Electronics
More Wires
10 April 2012 01:35
After saying I was going to finish up the DCC electronics several times, I’ve finally made a start. There are two parts to this. The first is finishing up the remaining DCC power protection and occupancy detector panels. I did the first three tables last year, starting around January. The third was the first I’d done as a removable panel, which I wired up back in November. At the same time I’d begun the work of setting up a third accessory power bus, adding a switch and meter to the main panel. However at that point I’d stalled, with my attention off the layout over the holidays, and when I returned it was to work on buildings.
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DCC Power II
27 November 2011 22:01
The DCC Power work continues, but it’s still not done, as I have to do the power panels for the urban scene and the unsceniced return loops, but with the panel I built and tested back in September/October finally installed under the tables of the River Crossing scene, I’m at the halfway mark (having done the Riverside Station scene back in March).
To recap, the board contains a PM42 DCC circuit breaker that provides four separate circuit breakers and a BDL168 occupancy detector that can provide up to sixteen occupancy detectors and eight transponding sensors (see my pages on occupancy detection and the BDL168 for more details). This board provides occupancy detection for six electrical blocks, two each on the commuter tracks and one on each subway track where it loops below the expressway. Although I’m also wiring up the transponding sensors, as mentioned previously I’m having doubts about them due to problems in testing and the anticipated low power draw of my trains being borderline to register on them.
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To recap, the board contains a PM42 DCC circuit breaker that provides four separate circuit breakers and a BDL168 occupancy detector that can provide up to sixteen occupancy detectors and eight transponding sensors (see my pages on occupancy detection and the BDL168 for more details). This board provides occupancy detection for six electrical blocks, two each on the commuter tracks and one on each subway track where it loops below the expressway. Although I’m also wiring up the transponding sensors, as mentioned previously I’m having doubts about them due to problems in testing and the anticipated low power draw of my trains being borderline to register on them.
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Fun with JMRI II and September 2011 Status
07 October 2011 22:57
I’ve been playing around with JMRI some more, and trying to debug my transponding problem with the first of the electronics boards. This is really baffling. I checked the wiring, and it was fed through the RX sensor properly. I replaced BOTH the PM42 and the BDL168 circuit boards (I’ve got a stack of them waiting for more electronics boards once I get this one working) and I tried using other blocks. And I had more transponding sensor failures. On both sets of RX sensors. One defective set I might accept, but two?
So I tried a variety of things, and noticed that the non-functional detectors would, every once in a while, work. In fact, I discovered that with the train motionless, one of them would periodically cycle from detection to non-detection, emitting a LocoNet message reporting the change in status each time. I tried moving the wires. I pulled a fresh RX1 set out of a bag, and set it up atop a trash can (see above) with every wire fed through it fully separated from every other wire in mid-air (about the middle of this I was holding things in both hands and wishing I had a third arm). And that failed too, reliably as it were.
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So I tried a variety of things, and noticed that the non-functional detectors would, every once in a while, work. In fact, I discovered that with the train motionless, one of them would periodically cycle from detection to non-detection, emitting a LocoNet message reporting the change in status each time. I tried moving the wires. I pulled a fresh RX1 set out of a bag, and set it up atop a trash can (see above) with every wire fed through it fully separated from every other wire in mid-air (about the middle of this I was holding things in both hands and wishing I had a third arm). And that failed too, reliably as it were.
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Fun with JMRI
28 September 2011 00:52
Some weeks I don’t get much done. Well, that’s not quite true, I did a lot of work on the website this week, but the railroading time suffered. I did find some time to play with the test track I’d set up last week though, configuring JMRI to report block status based on the BDL168 outputs.
If you’re not familiar with JMRI it’s a free software package that allows a computer to interact with any of several DCC command stations that support computer interfaces, including Digitrax. It’s also available for Windows, Linux and Macs. And while not the most Mac-like program, it works, even on the ten-year-old iMac I’m using for the layout controller.
So what I have is a test track that’s an oval divided into two electrical blocks, each connected to an output of the BDL168. I named them, creatively enough, “One” and “Two”. And I used the Layout Panel editor to draw a schematic of the track. When displayed, red shows occupied (it’s configurable) and green shows clear. Even on my old computer, the change is nearly instantaneous once the locomotive crosses the insulated rail joiners from one block to the other.
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If you’re not familiar with JMRI it’s a free software package that allows a computer to interact with any of several DCC command stations that support computer interfaces, including Digitrax. It’s also available for Windows, Linux and Macs. And while not the most Mac-like program, it works, even on the ten-year-old iMac I’m using for the layout controller.
So what I have is a test track that’s an oval divided into two electrical blocks, each connected to an output of the BDL168. I named them, creatively enough, “One” and “Two”. And I used the Layout Panel editor to draw a schematic of the track. When displayed, red shows occupied (it’s configurable) and green shows clear. Even on my old computer, the change is nearly instantaneous once the locomotive crosses the insulated rail joiners from one block to the other.
