Leopard Street, LNER 1930's

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
may start humming next time

[aleopardstail]

no pics, hopefully another video (and will do some stills) in the works.

End board "E"

has been removed, which worked to my amazement first time. five bolts removed and two electrical connectors and out it came. clamped to the workbench and its now got nearly all the wires done. two point frogs are wired to the control relays but the relay inputs to the bus lacking as I ran out of fork terminal connectors (more on order, along with more 7/0.2 wire as moving to using relays instead of switches means using more string)

servo mounts, revised without the switch mounts, currently reprinting. busy week ahead so may not get much more done, board still on its end for easier access. I have however done some basic electrical testing and it seems to work. the currently unpowered relays are all being configured so unpowered equates across the whole layout to "straight ahead running" through points and junctions. thus board E is set for the incline not the actual loop. once the servos are added and I start with the actual control board I can power the relays up.

not bad for five hours on an afternoon, two of which were related to building the DTC8 module. with a bit of luck next weekend will see the servos in, some wires to add lighting to the signal box (to a connector probably).

oh yes, and I had "help"

not sure if the track inspection passed of failed but the furry lump fell asleep on it anyway

[Mountain]

Cats love sleeping on shunting yards! Any open areas of scenery! They think we create little worlds for them!

[aleopardstail]

Had to pop back down for something nice out of the fridge.

the end board as it currently sits, I know this layout has gradients but this is excessive.

this is the now wired electrical panel, all the control gear still to add but had the relays and block detection hardware in place and largely wired

the actual rats nest under the board, more tame than it was

[Phred]

Looking at that picture of Catzilla, I wonder if the 'furry lump' might be somehow employed as a track cleaner...

[aleopardstail]

Looking at that picture of Catzilla, I wonder if the 'furry lump' might be somehow employed as a track cleaner...

trouble is while she is seriously good at collecting dust the cat hair that gets left being just loves gear wheels and electrical pickups

using that cretin as a paint roller has been considered

[aleopardstail]

more connecters arrived, have now got the first board wired up and electrically tested..

final wiring into the relay board. top two in the image are the points, set for straight running as planned. bottom pair handle the diamond, wired the same (note the upper and lower relays reverse the brown and blue wires).

next job, at the weekend some time, is to get the point servos added. for now they will be calibrated to be centred for the installation and the actuator wire added but unlikely to be powered up just yet - once fitted will manually push them to "straight ahead" to hold the switch rails then ready to go back in.

there are still lighting wires for the signal box to install, however the signal box lacks lights and the control board isn't ready so that can wait.

hopefully will have the board back in Sunday and trains running on it.. small progress but its something

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
hopefully will have the board back in Sunday and trains running on it.. small progress but its something

Looking forward to seeing that.

[Dad-1]

Something to be impressed by !!

It's almost a relief that I'm past even dreaming of something
so big and complex. I lived the the red/black/green wire
era, O.K it was/is DCC.

Geoff T

[Peterm]

Looking at that picture of Catzilla, I wonder if the 'furry lump' might be somehow employed as a track cleaner...

trouble is while she is seriously good at collecting dust the cat hair that gets left being just loves gear wheels and electrical pickups

using that cretin as a paint roller has been considered

[aleopardstail]

first part of the wiring video, cut at 15 minutes as thats all I can (currently) upload

https://youtu.be/aHkaJJImNxw

will be adding a second part later, this one covers how the layout can be taken apart, the current state of the wiring, bus wiring and how the first board will work - ending with a demonstration of incompetence as the actual wiring starts

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
first part of the wiring video, cut at 15 minutes as thats all I can (currently) upload

https://youtu.be/aHkaJJImNxw

Wow - this layout is so brilliantly thought out, especially the modular aspect.

[aleopardstail]

aleopardstail wrote:
first part of the wiring video, cut at 15 minutes as thats all I can (currently) upload

https://youtu.be/aHkaJJImNxw

Wow - this layout is so brilliantly thought out, especially the modular aspect.

I have learnt a lot putting this together and there is a fair bit I'd do differently..

like have the plywood sides but stripwood end sections to have something firm to secure stuff too. or got 4mm ply but use it to clad a stripwood frame

oh yes, and measure and cut more accurately so the damned thing is square.

it does come apart easily, using WiFi for control cuts down the wires - though it would be a two wire RS485 bus so not hugely so. I'm just hoping it goes back together...

[aleopardstail]

Done a bit more work, though not really photograph worthy as mostly prep

for example, I now have the Arduino IDE working on the cellar Linux PC, which was an interesting journey into obscure error messages and a "complete" software package missing various important parts..

then re-worked the prototype board controller software slightly so instead of listening for "track/turnout/1" it listens to "track/turnout/En" where N can be 1-16, but the "E" is the board identifier - this specifically so at no point do I have to work out which pin "turnout 37" is connected to, it will be "what board"? and "what pin on the controller?"

same for lights, and re-worked the sensors to use sensible names. it won't (yet) drive the frog relays, I need to change on chip on the board for one with 16 I/O lines instead of 8 to do that, but it will let me drive the servos.

revised servo mounts now printing and a pair of servos calibrated.

job for tomorrow is episode 3 of the video series covering the rest of the wiring and also to set up episode 4 covering adding the point motors and then get it all re-connected and hopefully tested

that or explode the planet, one or the other

[aleopardstail]

Video to edit and get out, however that board is now back in situ, both point servos installed (though not yet powered up in situ) and I have tested with trains running and it works, the block detection board got some jump leads added and that is working as intended as well.

while I fiddle about with the details of the coding and the control board I will hopefully this week continue with track laying around the incline and can then move round to powering the next few boards up one by one.

one notable issue, a slight dogleg is present on a board join that wasn't there before, needs sorting out - stuff runs over it but its worth sorting even if it means remove and relay the track there.

plus side though the Railroad A1 Flying Scotsman managed the planned four coach rake up the curved 20" radius without any issues, and a goods rake was fine with the A6 on the inner 18". notable as this section of track is steeper than intended (mean to be ~ 1:50, its closer to 1:28 pending some baseboard work)