aforsyth

Great info and useful screenshots, Richard, thank you. So is it pretty much working as you want it to? If you do combine this with a tablet running the JMRI Driver app or similar, it would be great to sit 10 feet away during the exhibition and watch the bewilderment as the layout seemed to operate itself! It's a novel control method to complement the great looking layout and trackplan, so I'm looking forward to see how you do the final landscaping and eventually how the exhibition goes (when is it?).

I would stick with what works, CFJ, since you're coding in a pretty controlled environment. In the worst case, you just put the code back in, assuming you keep a backup, and work out plan B. Have you asked Adafruit support about this? They seem quite helpful: https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=41608 Look forward to seeing your progress! Alan

Nick - great work. I've been thinking about doing the same sort of thing, after picking up an Arduino Uno recently and quickly getting it to control a couple of servos with minimal modifications to the free sample code provided. Such a great environment, just wish I could have been introduced to Arduinos and Raspberry PIs in my school days like many youngsters now! I'm interested in your supporting electronics - I'm assuming this is to drive the power-hungry servos, but is there more to it than that? Do you have a circuit diagram? Thanks! Alan

Thanks Rob. You're probably right about the sound effects, but at least if I can get a 'hollow' sound as the train goes over, that would be something. I also wondered about thin sheet aluminium, but I'll have to experiment. Great 'modelling and beer' evening today with you and Dave, thank you again. Two visits in a week - not sure if I can believe it! Hopefully the VITrains 47 weathering will work out; what was that colour we were using (no. 26 of what?). Anyway, a good mucky underframe colour I'll have to pick up myself! So back on topic - in the old Pallet Lane thread, you mentioned that your next project (at the time) would be based on carriage sidings. Does that still attract you, or with those nice scrap wagons you're weathering, is it going to be an even bigger scrapyard? Cheers, Alan

Hi Rob, Just want to thank you for the session on Sunday. It was great to meet you, and an inspiration to see this layout in operation (which had completely passed under my radar in the last year for some reason). I spent a couple of hours yesterday catching up on these threads on Pallet Lane and Peafore Yard yesterday. The latter has many scenic and operational aspects in common with my Trewartha Quay layout, so I'll be very glad for some 'consultation sessions' in future, if you're around! One query I have, which I've been pondering on but didn't find mentioned specifically (I think) in the last 18 pages here. What is the material used for the trackbed on your bridges? It looks like white plasticard or similar in the early pictures, but I'm not sure. A small goal I have for the river bridge on my layout is to make it 'audible' when trains are crossing. It bugs me when layouts have plate metal or similar underbridges built under the plywood/mdf/whatever trackbed, and there is no audible difference when trains cross them. I'm keen to experiment and see if using something hard and thin like plasticard (only) under the track will add that different sound, similar to prototype trains crossing a plate girder bridge? I have to admit though that I didn't think to listen to the '03 and '37 as they crossed your bridge on Sunday, I was too engrossed in playing trains on a great layout! Cheers, Alan

Well done Richard! Sounds like it's proving to be a great alternative control method, and as you say, the sky is the limit if you start customising the Android app. I would think that shouldn't be too hard once you get the Android SDK working, as you say (been there, experienced that!). Is the app source code made available? On the same note - I guess app customisation and custom board creation is the only way forward if you wanted to control more than 8 points, using some method of multiplexing via the Bee I/O ports? Or can you see some way to accomplish this without custom boards? The unidirectional communication is obviously limiting, but for such an apparently cheap wireless system (assuming Android or Apple phones and tablets are available), it doesn't deter from the attraction. Having said that, how much did the board and Bee cost you? Unfortunately I can't view the board links you provided to tinyosshop.com due to an apparent virus infection discovered on the site by my PC's (corporate) virus scanner. However, on Ebay it looks like the relay board and Bee would cost about 50 USD or so, is that accurate? Thanks, Alan

Thank you all for your help and responses, and my apologies if this was already covered elsewhere. I find it difficult to keep up with everything that's happening on RMweb these days, despite having subscribed to many diverse topics/forums. The Bachmann 64XX looks a beautiful model, so I may start the layout's steam collection with that and an autocoach, for passengers and occasional shunting, enabling stricter 'prototype practice' to later justify the purchase of a 57XX/8750!

