Camford Junction in 2FS

[Western Star]

I am hoping I can create an auto-shuffle-up system to automagically move the trains up the fiddle yard ...

Which 2mm Assoc shop sells soft-lined WPBs to catch the stock which has been shuffled along and off of the end of the FY?  Remember that the first appearance of scenic and fiddle yard is an end to end layout.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Western Star

[Ian Morgan]

Yesterday evening everyone was busy, and we fixed all the little issues that had been spotted at Saturday's Open Day (missing droppers, wrongly marked wired and uncooperative T-nuts), and then started adding more relays and Merg modules to the new boards ready for wiring up properly. There was also much discussion about legs, lighting, fiddle yard, baseboard numbering, tea and biscuits.

 

So next, we need to complete fitting servos, and wiring to the second half of the TMD area, continue track laying on the new boards and press on with the fiddle yard woodwork.

[Western Star]

Who would have thought that identifying baseboards (one, two, three etc.) could be so difficult.

 

Camford has started the scenic section with B1 to differentiate from fiddle yard (starting af FY1).  This is a sound idea except when boards are added either side of B1 and there are fiddle yards at both ends of the scenic section (plus along the back of the loop as Camford shall become a round and round at some point).

 

Scenic boards numbered from B-1 (B minus one) towards negative infinity is a non-starter...  we have settled on WBn to one side of the viaduct board and EBn to the other side of that board.  Fiddle yard boards are likely to be named as WFYn and EFYn and that just leaves the boards along the back of the circuit.  Christian names of retired members of the judiciary has been rejected...  Schrodinger's cats were a front runner for a few nano-seconds...  looks like Peter's suggestion of Rudolph and friends is going to win.

 

FYs along the back may be named after Santa's reindeer.  Confirmation of this idea is to be next Monday at the Club House where Peter is going to sing a few verses of an appropriate carol - other members of the 2mm group may wear red noses.

 

Thereafter serious work shall re-commence with the curved FY boards to attach to the west end of the layout.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Western Star

[bcnPete]

Only just found this - this is going to be terrific

 

Book marked and staying tuned...

[Ian Morgan]

Wires, wires and more wires. I have been working on baseboard 2 again, adding some more bits and fixing a problem of my own devising.

 

With the addition of the freight yard on baseboard 4, we now need a sixth controller, so I am adding an extra two pink wires to the controller bus that runs the length of each baseboard. I have also been adding a Merg CANACT module under each baseboard. This simple (and cheap) module just flashes a blue LED whenever an 'event' message is seen on the bus. This could be useful for fault finding in the future.

 

Another useful, and surprisingly cheap, addition to each baseboard is a USB charging point with built in voltmeter display. I found these on eBay. They are intended for use in caravans or boats, I expect. They run off 12-24VDC. They include two USB sockets, one high current and one low current. I think they will come in very handy when we are using tablets and mobile phones to control the layout, plus the voltmeter will aid in future fault finding, showing the voltage of the power supply to each board.

 

The problem of my own devising was misinterpreting the markings on the terminals on the relay boards. I had swapped the Common and NC connections on all the relays, so I had to swap the wires to the eight relays on each of the three relay boards on this baseboard. Baseboard 2 was where I started wiring, and I had not acquired crimp ferrules and a crimp tool then. So, I took the opportunity of adding crimp ferrules to the wires as I swapped them. It took some time, but does produce a neater finish, and avoids the chance of wire whiskers shorting to the next terminal. Hopefully, it will result in a more reliable layout.

 

Next week I can finally start on wiring up the TMD depot tracks to the relays and servo frog switches.

 

Meanwhile, the rest of the team were working on improving the glazing on the loco shed, producing signal gantries, building new points for the freight yard, and building fiddle yard baseboards.

[Western Star]

Ian,

 

We have the up/down main and relief roads...  plus the depot release/passenger loop...   plus the freight sidings alongside the station, so that is six separate control domains.

 

When the steel stockyard comes into play, possibly with own shunter, does that indicate that a seventh controller?

 

regards, Graham

[Ian Morgan]

I was expecting it to be part of the freight yard, so no. Besides, 6 controllers is the limit for the ribbon cable and connectors I have been using for the controller bus (25 way, pairs of wires paralleled to handle the required current leaves one single wire spare). I am also running out of room for more H-bridges and overload protectors within the controller box, although the Arduino could service 8 controllers, in theory.

[Ian Morgan]

Another busy evening at the clubrooms.

 

Much discussion and head-scratching trying to figure out the best shapes for baseboards for the end curves, providing room for four tracks, minimum radius 36 inches and tracks crossing baseboard joints at close to right angles:

 

 

Droppers being installed and wired together on boards 3 and 4:

 

 

And more connecting of droppers and frog switches and relays on board 2:

 

[timbowilts]

Re the third picture in post #58, do the electronics outweigh the wood in that board yet?

 

(coat, hat, rapid exit.....)

 

Tim T

[Western Star]

do the electronics outweigh the wood in that board yet?

Some of us are still trying to understand the lingo which goes with the boards / chips / interfaces.  Most of the time we listen to Ian, nod like a wise man and then make a cuppa.

 

Red Hat in place because of the cold, just like being at the Club Hut last night (see photo above).

