Dingleberry, a N Gauge test track

[aleopardstail]

6 hours ago, Grimly Feendish said:

Have you tried looping the through the coil two of three times? That should increase the ability to detect low currents.

 

John.

 

was looped five times as it was, problem is the coil the circuit is designed for is 1:200, the blue ones I have are 1:2500.. ordered more of the designed ones, will be trying those with three and then four turns. Expect that will do it as the current ones have two turns and sometimes some of them pick up a single 10k axle so its obviously close.

 

also moving to single core hook up wire from the wire the kits come with, mostly as thats the wire that feeds the circuits anyway and that way its easier to coil up in the first place

[aleopardstail]

More on the buildings, Dingleberry got a visit from the LED fairy

 

 

single 1.8mm warm white LED

 

 

Station building currently has 7 1.8mm warm white LEDs, a little light bleed through can be seen, however the LEDs are driven by a TLC5947 Pulse Width Modulation board, providing both a current limit of about 5mA without additional resistors but also brightness control - currently each LED driven individually. The will be run at a lower brightness generally to avoid bleed through.

 

The canopy needs adding, this will have a pair of LEDs in series hidden under it for an 8th channel.

 

the point of using the TLC5947 is basically so as to allow three brightness levels, "off" somewhat obviously, then two "on" settings, one intended to use during the day with the lights bright enough to see, and an "evening" mode for artificial light where they will be turned down a fair bit.

 

likely won't matter so much for buildings but will for other lights.

 

need to build the arduino nano board with the C/MRI interface. While each LED can be set individually the idea is to have common brightness levels and group them, so say 1 output drives all the ground floor station building lights, the upper floor light on a separate channel and the external lights the same.

 

the Arduino will then have a few inputs which control the day/night mode, and one that sets some channels to either be on or off as set individually or to perhaps turn on and off in a semi random pattern for things like office and house lights, basically because its easy enough to do.

 

Also have the CT coils on the rest of the DTC-2 boards, just awaiting the terminals and some sticky pads so hopefully installed at the weekend - which will I hope also see the two lighting control arduino added so stuff can be wired up as and when.

 

update: Canopy lights added (had to be done prior to fitting the roof)

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by aleopardstail
canopy light pic added

[aleopardstail]

bit more work today, this is at the right hand end of the layout, the little crew hut for the coach storage/cleaning sidings has now been glued in place after gaining a roof. This required the roadway for this area to be completed, which is 1mm plastic sheet primed "Uniform Grey" then given a sponging and smearing of various other grey shades. Not perfect but it will do, needs bedding in with ballast and some generic dirt scatter behind it to the retaining wall.

 

 

also installed a street light, which does illuminate, its had three coats of Tamyia clear orange to tone the colour down a bit but its still just a warn white not the low pressure sodium orange I had wanted, again it will do.

 

not pictured lit up as I have yet to actually wire it all in an add the lighting controller.

 

Fencing is the wrong sort, GWR spear fencing, not stuck down yet as it needs painting, may look for something a bit more modern. it ends where it ends as the tracks converge and there will be a signal a little off to the left anyway, needs a suitable car or van adding too.

 

once the lighting controller is in also need to get round to adding the red LEDs on strips behind the buffer stops and can then ballast that whole area as well.

 

the little compound behind the hut, accessible by foot and barrow down the side of the building is likely going to gain various odds and sods of clutter

 

finally the bridge girder has been returned after having a basic paint job added

[aleopardstail]

Ready to install, should be tomorrow, needs the software adding but not expected to take long. (just need to install them to really test the C/MRI connection over RS485 as due to %MUPPETDESIGNERROR% I can't get at the RS485 bus without flipping the layout on its side

 

 

very basic, Arduino Nano (cheap clone), a 5v interface with a diode so when powered from USB it doesn't try to power everything from the USB. a RS485 interface chip, with some header pins to make disconnecting it for programming easier then an 8 pin header - four pins of which drive the TLC5947 PWM board (one of three to install also shown) and four pins will provide input from the main Arduino Mega that can be driven via JMRI to control behaviour, not all decided upon and may not be used initially but can't hurt to have the capability.

[aleopardstail]

Partial success with lighting circuit

 

 

lights on and looks decent, overly bright though. but what, I hear literally nobody asking, about the brightness control circuit?

 

well its installed, and communicating with JMRI nicely, the on board test LED lighting nicely under JMRI control.

