Activating WIFI in an NCE PROCAB Throttle

On Monday morning I opened up my WNI-32 package I purchased from Model Railway Craftsman at the Great Train Show at Rosehill on last Saturday morning.

I pulled all the items out of the plastic bag.  I had a scan through the instructions, and they seemed pretty straight forward.  I got my Procab throttle from the shed, and unscrewed the various screws on the back of the throttle.  I also took off the lid from the battery compartment.  I added the two battery clips with wire to the bottom of the battery case in my NCE Procab throttle.  Next, I added the double battery clip to the top of the battery compartment.  I scratched my head a bit about the plug that the two battery wires went into.  I read the instructions again and found out that the clip was to have a small screw driver inserted and the wires went into the other half.  I did that and gave the wires a small tug and they were firmly seated.  I drilled a hole in the top of the back of the Procab just were the LED was to go through.  I used the double sided tape to seat the WifiTrax module to the back of the Procab case.  I added the 9 pin cable between the wifi module and the Procab mother board in the throttle.  Now for the test.  I pushed the Emergency Stop (Red) Button on the throttle, and to my sheer amazement, the throttle sprung into life.    I am not calling it my PROCAB-W throttle.  The w for wifi.  So I then turned the throttle off.

I then went to the shed, turned on the layout power at the wall to energise the NCE 5 Amp system and the cab bus.  I turned on the layout master (Knife) switch, and plugged my Procab throttle into the cab bus.  I addressed a loco on the track in Grafton Yard and the lights came on.  So that was good.  When I power up my NCE system, it also powers up my layout WFD-30 wifi system.  I unplugged the NCE throttle, and then hit the Emergency Stop Button on the throttle.  It sprung into life, detected my Wifitrax WFD-30 card and my PROCAB-W was live on wifi.  Whoo Hoo!  I dialed up the loco I just addressed in Grafton Yard and the loco was in 128 speed step mode.  So I hit the 28/128 button and it was back in my normal 28 speed step mode and I was driving the loco and turning on/off functions.

It could not be simpler.  I can now take my Procab to anyone’s layout that has wifi and control a loco if they have a WifiTrax Module.  I then found the manual and read it the section that allows me to join my throttle to a home network.  So I did the reading and tried to turn on my shed network – which it found, and then I struggled to enter the wifi password.  To make things simple I just pressed the WPS button on my modem, and the throttle connected to the shed wifi network.  However, once I did this, it seemed to not connect to my WFD-30 directly and always wanted to then connect to my shed wifi network, which was a little difficult when it was not turned on.  Maybe I should read the manual again and work through it slower.

My aim is to have it set up for my PROCAB-W throttle to fire up on either the shed wifi network with its password, or if it cannot see that network, fall back to the WFD-30 network directly.  Maybe that is not possible.  Time and more reading will tell.

I have since taken my WFD-30 to a mate’s place along with my PROCAB-W throttle and showed it off.  He was impressed.  I also took it to the Tuesday Nighters meeting last night and talked about it.  I think at least one person is about to buy their very own WNI-32 to install into their Procab throttle.

WifiTrax WNI-32 module installed inside my NCE Procab.  Now I can use wifi with my NCE PROCAB-W throttle.

Epic Trip to Rosehill

On Monday I continued the creation of the baseboard from Sunnybank towards Rocklea Siding.  I now have it all laid, and am was using ice cream buckets to temporarily lift the baseboards up from the level below.  I also lifted up the storage shelf that I have sitting above Acacia Ridge Yard on the left hand side as you enter the shed.  This was lifted by about 5cm.  I think I need to take it up by another one or two centimetres still.  The track has started to make its way further north from Sunnybank.

On Tuesday I made a pilgrimage to Bunnings and picked up some more steel rod and some threaded rod.  It turned out that the 3’ length of threaded rod cost me $0.50.  The guy at the checkout scratched his head at the price.  I then cut up some rod and installed them around the next 6-8 feet of the Sunnybank deck.  The progress is pleasing.  I also did my flight check-in for the trip to Sydney.

On Wednesday I did a bit more baseboard stabilisation with the threaded rod keeping the baseboard at Sunnybank above Acacia Ridge as I worked back towards Rocklea Siding.