Hi all, Mike's post leads on very well to a question I'm pondering, having never seen the prototypes in action, and would be glad on any advice. I'm trying my hand at building a small 50s/60s Cornish BLT with a couple of dock/freight sidings. From information I can gather, 54XX/64XX (and 16XX) pannier locos seemed to be quite typical of the motive power in Kernow at the time (do correct me, please, if I'm awry). If a 64XX with autocoach(es) arrived on a branch passenger, was it ever likely that the engine would uncouple and perform some shunting operations before re-coupling later for a return train, or would BR have always allocated shunting to a separate pannier or 08 instead? The earlier answer to a similar question suggests that 64XXes were never used for the odd freight work, even in their final years? Thanks, Alan

David - great. I bought my first Arduino (Uno) last week to play around with - although interlocking will not be the first project! Good luck with it - and let us know how you go. Cheers, Alan

Great Richard - looking forward to see those section switches too!

I am in the same sort of situation as Richard. I need a control panel for my new shunting plank layout, but initially this should also be some sort of movable control module for front or back of layout. Although I am going in the direction of computer control, the lack of tactile response from a phone or touch screen bothers me. I had thought of using a bank of budget secondhand Hornby levers, but a pictorial 'mimic' panel would certainly be better, and quicker to spot any potential problems in operation. I am planning to use an Arduino as the points controller for driving the point servos, so this could include a bluetooth or WiFi dongle - that looks relatively easy. It's the panel itself that is still hard to work out, as Richard says. I think it might have to be another mini battery-powered Arduino with BT module on the back of a cutom-made mimic panel controlling (and displaying) point positions. Does anyone know of a method to make (and easily modify later) such a mimic-type panel? I always remember the pictures of the old Hornby Zero1 mimic panels, where you just taped on your track diagram and plugged in the point LED pairs, making later modifications easy. They didn't, however, include switches for the points on the panels themselves. If only it would be that easy...? Richard - I'll be interested to know any solution you work out... Thanks, Alan

Hi Richard - that looks very interesting (i.e. controlling relays from Bluetooth-enabled devices). If you are more comfortable with creating a User Interface using standard web technologies (HTML5, JavaScript, CSS), then it now seems possible to send Bluetooth commands from iOS/Android devices via the open BCSphere client and JavaScript library, which you can then import into an HTML5 iPhone/Android app powered by the free PhoneGap framework or similar (many tutorials available). Therefore the layout plan would basically be a web page on the phone (BCSphere app library must be installed first, I think) that would send Bluetooth commands for points as required via the hierarchy of libraries mentioned. https://github.com/bcsphere/apps At the above link, there seems to be examples for contacting Arduino modules via their Bluetooth interfaces, and even controlling a car via Bluetooth, which should get you closer to what you might want. This is yet another area I would like to dabble in if I had the time... :-/ Good luck! Alan

Yes - assuming you do mean the IC2 connection, I think this is what the MegaPoints system uses to connect multiple ATMega / Arduino modules with four wires (two being the power rails). The 'siding ladder' video showing Arduino control posted by Simon earlier in this thread was Dave Fenton's prototype for MegaPoints. BTW - I am not trying to promote MegaPoints as such (too expensive for me), but I think it's a good example of what can be achieved for point/signal/crossing control using Arduino. Dave mentions on his site that he's sold 500 boards in one year, showing the rising demand for servo-based point controllers.

Hmmm... just found this topic thread. Locking logic is something I'd like to create too, perhaps as Simon and Robin discuss earlier via levers and LEDs connected to an Arduino / ATMega chip. Mike - excellent info there, thanks for compiling that. If you're able to set out the basic locking rules and conventions, it would help us 'lay' modellers to ensure we're on the right track. Simon - it looks like it's fairly easy to read in a CSV (comma separate values) data file to the Arduino during processing/upload: http://arduinobasics.blogspot.cz/2011/06/reading-text-or-csv-file-using.html So I guess you could create a template worksheet in Excel (perhaps with another sheet containing help info), which could then be saved as a CSV file for import to an in-memory Array by an initial Arduino 'import' routine. The template data would need to be in the form of a matrix I would think. I began to try to work out a simple structure for that, but then had a look at Mike's PW link above, which confirmed that prototypical locking is really complex, so I will wait for Mike's explanation before thinking on this further! Alan

