Leopard Street, LNER 1930's

[aleopardstail]

Episode 7 goes live at 18:20..

https://youtu.be/jnNTj62YETM

sticking lights in the signal box

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
Episode 7 goes live at 18:20..

[aleopardstail]

Have had another few hours in the cellar, board "B" (the plain running one along the back) is now wired up, powered up and working.

gave it a test after unboxing some Dapol "Whitby Brewery" vans that were a very nice price (sub £15 each)

close up of the wagons, which are perfectly serviceable

and finally had to have a go at a decent length train now there is actually space to marshal and drive it

Tomorrow is a bit of clearing up and some wiring experiments, for today though just happy to run a basic test

[aleopardstail]

not having a chance to do a lot this week, other commitments sadly.

however a few smaller jobs ticked off the list
- base for the signal box painted grey
- hole for wiring to the signal box drilled
- 12V bus terminal block for the signal box and other lights added and wired up
- signal box has gained a JST type socket for its wires, waiting more 7/02 wire to make a harness for it
- tip run to clear a lot of rubbish away
- experimented with Automatic Brake Control (Failed!)
- started a replacement board controller..

the final point is down to reliability, the previous one is coded using bits from online examples and on breadboard. this has caused various wiring issues with iffy connections and also has a habit of crashing.

new one is on stripboard, soldered power connection terminal, so far nothing else but the software talks to the WiFi in a more robust way - e.g. doing the bits the examples forget - like checking the WiFi is still connected and if not reconnecting, and the same for the MQTT stuff, a periodic check to see if its connected, and reconnect if its not - both with feedback (currently on screen only, plan is a red warning LED) and added a small "heartbeat" indicator to show all is good.. code gets a bit longer when you put the error checking in, needs to be left running a while to validate its all good.

so far its only listening for the light control messages, next step is to add in the light controller board and get that working reliably, means more fun with one of the dozen or so cable crimping tools I now have to make a small harness for it.

more stuff on order, some metal tags to get the Mainline J73 DCC enabled, wire noted above to get the signal box lights in, some more diodes to try the ABC thing again.

have been informed I am not about at the weekend.. so powering up the next board will have to wait sadly.

[aleopardstail]

Progress! well sort of, Hornby J52 now has a Zimo MX600 added and is part of the fleet

needs wheels cleaning, and some paint attention however shes running fine, can see some speed curve adjustments, typical Hornby 0-6-0t chassis with warp drive

[fourtytwo]

Progress! well sort of, Hornby J52 now has a Zimo MX600 added and is part of the fleet, can see some speed curve adjustments, typical Hornby 0-6-0t chassis with warp drive

Ha, you identified the one critical reason I would benefit from DCC, speed matching!
I am in the midst of designing my first semi-automatic layout for many years and I know this problem will bite me, same controller setting, many different trains, many different speeds.
I can remember measuring each one on a circle of track and burning my fingers soldering zener diodes inside the loco's to get an approximate speed match, but that was in N gauge (not much room) should be easier in OO

[aleopardstail]

Progress! well sort of, Hornby J52 now has a Zimo MX600 added and is part of the fleet, can see some speed curve adjustments, typical Hornby 0-6-0t chassis with warp drive

Ha, you identified the one critical reason I would benefit from DCC, speed matching!
I am in the midst of designing my first semi-automatic layout for many years and I know this problem will bite me, same controller setting, many different trains, many different speeds.
I can remember measuring each one on a circle of track and burning my fingers soldering zener diodes inside the loco's to get an approximate speed match, but that was in N gauge (not much room) should be easier in OO

the Q6 is the only one I have played with the speed curve in, shes got amazing low speed performance as a result, I think the rest will get a similar curve profile.

thinking being at low speed fine adjustment is useful, and it also gives a "logarithmic" feel to acceleration too as while the speed steps up gradually the steps are different sizes. where as at the top end or near it the difference between "very fast" and "a bit faster" seldom matters.

for my N gauge I tried to get stuff to be linear with each speed step being roughly 1mph. gave up when I realised my Class 47 wouldn't survive profiling its speed.. by the time it got to step 80 it was gasping (old model)

many many years back I did try the Zener method, on OO thankfully, without a huge amount of success it has to be said, did tame a few 0-4-0 to slightly more sensible speeds though.

Back on the layout a delivery arrived today, though won't have much chance to do much with it until next week now. 7/02 wire so the signal box can be properly wired up in place and some solder tabs to stick a decoder in a Mainline J73.. leaving me one more decoder which may end up in one of the N2 pair I have.

work started on the next DTC8 for board "A", doesn't add more than 2-3 foot to the running line length but needs doing. also printed more servo mounts. even before boards get wired I can add the servos to at least hold switch rails in place.

further tidying planned, a lot of Scalextric stuff in boxes that needs relocating to the loft which gives access under another board, and a load of stuff my youngest has dropped off needs moving to some shelves to get under another, load of plywood off cuts to go through and work out what are worth keeping and what are too small to be useful, then some more boxes for all the tools, bits of wire etc to actually clear the layout of the cruft that accumulates, even if only briefly before the pixies put it back again

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
and what are too small to be useful,

And the moment you chuck it out you'll want a piece just that size.

[aleopardstail]

aleopardstail wrote:
and what are too small to be useful,

And the moment you chuck it out you'll want a piece just that size.

oh yes, though when it comes to wire I tend to buy 100m reels, currently working on maybe a 40%-50% wastage on droppers, not overly concerned as its easier than measuring, bits longer than about 6" get kept, for a while at least..