 

The baseboard discussion was long, heated, divisive initially and then produced an agreeable result.  When we showed the (current) four scenic boards at our Open Day last month we noticed that the boards had a tendency to move side to side suggesting a need to add diagonals between boards and legs.  The movement of the scenic boards is likely to be resisted by the revised fiddle yard boards in that some FY legs are at right angles...  and some at 45 degrees... to the line of the scenic boards.

 

Instead of four fiddle yard boards there are now three FYBs, the middle of the three covers 90 degrees whilst the other two, identical FYBs provide 45 degrees each of the "half-circle".

 

Unusual?  Unusual is normal for our group!

Edited December 5, 2017 by Western Star

[Ian Morgan]

The wiring hell that is baseboard 2 continues. I have now joined up the dots in the central section. It is looking a bit messy now, but a fist full of cable ties should improve things.

 

 

Just the left hand section left to do. This section has the inspection pits for the loco shed, so I also need to install some simulated fluorescent lights similar to the DMU shed on baseboard 1. Then I need to connect the frog polarity switches to the associated stock rails and it will be ready for configuration of the servos and testing. That is still several weeks work.

[Western Star]

The wiring hell that is baseboard 2 continues.

There may be some of us who think - quietly whilst in a dark corner - that the wiring on board 2 is secretly an initiative test in the GCHQ recruitment program.  Quite what the test is about is as yet undecided, pretty sure that the test is not related to the consumption rate of tea during a Club Friday session.

 

Whilst Ian has been having a lovely time wielding a hot spanner and wire cutters there has been an outbreak of Easitracitis or, rather, building of pegged turnouts.  Boards three and four have a fair number of turnouts to allow the depot and slow lines to access the reception loop of the yard...  we have some made, some are being made and some are yet to be started.

 

One of us (me) is having a difficult time in getting used to the small size of the chairs and in techniques which are not found in a preferred scale/gauge (S7).   The most recent "problemette" is to work out why the milled crossing stands proud of the surrounding rails, all helpful suggestions are welcome.

[Ian Morgan]

Well, following the Christmas hiatus and lots of man-flu, I have finally completed the first fix of wiring on board 2. I buzzed through all the track sections and found half a dozen missing droppers from the rails, and a couple of droppers that had been soldered to a plastic sleeper instead of a rail. All fixed, and now it all seems correct, and no short circuits. I started wiring in the frog polarity switches, which are attached to the servo mounts, and should have them completed and checked next week. Then I can attach the laptop to the CBus and start setting up the modules. The Servo modules' configuration involves setting the maximum throw in each direction of each servo, and the speed that they change. Finally, I need to 'teach' each module which 'events' they should act upon to switch a relay on or off, or to move one or more servos.

 

Then, I can turn my attention to boards 3 and 4, which are much simpler.

 

I now have a Raspberry Pi with JMRI installed, a CBus interface and with the Raspberry Pi acting as a WiFi access point. I need to set up the layout panels in JMRI and create 'routes' that can then be controlled by mobile phone and tablet apps. The Raspberry Pi will eventually be fitted into the controller box, shown earlier (with a duplicate fitted in the second, spare controller box).

 

Maybe, by the time I have completed all this, the fiddle yard will be ready for wiring up.

[Western Star]

Maybe, by the time I have completed all this, the fiddle yard will be ready for wiring up.

All ten of the fiddle yard boards?

[Ian Morgan]

Following a short tuition session last week, the guys are now in full swing creating 500mm lengths of plain soldered track for the fiddle yards. Soldered track is more robust, and much cheaper, than EasiTrak although it does not look as good. It will be fine for the fiddle yard. The fiddle yard will gobble up over 70m of straight track, plus lots of curved track around the ends and 16 points. We may be some time.

 

 

Meanwhile, now the wiring on boards 1 and 2 is complete, I have powered them up and attached the laptop to the CBus with a plug-in CANUSB module. I used the Merg Flim Configuration Utility to update the firmware on all the CBus modules to the latest revision, and then started assigning separate event numbers for each point and each relay. Crossovers on the main line use a single event to operate both points. Main line track sections use pairs of the single pole relays to switch both rails between controllers, while the MPD area, which will only be associated with a single controller, uses a common return and just a single relay for each section. I documented the events, and the associated CBus module outputs in a spreadsheet as I progressed. Then I set up all the events in the turnout table in JMRI. Initially, JMRI only had two tables, 'Turnouts' for outputs and 'Sensors' for inputs. Over the years, extra tables have been added for 'Lights' and 'Signals', but there is not one for 'Relays' yet, so they will have to live in the 'Turnouts' table for now. Now I have all these captured in JMRI, I can proceed with setting up the layout schematic, with the turnouts, blocks and routes, and then work on route selection and setting the relays using 'buttons' on the layout screen.

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by Ian Morgan
re-loaded images

[Ian Morgan]

Oh dear - over a year since the last update, and not much to show for it. The last twelve months have been a bit crazy, with the Great Model Railway Challenge (Santa's Vacation and Brunel Tribute), the Radio Times Layout, followed by 'Santa does Warley' and rebuilding Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge into a standalone exhibition layout.

 

Camford Junction has not been forgotten though, and progress is now being made on the curved baseboards for one end that will lead to the fiddle yard. Four main line tracks will curve round to open up into a very large fiddle yard. This end also has extra tracks which are 'hidden' extensions to the sidings in the steel yard. The fiddle yard and two curved ends will use up vast amounts of hand built track. This will be soldered/copperclad construction as it is cheaper and more robust than the EasiTrak used on the scenic section.

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Ian Morgan
remove lost images