Jump to content
 

47137

RMweb Premium
  • Posts

    3,035
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by 47137

  1. I would like to rewind a bit. The control protocol for the relay board is simple enough (it doesn't need to worry about data errors) and so it has one Ascii character for each relay position - 16 characters in all. I can think of a few ways to send these to the board: 1. The freebie Android app 2. The freebie Android app decompiled (easy) and rebuilt with new screen icons (laborious) 3. A new Android app, with a suitable mimic diagram 4. A Windows PC running Hyperterminal (press a key, a relay moves) 5. A Windows PC with a modified keyboard - take the bottom off a keyboard and take a pair of wires from each relevant key switch to push buttons on a physical control panel (and run Hyperterminal, no new software) 6. A microcontroller (e.g. Arduino) to send the serial commands, and getting its inputs from a row of toggle switches, a mechanical lever frame or a control panel with some touch sensors. ... all these before Alan's suggestion of a web page issuing serial commands! My current thinking is towards touch sensors or push buttons which react to a short touch/press to change a point, and a long touch/press to set a route extending through the point. The route might be the longest route possible on the layout, or the last-chosen route, or a route defined in the software. The objective being to end up with something intuitive and natural to use. I have played with the freebie Android app, but I find the phone screen saver and power saving functions frustrating, and I get the feeling a hardware control panel with some smart behaviour will be more satisfying. At the end of the day, I am looking to build controls for a model railway, rather than an emulation of the controls of a real railway. I can find examples of commercial Android apps for use with DCC systems, but I'm wanting a purely "traffic" (not "traction") oriented approach which can I can implement independently of the train controller. I also feel a commercially available, non-dedicated relay board is sensible and economical approach to point and signal control (at least for smaller layouts) so I'd welcome any more ideas. - Richard.
  2. You could have a look at www.carendt.com, If you know your layout would be at home there, I'm sure it will be welcome here. Micro layouts are a kind of layout rather than a particular size of layout. - Richard.
  3. Here is my installation onto a Hornby 2-BIL, which is a bit "different" so seems worth posting. The central buffer will foul the head of the coupler, so I cut off the trip pins and fitted the couplers upside down. These are Kadee number 17, the shortest available for an NEM socket. The two photos show the behaviour near the middle of a reverse curve (no sweat), and at the top of 1 in 20 gradient (very close to uncoupling). I like having a detachable coupling because I want to run my trains on the local club layout (reasons are fairly evident!) - but it is also easy to go back to the original bar supplied by Hornby, which will give a closer coupling. - Richard.
  4. I've done a few Google searches for historical trackside signs and found nothing. However, I have found Railway Group Standard GI/RT7033 which gives the details of the present-day lineside operational signs. See page 140 of the standard for the limited clearance sign. I imagine the Big Four had their own signs - but I've not found them online. - Richard.
  5. I have looked at the adafruit site in and stopped here: https://learn.adafruit.com/metal-inlay-capacitive-touch-buttons "make pretty things you can touch and make bleepy noises" Imagine, a wooden control panel done in marquetry, with conductive pads beside the points. More stylish than a row of toggle switches! I'd be interested to hear or see posts from anyone who has done some model railway infrastructure control (as opposed to a loco throttle) using an Arduino or similar controller. - Richard.
  6. My new layout will have seven points including one crossover so six point levers in all. I want to be able to have the control panel behind the layout or in front of it, so I have taken the plunge to go wireless and soft. I have bought one of these: TOSR08 - 8 Channel Smartphone Relay Bluetooth Remote Control Kit and it arrived yesterday taking just nine days from China for a very nominal postage cost of £3.40. UK mail order operations take note! The package shows the value of USD20 so no customs duty either :-) And it works fine. You have to plug the Bluetooth module into the relay board, and find a shaver adaptor or similar to plug the US-style 5V power unit into the mains. Download a free Android app from TinySine, install it, pair it up and it all just works! The wiring under the layout will be simplicity. One wire from the common of each relay to a Tortoise motor. Wires from +12V and -12V supplies daisy-chained along the other relay contacts, and a common 0V return back from each of the motors. Wanting to be a bit more ambitious, it would be nice to have a mimic diagram on the phone. After pairing, the software would set all the points to a default position (no feedback possible from the relay module), and then you would touch the bits of track adjacent to the points on the diagram to set the route and highlight it on the screen. If I was using a Windows PC with a mouse/keyboard interface, I could tackle this in Delphi (probably Delphi 4 under XP!) with a reasonable chance of success. I'm not sure about how to go about it in Android. I have dabbled with a product called App Inventor, and have the book "Building Android Apps" by Mike McGrath, but to be honest I don't have a clue how to make it work to send commands, let alone send commands via Bluetooth. I also went through the rigmarole of installing Java and a Java development environment with an Android add-in on an old PC (now all gone) and by the time I got it working I was losing the will to live, let alone devise a program. So any ideas on how to approach the app side of this would be good. In fact, if the "app" ended up as a row of eight physical toggle switches with a Bluetooth connection by whatever hardware you like to the module I'd be happy. At the end of the day, if it's just too difficult I can stay with the eight buttons on the free app from TinySine. - Richard.
  7. It's a bit sad to discuss this on a thread for a chap with his arm in plaster, but the Modratec frame is a good design and if you did "metalwork" at school then the fettling and assembly of the parts is an exercise in nostalgia. The finished thing is robust enough to show off to visitors to let them try it out and see how the locking works. - Richard.