Thursday was the start of a big adventure.  It was a trip to the airport with Darren and Geoff and then meeting up with another 9 people in our group for the beginning of our epic trip to Rosehill.  We made it to Sydney and then met up with someone who flew direct from Toowoomba and someone from Perth.  We then jumped into a car and bus and went to Campbelltown to our first night's accommodation.  We checked in and then made the local trip to see Paul Cassar.  What a nice layout.  Then back to the RSL for dinner. 

Friday was layout tour day.  We had breakfast in Campbelltown then hit the road south.  We visited Paul Barron’s place and watched a couple of trains out from his garage, as well as on his layout.  Then to Steve Pettit’s place and a tour to his layout.  Then lunch at a pub.  Again we hit the road and went to Tim’s place and were blown away.  An amazing layout.  We then hit the road back to North Ryde, checked in and then had dinner at a 2^nd rate Chinese Restaurant up the road from the Motel where they could not speak Engrish and mixed up many an order.

Saturday was the first of the days that really mattered.  Breakfast down the road followed by a trip to Rosehill Racecourse for The Great Train Show put on by the Epping Model Railway Club.  We saw quite a few Queenslanders and had a look at many great exhibits.  I spent some coin and I am now in trouble with the boss.  I caught up with quite a few people from NSW, Canberra and Melbourne, as well as a few banana bender mates.  We went back to the motel, freshened up and then went to Marcus’s place.  We bought some beers on the way and no sooner than we arrived and had a refreshing ale, we had our dozen pizzas arrive.  This was followed by apple tart and ice-cream and then to the train room.  A couple of the guys had not been there before and were running trains.  I sat and discussed a few DCC issues and developments with Marcus, in between him servicing the train drivers.  We finally got home late.

Sunday it was a bit of a rinse and repeat.  Breakfast, Rosehill again, talking to plenty of people, and then buying some more much needed items.  One item that was handed over to me was an item that Rohan picked up at the Secondhand Stall at the exhibition the previous day, of which I was texted a photo of just as the gates opened.  I was awe struck and needed that item.  Rohan purchased it, and finally handed it to me after a bit of a negotiation and a some stirring from him and mates that it was going to someone else's home.  It is a Rails North 2 car 2000 Class railmotor kit set with mechanism.  I have bogies and other detail items to complete the set, so I have given myself 3 weeks to build and complete this kit.  I will bring it to Tuesday Nighters this Tuesday so a few others can check it out.  We also saw Arthur andf Kerrie from up the road, down at the Rosehill Exhibition.  Early afternoon we hit the road to the airport, and returned our hire bus at its home so we could catch a lift back to the airport.  Given that their moves to the airport were in a smaller bus than ours, we had to repack our gear onto the bus and get back on it and go to the airport.  Everyone had a laugh, but good thinking by the hire company staff.  We had 11 in our 12 seater bus.  Our plane left a bit late (12 minutes), but the pilot had his foot down all the way to Brisbane.  We landed 15 minutes early just before the storm hit.  We got off the plane, and the ground crew began unloading our luggage.  But some of the luggage got off, but most of our group's luggage did not, and we had to wait about an hour and half to get it off the baggage carousel as two storms hit and the airport shutdown.  No problem with that, but we could see it outside the luggage doors.  That is wrong.  Given that Geoff was bumped from our flight for a flight two hours later, Darren’s wife came and picked us up from the airport.  But she herself had to wait for the storm to pass over.

What a great weekend.  Thanks to all those who were a part of it.  Plenty to plan for next week, so that will be discussed next weekend.  There may be a mid-week post with actual photos of this last weekend.  But what happens on tour stays on tour.

Sunnybank Gets More Focus

Monday I continued laying some track around the new Sunnybank Station on the expanded 12mm section of the layout.  I have temporary also taken the track to a point at the northernmost end of Acacia Ridge, as the trackage at Sunnybank where all the tracks start to spread out into Sunnybank will be above this same point, on the next level.  This sits on a baseboard about 9 inches above Acacia Ridge Yard.

