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| Posted: Mon Oct 29th, 2018 08:03 pm |
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11th Post |
Steve P
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| Joined: | Fri Apr 20th, 2018 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
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I am starting to do the computer control/LCC R&D.
I have concluded that the CAN bus style of control will not work for my outdoor setup.
The RC Circuits power hub only provides 1/2 amp on its power bus,
while just ONE of my 3 searchlight poles consumes up to 2 amps!
Since my dead-rail engines require dependable WIFI coverage everywhere along the track,
I have decided to use WIFI enabled Arduino modules.
They're quite inexpensive and provide a lot of functionality in a small package.
This means my "bus" becomes a 2 wire 5v bus (with a LOT of amps).
It doesn't have to extend the length of the track,
but only exist where controls are needed, ie. depots, freight yards, etc.
If I can't get 110V to a particular depot,
I can park an Optima RedTop battery there for the season.
Hopefully the MKR1010 will provide adequate WIFI coverage with its internal antenna.
If not I can use a WIFI shield with one of the other Arduinos.
I have a 24 channel PWM shield working now,
enough control for 4 of the 3 searchlight towers, using only 4 bits of the Arduino.
Its SPI based, and can be daisy-chained, so you could control 4/8/12 or more towers.
They also make an i2c bus based 12 channel PWM servo driver board,
which I will be playing with to make tortoise style switch controllers.
Steve P
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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Steve P
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| Joined: | Fri Apr 20th, 2018 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
| Posts: | 179 |
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Hi,
I built a few dwarf prototypes.
I think I'll use ABS plastic for the stands next time.
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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| Posted: Mon Nov 12th, 2018 06:39 pm |
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13th Post |
Steve P
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| Location: | Colorado USA |
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My latest production prototype of a 3 searchlight pole.
I'm pretty happy with it at this point.
Have to rework the electronics,
the LM317s I am using can't drive the green/blue segments to full current with a 5v supply.
Steve P
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19th, 2018 08:26 pm |
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14th Post |
Steve P
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| Location: | Colorado USA |
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Hi,
I have prototyped an RFID reader for tracking the movement of rolling stock.
It is based on an Adafruit Feather WiFi mcu, and up to 8 PN532 RFID readers.
By placing the readers on ends of different track sections and a RFID tag on each car,
I can determine the position of all cars at any time.
Next I need to design a weatherproof enclosure for the reader that fits under a section of track.
Steve P
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11th, 2019 10:54 pm |
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15th Post |
Steve P
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Hi,
I sent the RFID design out to fab, just got the boards back.
This is the front, back, and most parts "in place". No soldering yet.
I need to ring out a few traces before starting real assembly.
They sure look nice,
and will be MUCH more reliable than point-to-point solder tacking!
Steve P
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14th, 2019 06:04 pm |
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16th Post |
| Posted: Mon Jan 14th, 2019 06:27 pm |
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17th Post |
Steve P
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Si,
Thanx, I'm happy...
The 1st RFID reader is fully functional and tested.
I need to wire the additional 4 card readers I have and see how it works with 5 cards at once.
Then I can start the higher level code that determines the location of rolling stock by track section.
I have done about 95% of the work on laying out the high power LED controller PCB.
It will drive up to 24 3Watt LED segments (ie 12 Red/Yellow/Green signals)
as well as up to 48 20mA LEDs.
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17th, 2019 06:45 pm |
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18th Post |
Steve P
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Hi,
I realized I would need an indoors test track,
so switched gears for a few days and built a table in the dining area.
Setup a Yard Master and placed a card reader under the track.
Stuck a paper rfid tag on the underside of a passenger car.
Started up the client software on a desktop, connected to the Yard Master via wifi,
then moved the car as quickly as possible back and forth over the reader several times:
$ ./LWClient feather2 2390 b
command to feather2 (10.11.12.143): "b" response from feather2: "Success "
response from feather2: "Reader: 0, Road mark: BLR877222 (UID: a6:62:5d:42)"
response from feather2: "Reader: 0, Road mark: BLR877222 (UID: a6:62:5d:42)"
response from feather2: "Reader: 0, Road mark: BLR877222 (UID: a6:62:5d:42)"
response from feather2: "Reader: 0, Road mark: BLR877222 (UID: a6:62:5d:42)" |
So proof of concept is complete, this is going to work!
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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Steve P
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| Joined: | Fri Apr 20th, 2018 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
| Posts: | 179 |
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Hi,
The boards shown in the last post are all based on the Arduino platform,
but are definitely NOT your father's board.
The SAMD is an amazing amount of power in a tiny package.
I've re-thought the idea of mounting Wifi based mcus on the controller boards,
and instead am standardizing on separate mcus, with i2c buses for connectivity.
My main depot/freight yard area would have used over a dozen wifi/mcu boards,
a management headache for sure.
Three of the Grand Centrals, with Ethernet connectivity, should handle the same workload.
The connectors on Arduino style boards are great for breadboarding,
but poor for rugged, permanent connections.
So I built what I call a "Base Shield".
Similar to the Arduina stacking shields, but designed for the mcu to plug into it.
It has "standardized" 2x5 IDC socket connectors for the IO.
There are 2 8-bit analog ports, 2 8-bit digital ports, a Serial port, and six i2c ports.
This will allow me to run multiple controllers on each system.
This pic shows the Base with a Grand Central stacked above it,
and an ehternet shield on top:
____________________
Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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Current time is 07:29 pm | Page: 1 2 3 4 |
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has worked out real well !
I wouldn't want to have to hardwire one of those up using 6SN7s sonny 