Alan - I agree with you on cost - the 'clone' Arduinos seem to be very cheap, and for my limited requirements, I might just upgrade to an ATMega instead. If I can afford it, I would try to get an 'official' version, however, to try to support the Arduino project as much as I can. I think on reflection, the potential advantages of servo boards increase with a larger layout. If you had 80-odd points and signals to control, I'm guessing it would probably be a better investment to have one Arduino for control and 5 'slave' Adafruit servo boards, even if it initially costs slightly more, since you only have to update code / logic in one place (and hopefully accesssible!). The 'MegaPoints' solution developed by Dave Fenton costs £50 per custom ATMega328-based board, which supports 12 points/signals (http://loolee.org/megapoints/). He has put a lot of thought and work into his solution in the last year, which now includes a DCC module and Mimic-type panels to control and display point operation. Even so, £50 per 12 points (excluding panels and servos) would soon mount up for a large layout, particularly considering the ATMega328 chip (also the 'brain' of many Arduino boards) costs under £2. So again, the use of purpose-built servo boards compares well in this case, in cost too, assuming that the modeller is prepared to program an Arduino board / ATMega chip appropriately.

Thanks Simon - that's really useful for future reference. My current layout build is for a small shunting plank, so unfortunately a turntable won't be included soon. :-/ However - I've picked up my first Arduino (Uno) and got the initial 'blink' LED project working, so I'm away, although progress might be slow for a few weeks due to work. I've picked up a few small servos as well, so might have a go getting those working over the holiday. As a matter of interest, I discovered the following Adafruit servo driver board, which will power up to 16 servos (or many more if chained with more boards), with control selection provided digitally via a few outputs from an Arduino or Raspberry Pi: http://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/breakout-boards/adafruit/adafruit-pwmservo-driver-16-channel-12-bit-pca9685 Would this make sense (I probably need about 9 point servos and more for signals), or is it better to just use an Arduino Mega or similar with one output per point/signal from the Arduino? Thanks, Alan

Hi Simond - thanks for the links. I'm just wondering (since I haven't used Arduino yet, but am an IT geek) - is the ATMega2560 board in the last link really all you need for a programmable I/O solution via the Arduino spec? Then you download the free programmer software, connect up and you're away? If that's true, that's pretty good value for 10 quid, particularly as it even includes the USB cable! Thanks, Alan

Wonderful, thank you all! Far more detail and help than I expected, but true to the noble nature of RMweb. Excellent photos, too. It does seem that almost any ETH 'Western 47' could turn up in those days. I'll have to start hunting for a model of one of these. I have to say that this first pic from NCK below is amazing, and redoubles my hope to build an 80s Penzance layout one day.Sun, Sea and Such great locos! :-) Alan

Thought I should ask this question in a relevant topic, but please move if required! Cornish 47s I'd be interested to know if anyone recalls 'regular' Class 47s in Cornwall during the mid/late 80s, perhaps on Speedlink or express runs? In the excellent pictures BR(S) linked to above, most 47s seem to be in BR Blue (small logos), as I do remember them at that time, and I also recall seeing one or two GW green ones after '85 at Penzance during my fleeting visits. However, I'd like to purchase a Bachmann 47 eventually for Cornish action, so it would be great to be able to focus on a couple of real locos that would have been seen around at that time, which I can aim to model. Thanks for any help, and for the wonderful source of inspiration this Cornish forum is. Alan

A few minutes to go... just in case anyone missed the earlier posts, here's the Dawlish Beach livecam. Turn the sound up - you can hear the sea! http://www.dawlishbeach.com/live/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=18 Alan

Next post reaches p.100! Well done - but more so to the Orange Army... never to be forgotten, guys.

I think Missy does have a point, which has been aired before. For anyone new to the thread (as I was 40+ pages ago), it is difficult to pull out the news-worthy items to catch up. On the other hand, I have really enjoyed passively following the thread since then, and have learned a lot about pasties and official equipment terminology in addition to the impressive NR performance! It occurs to me that an improvement to the forum software (or perhaps thru the use of a script/tool) would be to filter all posts marked with 'Thanks' and 'Informative', etc. That would certainly pull out all CK's great material, along with many other valuable contributions! I'm going to miss this thread when it runs dry... Alan

Hi all - I'd be glad to know how things are going at St. Blazey during this cut-off period? Are the 66s hauling the clay CDAs between clay dries and docks as normal, or are there any changes to the schedule? I assume that trucks have taken over for the inland journeys - is this creating a lot of extra traffic? Apologies if this was answered earlier before I noticed this thread last week - I haven't had time to read pages #3 up to #40 or so! Thanks, Alan PS - Sterling work CK and colleagues - thank you!