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DCC Power I
20 September 2011 23:27
After assembling the first of my DCC protection and Occupancy Detection boards, I decided I wanted to test it and get some experience with using it. So I set up my loop of test track with insulated rail joiners separating it into two halves, and connected the feeder to outputs 1 and 2 of the BDL168, which correspond to RX4 A, detectors A & B. All of these are powered by PM42 section 1. For DCC, I used my Zephyr, and for the DC supply I used the 2 Amp, 12 Volt supply I plan to use for these systems (it’s the black box just above the Zephyr in the photo above). Powering it up, nothing went “Zap!”, which I count as a success.
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Back On Track
11 September 2011 22:24
After two months spent working on the website move, I’m back to working on (and playing with!) the railroad. That doesn’t mean I’m done with the website stuff. There are still pages left to convert, and a few problems to solve, and I’ll have more to say on that down below. But the new one is up and running, and relatively problem-free. And I’d budgeted this weekend to model railroad work in case there were problems, so I had some free time on my hands. I celebrated by getting the outer loop wired up and running a couple of trains. Then I turned my attention to working on the DCC protection and occupancy detection circuits so I can get the other two loops up and running.
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May 2011 Status, Trams and Signmaking
03 June 2011 23:44
After a relatively quiet winter and spring, work on the layout is picking up (most people do this in the winter, but I don’t seem to work that way). As mentioned in the last musing, I spent most of May working on the subway station of the Riverside Station scene. And I’m still basking in the glow of completing that. I go down to the basement every few days and turn the station LEDs on just to grin at it for a few minutes and think: it’s done, I actually finished something!
A big part of that was making signs using found photographs and graphics images. I’d described that briefly earlier in the month, but hadn’t gone into much detail. This method worked out very well, and I used it to produce the station platforms signs (using images from Tōkyō Metro’s website plus my own text), the subway maps (using an online map, vastly reduced in size), the advertising billboards (from photos found online), and even the vending machines on the platform (from photographs of real ones found on Flickr).
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A big part of that was making signs using found photographs and graphics images. I’d described that briefly earlier in the month, but hadn’t gone into much detail. This method worked out very well, and I used it to produce the station platforms signs (using images from Tōkyō Metro’s website plus my own text), the subway maps (using an online map, vastly reduced in size), the advertising billboards (from photos found online), and even the vending machines on the platform (from photographs of real ones found on Flickr).
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Plans for an Arduino-based Tram Controller
13 February 2011 23:13
Today I want to mention one of my other projects: the control system for the Tram line of the Urban Station scene. Now this is a simple, short, out-and-back line, which exists mainly to give me an excuse to buy some of the Tōkyū Setagaya line light-rail vehicles (see the Tram section of my Roster) and to experiment with Tomix’s mini-rail Finetrack. So far I’ve run this manually, with a Kato powerpack. But I want to automate it, since the trams are just supposed to be background activity to make the station look busier, as I concentrate on running my commuter and express EMUs and freight trains.
The problem I had was that I wanted to replicate a two-track line with unidirectional running, and a single track station at each end that let the trains switch between the two tracks, and I wanted to do this with more than one tram running at a time. The track I’m using has slip switches, which allow a train to run through them even with the switch set against it. This lets me leave the switch in one position, and have a train enter the end station from one track and leave on the other, without any switch-control needed. Read More...
The problem I had was that I wanted to replicate a two-track line with unidirectional running, and a single track station at each end that let the trains switch between the two tracks, and I wanted to do this with more than one tram running at a time. The track I’m using has slip switches, which allow a train to run through them even with the switch set against it. This lets me leave the switch in one position, and have a train enter the end station from one track and leave on the other, without any switch-control needed. Read More...
Kato Lightboard Flickering II
20 November 2010 02:50
I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about light. First it was the layout lighting, then it was the flickering interior lights, which annoyed me when I detailed my first commuter EMU, and which I wrote about nearly two months ago when I did the original planning for a flicker-prevention circuit. Now I’m back, having built several prototypes and refined my design. I think I have a winning solution.
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A Matter of Time
11 November 2010 23:18
Railroads have always been concerned with time. Early ones used timetables alone to keep trains on the same track from colliding. This didn’t work very well, particularly given the accuracy of mid-1800‘s pocket watches and the lack of synchronized time sources, and many lives were lost. Signaling systems and other protection methods were gradually developed. But timetables continued to be important for all trains in scheduling the use of tracks even with other systems used for protection, and timetables were required for passenger trains, as trains from different places needed to coordinate their arrival and departure at interconnection points, so passengers could move smoothly from one to the next as part of a longer journey. Railroads gradually developed standards for time-keeping (and they’re responsible for the adoption of the standard time zones used in the U.S.), and also influenced the development of clocks and watches to provide accurate and synchronized time sources.
Japanese passenger trains today are famed for their obsessive adherence to schedules, with deviations measured in seconds, not minutes. So it only seems reasonable that a model railroad of a Japanese passenger line should operate to timetable (well, eventually,I need a yard/staging tracks before that will be much fun).