Tuesday was our scheduled Tuesday Nighters gathering.  The guys were most enthusiastic in urging me to continuing the layout further south to Kuraby.  But they were just taking the piss.  In the shed, they looked at the Sunnybank extension, and then after a while, they all grabbed a brew and we all went to the pergola for ongoing discussions and some biscuits, cake and chips.  We seem to have agreed on a get together for a run to Doomben for morning tea and then Lunch out at Ferny Grove in early November.  We have about 6 yeses so far for our trip on an upcoming Friday.

On Wednesday I decided to do some testing of the ESU Switch Pilot.  I thought there could be a problem with it if there are a number of commands that get sent to it in quick succession.  So I had developed a plan where if I am using pushbuttons connected to an NCE Mini-Panel, and the output includes multiple commands to a switch pilot, I will intersperse a delay command into the stream.  I was going to start off with a quarter of a second, and then work up to 1 second.  However I did a test and it worked out that it didn’t matter if I only sent a single command to a point, the lights all went out on the display board.  But I can change the lights on the display board (also controlled via the ESU Switch Pilot) and they just change correctly.  So I then thought that it could be my power supply when it gets asked to supply power, it fades out.  Given that it has a digital display of the output voltage on it, I watched it when I threw a point and the output voltage did not change.  So I now think the issue is with the ESU Switch Pilot itself.  But I had another idea.  While the Switch Pilot has the ability to set an output up as a PECO point output, there is also an impulse output for other similar point motor outputs.  I changed one of my Peco outputs to the 'impulse type' and tested it and it still dimmed the output lights.  By the way - the point also changed.  I also saw a comment on a bulletin board, that asked had anyone got their switch pilot to work with Peco points!  So that was very deflating, as there was not a conclusive yes answer in that thread.

Friday evening I got online and downloaded the Zello app for my phone.  This was so I could use it on Saturday at a remote Operations Session on Aaron’s layout.  On Saturday I went to a Buy and Sell on the north side of the city and ran into a few Tuesday Nighters, a few Club members, and a few NMRA guys.  The Buy and Sell was very well services by sellers, and also quite a lot of buyers. I did not buy anything, but there wer plenty of bargains.  i was saving my money for next weekend at teh Rosehill Exhibition in Sydney.  

Saturday Night was a great Ops Session.  We had three drivers working from their studies in Brisbane driving trains, a dispatcher from Tasmania, and 4 people in the train room near Newcastle.  The remote drivers were shuttling electric trains around the local area for the local layout inhabitants.  these trains run very well.  The session went for about 3 and a half hours.  Boy, was I knackered by the end.  The remote people were all talking via Discord, if we needed to, as well as over the common train radio channel for the layout provided by Zello.  We also had our access to the mimic diagram that showed were all the trains were.  It also shows live stream video of the various station platforms so we know where to stop and let the local layout inhabitants off and new ones on.

A messy desk with the discord channel on the laptop and the layout mimic panel on the left of the large screen and the guards panel on the right.  

Today I went back down to the shed and hade an executive decision, and decided that I was not going to buy a 2400 x 1200 sheet of 7mm ply for the rest of the layout shelf from Sunnybank to Rocklea Sidings.  I was going to use some 3ply that I already had that was very old, and is rather sturdy.  I think it might have been bracing ply.  I have quite a bit of it left and it will save my about $45 in ply.  This will help me tidy up the shed a little reducing clutter.  So I installed the next section of baseboard, temporarily installed a couple of braces to hold the baseboard up.  I also finished installing the track through platform 2, and the relief line at Sunnybank.  I have also installed the points that diverges the relief line from the mainline before we get to Sunnybank.  I think I will spend some time early this upcoming week and install some more baseboard.  I might even get to Rocklea Sidings by Wednesday.  But I will need to buy some more steel rod from Bunnings to hold up these baseboards.

Working Bee on FreeMo Modules

Monday (Public Holiday) last week was the scheduled working bee for 8 Div 1 guys at the Superintendent’s place with a 9:30am start, to work on the Div 1 FreeMo modules.  I got there about 2 minutes after our scheduled arrival time and almost everyone was already there.  The modules were being removed from their storage in a shipping container to the garage where we were going to do some work.  Legs were attached and the modules stood up. 