8th video up

https://youtu.be/6H2mJU_yFos

Chipping and running the J52, even though she does like to run, she also crawls and walks nicely

[aleopardstail]

Another week, another board wired up.

Board "A" can now have trains running!

wasn't going to power the upper tracks but figured while I was there.. so its all done, this marks the point when half of the main loops is energised. Nest up is back round to the other end and board "H" where the DCC controller etc lurks, this is partly operational but will be brought fully to use, including the three turnouts and the diamond - first stage with the servos in but unpowered, then the board controller added...

the current controller is proving troublesome, a replacement is under constructions with proper wire connections which I hope will help, and re-written code which likewise should help, more logical and will make turning the screen off via a switch easier - plan is a push button to toggle screen on/off as when its under the board its not needed but useful for debugging stuff.

Board "A" panel

as you can see only the DTC8 is connected, here only five channels are used (so far, may never be more though)

[fourtytwo]

Progress indeed! Something I notice about servo's vs solenoids during construction is once fitted you cannot manually operate a servo point
I like your swing down ? boards for mounting the electronic pcb's on for easy access, I have to often made the mistake of screwing them directly under the layout and gotten burnt fingers and solder in nasty places as a result!

[aleopardstail]

Progress indeed! Something I notice about servo's vs solenoids during construction is once fitted you cannot manually operate a servo point
I like your swing down ? boards for mounting the electronic pcb's on for easy access, I have to often made the mistake of screwing them directly under the layout and gotten burnt fingers and solder in nasty places as a result!

swing down boards are pinched from Charlie over at Chadwick, however a career that has in part involved working as an electronics maintenance tech means "accessibility" is very much a consideration, there is also no soldering on the layout with the exception of the track to PCB sleepers at board edges, everything else is connectors.. for example tonight I got the signal box properly working, which means crimping a fair few JST XH connectors to make up some cables.

you can operate a servo point by hand, though from the underside, indeed I do it before they get powered up - servos go in to hold the point one way but can manually throw it to roll unpowered stock about.

indeed the work of tonight was to get the replacement board controller a step up, this now has the connector to interface to the TLC LED control board, and it works, after some rework.. had the "latch" pin of the controller, basically the bit that says 'oi! listen up' connected to a flashing LED.. doh.. also a solder whisker between the data and clock pin.. fixed those two and not so long as the wifi connection stays up it seems rock solid, variable brightness on the signal box LEDs too.

next step with that is a change to its power connector to go from screw terminals to plug & socket to make it practical to actually install then its unplug a few bits and remove the two mounting screws to work on it more. I also want to get the 16 channel I/O board hooked up properly as that means the relays and feedback from block occupancy can be set up (the block stuff first, relays will follow once the servo controller is moved over)

seems my hypothesis that a chunk of the reliability issues are down to the breadboard and snakes pit of Dupont connectors may have merit as the second board lacks those and it working perfectly

[aleopardstail]

More electrickery work, now have the 16 wire input/output expander for the first board properly wired up and working, with software adjusted to work with it. worked first time as well, suitable five pin cable to hook it up. did some video, needs editing etc and needs the software side doing. will probably add the servo controller before that makes an episode for the channel though.

Wifi strength is an issue, I could use an ESP32 with a proper antenna, however other issues in the house (the Sky Q router wifi is rubbish), so have a new access point on order (the student in the house was moaning about rubbish wifi when "working"..) if it works will get a second one for the cellar and use that

[fourtytwo]

I used a redundant DSL router as an access point to extend coverage, not exactly a repeater as it connects via an Ethernet cable and has a different network name but I was limited to what the vendors doctored software would let me do, it was free!!

I use ESP8266's as IOT devices with a simple pcb antenna and they seem good for about 20ft with the odd wall or two in the way but won't go any further.

Excuse my ignorance I may have missed it in the text way back somewhere but what does the new IO expander expand ?
Is it I2C and if so driven by what ?

[aleopardstail]

I used a redundant DSL router as an access point to extend coverage, not exactly a repeater as it connects via an Ethernet cable and has a different network name but I was limited to what the vendors doctored software would let me do, it was free!!

I use ESP8266's as IOT devices with a simple pcb antenna and they seem good for about 20ft with the odd wall or two in the way but won't go any further.

Excuse my ignorance I may have missed it in the text way back somewhere but what does the new IO expander expand ?
Is it I2C and if so driven by what ?

previous wifi had no issues driving the beasties with pcb antenna, even out in the garden, the sky Q one has the range of an asthmatic ant, and oh so yes on vendor crippled software

I/O expander is a PCF8575 16 bit I2C device, here driven by an ESP32., just gives 16 I/O lines, using 8 for block detection inputs to a MERG DTC8 module, four go to drive a quad channel relay board handing frog polarity and at present four are unused.

essentially the layout is currently 8 boards, will get a 9th at some point, to avoid a mess of wires between them each board is getting a single ESP32 to control it and all comms is managed using MQTT - thus one board can listen to topics about block occupancy on an adjacent one for signal interlocks or whatever else is desired.

its all basic, currently only one of the four wired up boards is "active", and that with a breadboard unreliable prototype, this working is a stripboard prototype to replace it which will, once it works, be converted to a PCB design which will be a lot smaller