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Japanese passenger trains today are famed for their obsessive adherence to schedules, with deviations measured in seconds, not minutes. So it only seems reasonable that a model railroad of a Japanese passenger line should operate to timetable (well, eventually,I need a yard/staging tracks before that will be much fun).
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Kato DCC Decoders and a Decoder Tester
18 September 2010 00:05
Now that I have some real working track, I’m even more motivated to get some of my trains converted to DCC (so far there’s just one, the Jōban E231 described on my Adding DCC and Lights page). So, back I go to the hell that is Kato “DCC Friendly” decoder installation. Really, the marketing person who thought that phrase up was truly evil. There’s nothing friendly about this process. DCC doesn’t have to be hard, but with Kato it all too often is.
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Myths The Internet Told Me and August 2010 Status
04 September 2010 01:54
The Internet is a wonderful invention. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to order trains from halfway around the globe and have them delivered in under a week, nor would I have any idea of the difference between an E233-1000 and an E233-2000 (both are commuter trains, but the 2000 is a narrow-bodied variant with a end door for emergency exits; this model runs through onto the Chiyoda subway and nobody makes a model of it yet, but I want one). I hear that some people have more serious uses for the Internet, as well.
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LocoNet: A DCC Control Bus
28 August 2010 03:32
DCC is really about getting power and control information to the track. But there’s another side to it: how do the commands from the throttle (the controls) get to the DCC system, and how do different parts of the DCC system communicate with each other? The first part isn’t covered by the NMRA’s DCC standards, so each manufacturer does the throttle-to-command-station link in their own proprietary manner. The second part is partially standardized, as the NMRA has Recommended Practice RP-9.1.2 Power Station Interface to describe how a command station sends commands to booster stations, but they don’t say anything about how devices like stationary decoders or occupancy detectors report their status, although there’s a draft of a standard for an “NMRAnet” control bus being developed which will probably fill this gap, someday.
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Track Voltage, Motor Voltage, and DCC
22 August 2010 19:38
As I’m finishing up the wiring for the two upper-level loops (one of which will be DCC-only, the other will be the switchable DC/DCC line), I’m also getting my DCC electronics set up and ready for use. There are several aspects to this, and I’ll cover others in future musings. But today I’m going to write about track and motor voltage. I could have just used the command station as it came, and it probably would have worked fine. But I like understanding exactly what’s going on under the hood, and so I ran a number of tests and spent some time researching what the track voltage should be, and why, and what that meant for the motor on a train. And if I ever add a booster, it will be important for it and the command station to be set to output the same voltage (this avoids problems when a train bridges between two power districts), so I may as well pick a voltage now.
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Grade Crossing Plans
30 July 2010 00:26
I should be building the topography under the soon-to-be Riverside Station scene’s Commuter Station, instead I’m still obsessing over the scenery where that scene meets the River Crossing scene, and specifically the exact design of the grade crossing I’m going to build there, someday.
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Scotty I Need More Power!
25 July 2010 00:12
DCC doesn’t need to be complicated. At the simplest, it’s a pair of bus wires from the command station running under the track, with feeders connecting the track to it at intervals. I can, however, make anything complicated. Probably more complicated than it needs to be. It’s a talent.
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More Electrical Work
20 June 2010 23:16
Rather than turning my attention immediately to the Riverside Station scene, I decided to get the electrical systems ready for the eventual use of the two “ground level” loops, which will require DCC. And that meant I needed to finalize my plans. And although most of them had been worked out last year, and revised (in my head if nowhere else) over the winter, there was still a bit of planning needed before I was ready to start cutting wire. This had to encompass the DCC systems (both power and the LocoNet control bus) as well as the various power strips to supply them, and some additional power supplies for eventual LED lighting. I’d started thinking more intensely about this while I was working on the wiring recently, but needed to bring that to conclusion and write down the results.
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Kato Modular Buildings
21 May 2010 19:43
Today I’ll turn my attention to what goes atop the scenery: buildings. There’s going to be much more on this, and I’ve created a Structures section of the website with its own index page to contain such material, but so far it’s pretty vacant. Today’s post introduces the first page there, describing Kato’s modular multi-story buildings.
Kato makes several modern six-story buildings that are generic enough to use in any city, although they also include signs to decorate them for a Japanese one. But what really makes these buildings special is that they’re modular, and while Kato doesn’t sell the floor units separately, you can combine two or more buildings to make some reasonably tall structures. Read More...
Kato makes several modern six-story buildings that are generic enough to use in any city, although they also include signs to decorate them for a Japanese one. But what really makes these buildings special is that they’re modular, and while Kato doesn’t sell the floor units separately, you can combine two or more buildings to make some reasonably tall structures. Read More...
It’s Alive! - November 2009 Status
29 November 2009 20:19
Work has been progressing more slowly than I’d like, and the first level of foam has yet to be glued down, or the subway track installed. The backdrops were taken down and repainted in a lighter shade of blue, and I’m much happier with them now. Read More...
Inaugural Train
06 November 2009 23:21
The first train ran tonight. As you can see, the table is still a bit unfinished. I added the legs and framing for the end that won’t have scenery, and put down the plywood for the subway level return loop. Read More...
