a PC. My nodes are are Arduino Nanos (I use clones at £30 for 5!) with an interface board to link them to the RS485 BUS (5 for £5) and a USB to RS485 converter (£5) a few 400 pin "breadboards" and some jumper wires. The BODs are from Megaapoints Controllers (£6 each or £42 for 8) and they are accurate and sense a single 10k ohm wheelset. The whole thing for less than a third of the station cost! I have a test set up with 2 nodes working with JMRI but only one BOD, I am awaiting the full number in the next day or so. IF anybody is interessted I could post more details and photographs of my testbed here, or answer PM questions. Or just forget it. Let me know...... Pinout for Fiddle Yard BOD system.pdf

Yes indeed. All fascinating to me BUT a huge amout of work. I have always wondered if RMWeb might be able to drum up a "dump thread" process which would allow me to keep the things I am interested in and edit out (what to me are) occasional irrelevancies. It would provide a base text to start from perhaps?

I have lots of TT signals *and indeed much of their other equipment but not sensor ones BUT I looked at the manual http://ccgi.dcpmicro.plus.com/traintech/pdf_manuals/ss_manual.pdf and does not page 3 help you here? You can either send a dcc command or wire a switch in to reset the sequence. I would think once you have reset the sequence would work again?? Support when TT existed was always personal quick and supportive - what it's like now Guagemaster have bought them out I don't know.

I won’t be home for a couple of days, but I would suggest you have your address calculation for JMRI wrong

Hi! I am currently far away and lying in the sun (sorry!) so I don’t have things to hand. My setup is similar to yours and uses Cabs 4 & 5 for the AIUs for definite. I know you can go to 8 or so but not sure whether it’s 8, 9 and 10.

Gosh! Seeing all that wiring reminded me of why I went to DCC - just 2 wires you know! Joking apart - that is very neat, and I wish my "two wires" were half as neat. Mind you it's all about add ons, the last being block detection and interlocking. Wreaks havoc with the original wiring plans!

Thanks for the heads up. I bought the book. I have a couple of his other design books but hadn't come across this one. Very good. Loved the idea of a three level micro layout with cassettes across a doorway. Now I definitely can tell people who complain that they haveny got room for a decent layout that they really have! He and Ian Futers are my design heroes - along of course with our regular contributor Harlequin of this parish.

Your layout looks a lot like an early try of mine. It's a good starter - since it gives you the chance to set up and run a small sequence and shunt etc. I enjoyed mine, but of course moved on. There are a couple of things you need to look at: 1) Your fiddle yard entry/exit point will have to go to the right somewhat - you have a point overlapping your board join. 2) Where are you operating this from? If you can get to the back that's OK, but if not then loading things in/out of the fiddle yard will be a pain - reaching over the backscene. 3) "kick-back" sidings look OK, but they are a pain to shunt and operate. Maybe OK for the engine shed but not goods. 4) it's not good practice to run locos through goods sheds - and the kick-back on the lower plan would need that to be done. 5) you need to plan how/when/if you might need to shunt using the fiddle yard and make sure you have an empty line for that 6) why do you want/need an engine shed - and if you do, where's the coaling/fuel facilities? What space constraints do you have? You could make these boards your layout and just have a light extension that you join on with a fiddle yard. Or a slightly shorter scenic area with a light fiddle yard You need to think a bit about the traffic you will be running - and how you get a goods train in and split up. Passenger you have thought about, but goods? As it stands if you run a train into the loop, you can shunt back into the right hand side sidings - but how/where do you get rid of a brake van? Are you intending a "pilot" loco? What are your various sidings for - who/what do they serve, how much traffic? I could go on for hours but I won't!

That looks very interesting. How do you make straight cuts in foambord. I made a layout using 5mm and had troubles with straight edges - let alone curves. Foam board is plenty robust for small layouts adn mine worked fine. A bit of Scakscenes harbour wall too. I cannot imagine getting through 10mm stff with a Stanley knife and a straighedge.

There's another of PaulRHB's essays at Which I found from following links. It too is modular and fascinating.