AlbertTheFrog

I was in a club with two exhibition layouts in DCC. The guys looking after them were forever fiddling to get everything working right under computer scheduling. As for 'relatively cheaply' , my whole system costs less than a couple of decoders. Horses for courses.

David, I've seen this happen so I'm keeping my 'railway' small (18" x 24" !) and simple. I'm actually more interested in the technical side rather than building something that looks like a model railway, if you see what I mean. The next one will probably be single track end to end with a couple of sidings at each end plus a couple of island platform stations along the way. Plenty of scope to get myself confused but pretty low cost. At my last club I was known to be the guy that did the stuff below railhead height. No actual modelling for me!

Thanks a lot. I'm off to (re) join MERG

Thanks, Grovenor. Can I just double-check that it will work for stationary locos in DC, i.e. that is not dependent on traction current?

Thank you, RAF96. I'll have a play with that, but I'm really after something that can be generalised to a more complex layout. Ideally I'd like an 'intelligent' layout that could handle any starting configuration of trains (just locos to start with) just as long as there are never two locos on the same block at start-up and there are a few empty blocks to allow movement.. As much as anything it's a logic exercise, but I want to be able to see if all my ideas work. The end result would look something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzyds8Oa9C0

Hello all, I've been out of things for a while but I'm just resurrecting a project to control a DC layout using an arduino. I'm starting simple with an oval and two locos. The idea is that they follow each other around the track, relying on block working and track circuits to avoid ever actually catching up. I need a track circuit design that wil work with a DC system and detect locos even when they are not moving (not relying on traction current for detection). Everything will be controlled by an Arduino, which will read any sensors including the track circuit outputs, set the signals and control the locos using PWM (I've already got that part working). The plan is to have four blocks with a track circuit on each one and a signal at the beginning of each block. All the time the track circuit can detect a loco in its block it sets the entry signal to red. If a loco enters a block where the following entry signal is red then it brakes gracefully to a halt just before the signal. Once the loco occupying that block moves to the next one the signal goes to green and the following loco can proceed. In its first incarnation I was using photocells to keep track of loco positions, but that caused much complication, both in circuitry and in coding. A proper occupancy track circuit should improve all this. I seem to remember that Roger Amos had a design, so I've ordered his book. His web site has disappeared and there are surprisingly few hits for his name on Google. Is he no more? Back in the day I was a member of MERG and their TOTI modules seem suitable. However, looking at their present catalogue they only seem to offer kits for a 2 channel DC TOTI, as against the original 12 channel PCB. I'd be happy to rejoin MERG if need be but if anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears. By the way, is it possible to change my username? Albert

In my (French, admittedly!) club we make a lot of use of choc blocks, but we always use ferrules on the end of flexi cable. We have one permanent (but transportable once or twice a year) layout that is about 90ft long including the back return loops. This sort of thing http://www.tme.eu/en/katalog/bootlace-ferrules_100041/