 

there is a bug somewhere though, I suspect I know where, meaning all lights are on at full intensity at all times.

 

so why, again literally no one is asking hasn't the muppet responsible fixed things? doesn't this muppet know there is a war on?

 

*cough* my USB lead isn't long enough, there is a 5m one on order, which should have arrived today but didn't.. Grr.. once that arrives can flip the layout onto its side again and plug in to reprogramme & experiment to see if it is indeed a software bug or if something is actually wired up backwards somewhere - software suspected as the hardware was tested before it all went in - though its possible a wire is wrong somewhere.

 

still, lights up nicely.

 

not installing the second upper level board until this one is working properly, no urgency really on that as there are no buildings going on the upper level until I've got the paving done

[aleopardstail]

Always the same, ordered more bits to replace those previously bought that were put "somewhere safe" and as such may as well not exist..

 

0805 red LEDs needed to create buffer stop lights, plan is they get thin enamelled wire soldered to them, glued to a thing plastic strip, one wire over the top then down the back, one down the front. painted then installed. (no resistors as using a current limited source, and can't use the nice pre-made ones that power from the rails as that will trip the block detection stuff).. can I find the LEDs? can I fork heck..

 

had a bit more of a think now the first lighting control board is in, at one end, I think I'll make a third one for the main board at the other end. basically reduces the amount of wires for lighting as the boards underside is a proper rats nest already, have spare channels for the RS485 data bus so not a massive issue - means a range of unused channels but thats hardly a problem as they can be deleted from JMRI and forgotten about

 

bit of a wash as a weekend really, had hoped to get quite a lot more done but due to stuff being missing and stuff flat out not arriving when it should have delays until next week and next weekend.

 

still, bonus result, cleared the layout of the rubbish that accumulates on any flat surface. I suspect this principle is where the idea of actually adding scenic elements came from, to avoid there being space for "I'll just put this here for now"

[5BarVT]

19 minutes ago, aleopardstail said:

and can't use the nice pre-made ones that power from the rails as that will trip the block detection stuff)

Just have to isolate the buffer area from the train detection section and feed direct from the track bus if you want to go down that road.  Big railway has to do that too as buffers short out track circuits.

Paul.

[aleopardstail]

45 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Just have to isolate the buffer area from the train detection section and feed direct from the track bus if you want to go down that road.  Big railway has to do that too as buffers short out track circuits.

Paul.

 

Track is already down otherwise I would, I'm actually considering doing the railway practice of making the red light on the buffers part of the signalling system - dead easy to create a little extra block at the end of a siding that has its occupancy sensor hard wired to show "occupied" either in JMRI if thats possible of by having the occupancy Arduino report it as a "1" that never changes.

 

should have had them as separate sections in the first place nicely isolated, something else to add to the list of things to learn for the next one.

 

while the way I'm driving them, or will be when built & installed, allows for the brightness to be controlled for day/night mode they are going to be one of the things thats virtually always switched on, but hard wired to the track power bus is an excellent way to see if the track power is on and provide indication as to possible wiring faults if some illuminate and others don't.

 

all the stuff you only think off after the fact

[aleopardstail]

Lighting controller code now fixed and after much faffing in JMRI I now have this

 

 

crude but for now it will do, the globals are controlled via the main Arduino Mega base station as DCC-EX outputs on a couple of the Megas pins read as inputs by the lighting board. four options, only two coded currently, likely to be joined by "All Lights Off" and may use two of them as a two bit value for the brightness or split to have internal/external lights so the street lights can have brightness set independently from the building lights.

 

either way it works.

 

hint: it helps if you call the .begin() code function on the controller.. gun-foot-aim fire, also an issue with a C Macro that needed brackets around it as without them it always returned true - which meant all lights on, always, also fixed.

 

the remaining 8 DTC-2 block detection boards are now also ready to install, which will give me block detection on the whole layout, well the TMD excluded but that won't be run under automation so doesn't need them. Not sure if I will be able to install them prior to next weekend though

[aleopardstail]

Touch more progress, the layout has once again been on its side, have now added the remaining DTC-2 boards and thus the control panel is now like this:

 

 

the central TMD sidings (lower middle group) are not block detection equipped as that is for pure manual operation, though the points in this area are motorised and controlled from this panel.

 

one siding in the upper group (this is the parcels bay area) is shown shorter - this due to the final length of track appearing to be lacking a block connection, not sure how but assuming I have missed a wire somewhere and the feed lacks a sensor - would also explain why I have a spare DTC-2 board (well actually two, the TMD and programming siding were going to be wired as large areas but I don't really see the point so didn't in the end).

