colinc3e

Hi everybody I just found this topic last week - really enjoyed reading through it all. Very nice It atracted me because I grew up in Newquay 50's and 60s (Now living in Auckland) Grammar School was next to the station - actually only part of it. but many kids came to school on the train from Perranporth way. The gas works was also next door to school and the railway. I had a small Hornby outfit like lots of boys, but then became one of the early surfers in the 60's so the train was put away. I got them all out a few years ago for the grand children, but they were a bit rough, so I built them a little circuit with some cheap rolling stock. In the meantime I started a layout in the garage with Newquay as the Terminus and a couple of loops for the main line after the Par Junction. Still progressing, I think I will name Newquay station "Towan Blystra" which is the original name before they built the "New Quay' Anyway just to say keep up the good work. I am learning a lot although a bit confused over signal lever frames - I going to run my signals and points from a Raspberry Pi via the DCC controller. Looking forward to the next posts Colin

I bought the sensor AS5048B which makes up this device. $25 on a board which fits on the end of a stepper. It hooks up via the i2c interface and seemed pretty good - repeatable to better than 0.05 degrees. I have it running on a Raspberry Pi. Next move is to hook it up to the arduino which runs the stepper. Then can do a closed loop control system. this should avoid all issues with indexing etc. I obtained the board from ams.com - AS5048B evaluation kit. Note the data sheet has the lsb and msb of the angle register transposed.

DCC monitor quirks I have my turntable running with a Nano and A4988 using the 6N137 circuit for DCC interface. I have another system running DCCMonitor to check what is happening on the DCC. I have tried the monitor with Hornby Select, Lenz 100 and a Sprog. On the select I need a loco on the tracks before I can read any signals - similar results with the other two systems and the odd drop out on Lenz. I have checked circuitry and used duplicate electronics, but no clues. I suspect the DCC needs a 'load' to operate, but I have been searching literature and can't find an answer to this. Also the setup on a Lenz system works for a while and then stops responding - maybe too much power draw as it has a few locos running. Any pointers greatly appreciated - thanks in advance

Hello I used ALLPCB absolutely brilliant - mine took a week but were sitting at the local couriers here over the weekend. I would recommend them as the boards were first class. I think I will stick with Eagle as it seems better for Macs and I haven't used Windows machines for ages. I have the circuit up and running, but I have already a list of extras I might add. The circuit design and build was so easy I will throw away the breadboards altogether! I have sourced a stepper with a double shaft so I am thinking I will use a rotary encoder on one end as a reference and then I can have a nice feedback loop to improve accuracy. I can get a 1024 step one for US$40 which would give me a shade less than a millimetre it the rim - might not be good enough though. After all the 3200 step stepper would be batter than .33 mm. I do seem to have a bit of trouble getting the turntable to return to exactly the same position repeatedly I think I will need another Nano to look after the encoder as it will need to use a couple of interrupts to work nicely. Any one tried this ? regards

Hi Many thanks for the info, by coincidence I found ALLPCB on the web, before hearing back from you, and sent off a board, So will see how it goes. Eagle is quirky and a bit pedantic and it took me quite a while to get to grips. I like the way it goes from a schematic to a board, so it is easy to check. I will investigate DipTrace at some stage. Although having invested some time with Eagle I will persevere unless there are problems with the board best regards

Hi I have been following this topic - Really good info, so I now have an operating turntable - Similar to original but have used a QRD114 infrared detector for indexing - works good. I have a Peco TT and the sensor just sits underneath the deck.I do have trouble with the bearing which is binding despite attempts to align nicely. I wanted to ask Rigid Collision where he got his PCB's done? I have been playing with eagle and I wanted a drive controller similar to his but with some extras ( I2C interface for things like a display) I have the board done and I am ready to have it built. I have only used soldering iron or wire wrap before so this is all new and I would like a good company to use. I am in NZ so China is OK for me. Any help appreciated thank you Colin ps first time using RM web so hopefully this message will arrive.