  8. Here is a photo of how I did it, but of course it did involve wood work: Next time I would add some bracing to the plate itself, even a small one can warp a bit. There are some detailed pics here: http://www.castellybwrdd.myzen.co.uk/#sectorplate. - Richard.
  9. I had similar frustrations a couple of years ago and started this thread: Preferred height for Kadee couplers on UK 4mm scale models This evolved into seven pages in the end. I know, no-one wrote about the Black 5, but perhaps there are some useful ideas in there. - Richard.
  10. If you could settle for 66 inches total length, you could use foam core board to make two baseboards. This is sold in A1 size sheets, at least here in the UK. See my Mill Curve layout, link in my signature. But with the good arm in plaster, I'd go for a sheet of extruded polystyrene. This is marketed here as Knauf Spaceboard, sold for loft insulation. Pink in colour, about 2 inches thick. I used this for my Castell y Bwrdd layout. The only real drawback I know is it is difficult to fix mechanisms to it, like point motors, so you may end up gluing on patches of plywood to fix them to - which means woodwork - Richard
  11. If the GWR used warning signs to show a limited clearance, a couple of these would set off the steelwork nicely. I do like the colours of this model. - Richard.
  12. As the guilty one who started it, here's the link from three years ago: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/52681-what-is-a-micro-layout/ Three years on, I think of a micro as theatrical stage with lots of visual and operating interest, usually in a medium to large scale, where trains enter and leave the stage but you don't see one travel for much distance. I like N gauge models just as much, but the larger sizes make it easier to mask off the wings of the stage, and the models stand closer viewing. The dimensions of the modelled area are a bit academic, but four square feet is enough to build a satisfying micro in most scales. - Richard.
  13. The point I am failing to make is this. These locomotives have spent most of their lives in private hands, and there is no livery which we could reasonably describe as "typical of the class" i.e. "prototypical". If a livery is applied to a locomotive, the livery becomes real and we need to look for a new adjective to describe it - perhaps "industrial" or "preservation" or "one-off" or "sponsored" or even "new" - whatever is the most appropriate for the locomotive in question. I am unhappy about describing them as fictional - only the Loadhaul example cited in the list is fictional - unless we are adopting "fictional" as a jargon word. I think, this locomotive can carry off a wide variety of different schemes very well, but I'm not proposing a particular scheme for a production run. Sorry if this has mislead people. - Richard.
  14. Thanks for the link and the list. I think the maroon with small yellow panels is my favourite. The loco carries off the colours of the Railfreight scheme well, but to my eyes it would be better without the logo. - Richard.
  15. Hang on. Do we have any evidence of these liveries? If a locomotive carried such a livery, it would be prototypical, not fictional. - Richard.
  16. Please, what is the manufacturer of the plastic sheet with the coursed stone effect on the building? It looks like it could work for a retaining wall or bridge abutment in HO, 00 or even S scales. - Richard.
  17. Stu, Is the tramway the sort of thing which would (in reality) be worked by a cable and some winding gear? It looks quite lightweight for a locomotive, and too narrow for horses. However I may be looking at it the wrong way. - Richard.
  18. Ikea do a similar Lazy Susan, I bought mine for a static diorama which I started a while ago. The Ikea one is about 38 cm diameter and has their part numbers 900.744.83 and 19891. Mine was in their Lakeside store. - Richard.
  19. Lime cell details do seem scarce online. At Darlington they had doors: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-496236-lime-cells- At Goathland they are open: http://www.mylearning.org/goathland-as-a-contrasting-locality/images/3-1684/ Perhaps the best bet is to model them open (so people can see what they are) and quite tidy (like Goathland nowadays). Then it would be straightforward to add some clutter. I'd imagine, they would try to minimise mess because it is so caustic. If you take the model to an exhibition you will probably find more retired lime buyers, traffickers, hauliers and users than you imagined were still alive, ready to put you right :-) - Richard.
  20. Three of the figures are standing still, and the fourth one (in the foreground) seems to be walking away from them. So judging by their poses waiting for a train and to start digging, and there being two engines in steam, I'll suggest "The crew training day was unannounced and unwelcome". - Richard.
  21. I have re-roofed the two main sections of the roof. The model now has some laser-cut 7mm scale roofing by York Modelmaking. This is self-adhesive and goes on in overlapping strips. Slates come in some quite large sizes, so I'll imagine this represents slates rather than tiles. The "ridge tiles" are from the borders of the York sheets. I think this is an improvement over the printed sheets of tiles I had before. A nice little project for Boxing Day! - Richard. Posted 26 Dec 2014, edited 28 Dec to upload a better photo.
  22. Nowadays, Colchester is numbered left to right. But Shrewsbury is still right to left, and indeed its 1 and 2 lost their track years ago so the numbering runs from 3 to 7. Wolverhampton was right to left too (with 1c being the bay facing Shrewsbury) but I am sure it has been renumbered. I cannot find a convention, except that for Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton at least, the numbering began on the side of the station where the main entrance was. Somewhat out of area I realise. - Richard.
  23. Have Rapido chosen the wheel profile for the model? I have EM wheels by Markits under most of my rolling stock, regauged to 00. They worked fine on my layout but derail on some club layouts. The mainstream manufacturers seem to invent their own profiles, ranging from subtle to ghastly. - Richard.
  24. Seems worth sharing. - Richard.
  25. A plastic curtain rail in its original packaging. - Richard.
×
×
  • Create New...