mwrosebury2000 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I have just bought one of the Ardunio boards and I am thinking of using it to control traffic lights and eventually signals. Has anybody tried this? I am new to programming so it might take me a while but I will hopefully keep you up to date with my progress. Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruffalo Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Hope it goes well Mark. I am very interested in something to control semaphore signals although I am a fair way off being ready to install yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted January 19, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2014 I've used Arduinos for several things including controlling colour light signals on my layout Waton. Very easy to program and you can get the Arduino Pro mini for a couple of quid. Cheers Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Hi Yes, tried it, I have part written a program to do this, which interlocks the levers (uses a red led to indicate a locked lever, rather than an actual lock) with the point and a bracket signal. I'm using servos for semaphore signals, but the principle is similar. I haven't worked out how to implement an FPL, but it would be nice to do so in a reasonable fashion. Trouble is that the levers require a pin each, as do the LEDs, and the servos. So with the FPL, you're looking at 12 pins, from a possible 14, and this for a single facing point and 2signals. Whilst easy to program, and connect, it isn't the cheapest route to a lever frame. I've just joined MERG, so will have a look at their offerings in due course. You could look at that option too. Kind regards SD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted January 19, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2014 If you run out of digital inputs and outputs it might be worth looking at the Arduino Mega which has 52. More expensive but... Cheers Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trainshed Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hi all, I did invest in an original Arduino Mega (£40), but once I had some experience in programming, I bought one of the compatible boards (£15). It looks the same and appears to work the same, and for £15....a bargain! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 You could use a 4067 with the Arduino and multiplex inputs as well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 Hi all, I did invest in an original Arduino Mega (£40), but once I had some experience in programming, I bought one of the compatible boards (£15). It looks the same and appears to work the same, and for £15....a bargain! hi Trainshed any weblinks? thx SD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon H Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 If you run out of digital inputs and outputs it might be worth looking at the Arduino Mega which has 52. More expensive but... Shift registers are a very cost effective way to add extra digital I/O when device pins are limited. You only need four pins to add almost any quantity of inputs and outputs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trainshed Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Hi Simond, Unfortunately, the ebay seller that I got mine from has stopped listing, which is a shame, as I was going to buy another one. I did a quick search and came up with this... .http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REVISION-3-Arduino-compatible-Mega-2560-ATmega2560-Free-USB-Cable-/130838706117?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item1e769837c5 or this.... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arduino-Compatible-Mega-2560-R3-ATEMAGE16U2-Latest-Ver-for-Arduino-IDE-01054-/221372214177?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item338acfeba1 There are quite a lot of people selling Arduino clones, but as the board is open source, they (should) work the same. As someone said earlier, regarding multiplexing outputs, I have used a 4051 multiplexer which gives 8 outputs from 3 Arduino pins. I have also cascaded the 4051s to give 42 outputs from 6 Arduino pins. Be warned though, this entails soldering a quite a lot of wires! I use VB.net to interface and control the Arduino via USB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Thanks Trainshed I'm probably going to go down the pro mini route - will post updates in due course Best SD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon H Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 As someone said earlier, regarding multiplexing outputs, I have used a 4051 multiplexer which gives 8 outputs from 3 Arduino pins. I have also cascaded the 4051s to give 42 outputs from 6 Arduino pins. Be warned though, this entails soldering a quite a lot of wires! You only need three pins to give any number of outputs using shift registers. Add a fourth pin and you can read in any number of inputs too. As an example, using a single page of RAM (256 bytes) for each direction as a memory store, that adds up to 2048 outputs and/or 2048 inputs. Conventional multiplexing gets increasingly unwieldy once you start having to cascade devices. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Hi all, I have started a thread to collect the Arduino sketches - please feel free to add. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82978-arduino-applications-and-programs/&do=findComment&comment=1366701 hope it is of interest best SD Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium eldavo Posted March 18, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 18, 2014 For anyone interested here is a sketch for the Arduino to control up to 6 semaphore signals operated by servos. There is a facility to reverse the movement and set the limits of throw for each servo using a push to make switch. There is also a 5v output on analogue pin 1 whenever the servo power supply needs to be on to move a servo which can be used to switch a relay via a transistor or somesuch. The servo movement includes an initial pull-up as the signal is cleared and a bounce when it is returned to danger. I've used this with an Arduino pro mini for controlling a couple of signals on one of our club layouts. Semaphore6_0_1.ino Cheers Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 You could use an I2C port expander such as the PCF8574. Elektor are doing a couple of nice Arduino books at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajt Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 I have a couple of Arduino clones, a Mega 2560 and a Nano. They're both fine, and were dirt cheap, the Mega was on sale and cost about $14AUD I think. The Mini Pro clones seem to be the best value for money, I'll probably use them from now on. It seems you can get these for less cost than buying the chip, never mind all the supporting circuitry. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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