 

this is a bit of a small milestone (yardstone?) as now all the track and pointwork is fully controlled by JMRI and can be monitored, I can thus now start to fiddle with automation and signalling - once I have all the track operating reliably which the inner bay and all the sidings do not yet do (heavy cleaning needed)

 

overall, status: happy

[aleopardstail]

Slow progress recently due to various work related issues, however Dingleberry now has its first (not yet completed) sitting in place while the glue cures before starting detailing it. 

 

 

Metcalfe kit, went together quite nicely, had to curve both ends inward slightly to handle the 2nd radius curves immediately at both ends to cope with overhangs, a MkIII coach goes round fine though.

 

will gain modified retaining walls along the back (buttress sections cut down slightly), also needs lights, the front edge painting, the joins on the brickwork covering and similar general stuff, actually like how it looks though, next up is the island platform

[aleopardstail]

island platform added, the edge stones stuck down and small bits of brick section used to mask the joins, through running tested on all roads. the gap is somewhat oversized, however only really notable from end on, side on it looks fine

 

 

have single head lights which will do for the rear platform, and may be added tomorrow, double head on order for the island. each will get six light poles on 100mm spacing.

 

the bit of greyboard is a 2mm thick spacer.

 

more track cleaning and painting needed before final installation also, and the exposed bits of plywood need cladding. I do have stairways to add to the upper level so need to integrate all that somehow

[aleopardstail]

oh yes, feedback on the DTC-2 detectors, the second batch built with four turns on the coils pick up a coach with a single 10k resistor about as well as the iffy track connection can allow, the design of the detectors making it reliable for a moving train and slightly hit & miss for a stationary one - though thats down to needing to clean the track and wheelset a bit more

 

have to say happy with that, though it does mean removal and modification of the rest at some point

[aleopardstail]

first section of retaining wall on the platform, only one section as the other three packs were only ordered yesterday and will be assembled as they arrive and not wanting to kill myself assembling and modifying them allows.

 

 

wall has the height of the platform removed from the front section, the rear being the usual full height, then stuck down.

 

this first section so that during the week the six installed lamps can be wired up for testing and then eventually full installation.

 

once its all added will look at a bit of weathering to tie it all together, its a bit narrow as platforms go, too narrow for a shelter to be added though some seating and eventually a few signs and posters will be added as well

[aleopardstail]

Now the track sensors are in place, and while waiting more parts to be delivered I've had a fiddle with signal logic stuffs in JMRI, all virtual signals at least for now, and only part of the layout set up as blocks so I can fiddle before trying to do the rest.

 

 

the outer loop is split into four blocks, each with a four aspect signal to protect the entrance to it, the sidings having two aspects controlling departure and a single red aspect at the buffer stop, there is also a two aspect controlling the anti clockwise movement from the platform road (at the top) round to the sidings at the bottom.

 

it mostly works, have clockwise running almost as I want it, can do a loop, and can follow that with another one but not yet the daisy chaining I want of "run x loops then stop, and repeat y times", though I gather that is possible, can also run out of a siding to the platform, and back again.

 

have discovered one irritation though, JMRI doesn't seem to store the locomotives direction, so while clockwise is "forwards" running back into the sidings requires "reverse" selecting every time, and if I forget the train trundles clockwise into unallocated blocks but doesn't stop or flag that as a problem, I mean the blocks are unallocated so that bits fair, but then runs over points set against it, and falls over. may have something not set up properly.

 

likewise into the siding when going the right way even though the bit at the end is set as the destination it stops as soon as its in the siding and not at the end. need to think a bit more on that as the intent is to be able to reverse in, now if this is stopping as soon as the previous block is clear thats actually fine as the way its set up its clear of the siding pointwork but it would be nice to have it run to the block its been told to stop at and not just into the section.

 

that said for a few hours work I'm certain the issues are entirely of my own creation and I will be able to sort them out with time and practice, its certainly amazingly capable software

[aleopardstail]

More on the station, one slight muck up aside (I didn't realise when making them that the final archway would actually be on the incline so its cut short, have more to build so will catch that as that section is being done.

 

 

white edges to touch up on all but the right most panel, and the electrical string needs sorting out and connecting to something

 

however I'm quite liking how this is starting to look, have to source some suitable printed backscenes