First job was to test fit the wooden road over rail trestle bridge and determine if the concrete plinths were the correct height.  Some alterations were made and the bridge fitted quite well.  We then started to Dremel away from plaster around the bitumen (stained balsa) roadway next to the bridge.  This was glued it, weighted down and left to set.

While this was occurring some painting was being down to a second module.  We then did some fence installation on this second module.  This was then handed over to a couple of other members to try their hand at fencing.  Once that was done, I showed the guys how I cover the painted plaster with a covering of sands and coloured dirts.  A short demo turned into the whole side of the module being sceniced with dirts and everyone was impressed and tried their hand at it.

A bit of a farm homestead will be placed to the left of the fence on the left.  Trees and various grasses are still to be added.

After lunch we returned to the bridge module and scattered first around the concrete plinths and did the rest of the module.  Then the fencing contractors were unleased.  While this was occurring the terra-formers and then the plasterers were working on another module.  The plaster was only completed on half the module.

My wooden road bridge in place on the module

A view from a bit further away showing the approach roads each side and the railway boundary with some fencing.

All-in-all a great day, with plenty of work completed, homework tasks for some guys given and plans for next January’s clinic session being formulated.  I think we will have some split post fencing created, and people showed how it gets installed, followed by a tree making clinic, and potentially some 3D printed cross arms with insulators installed on some stained telegraph pole posts for later inclusion on the layout.  We may also be able to squeeze in a session on scratch building a farm shed from styrene and/or maybe wood.

On Wednesday I went to the shed and started planning the entry into Sunnybank Station.  I had one LH curve point, but needed another.  I went to a local hobby shop and saw a Roco curve point, so I picked it up.  Boy is it produce a sharp curve.  I can’t believe people could get away with making things that sharp.  So I have cut some 3mm ply as a template for the next section of baseboard for the curved section from Sunnybank Station towards Rocklea Siding. 

I had other activities on the other days and did not get around to doing anything.  But I did visit the Train Club on Saturday for our monthly meeting.  Traffic there and back via the city was horrendous, so I will probably go via the gateway next time.  There were plenty of people there and people running on all the layouts.  What was lacking was people running on the 12mm on HO layout, as I think the top deck was closed as some track activities were underway.  The clock continues to tick down towards our trip to Sydney to view the Rosehill Exhibition in 2 weeks’ time.

Ops Session Planning and Execution

On Tuesday we went down to visit Marty on the Gold Coast for our Fortnightly get together.  The smart Alek produced his Raspberry Pi powered wifi controller for the new Div 1 FreeMo layout.  The buggers have named the SSID already.  I had a good laugh on Thursday as he told us his huge 65” TV in his train shed had shat itself.  So is that when you could say “It was working yesterday Marty, was it?”  Sue it was!

Very Funny Marty, Not!  But the TV Gods got even with Marty.

During the week I did some work on the portals for the Park Road Good Shed during the week.  Today I completed the sections that join the portals up while watching some football on TV.

I also did some redesign work on track layout for Sunnybank Station and making the baseboard permanently sit above Acacia Ridge Yard.

Friday I continued my clean up and had the dispatcher’s desk was clean.  A few other items were put away.  On Friday afternoon I tested the points and you guessed it the point at Dutton Park on the standard gauge did not work again when thrown for the main line to South Brisbane Interstate Station.  I checked the batteries in the remote for the air conditioner, and I fired it up and it was working.  The tea/coffee was put out on the Saturday morning, and the moo juice placed in the shed fridge.  So at midday on Saturday I fired up the air conditioner again, and it would not fire up/.  I’m not sure if it is the remote or the air conditioner unit itself.  So I fired up 3 fans inside the shed and that was all we had to keep ourselves cool.  I moved some paperwork (the actual session notices) from one spot inside the shed onto the track at Acacia Ridge Yard, and then PK’s train ran straight over them and derailed.  Whoops!

PK had a weird day.  He ran the light engine movement off the northbound Brisbane Limited from South Brisbane Interstate to Loco Pilly.  Later on he ran the light engine trip back from Loco Pilly to South Brisbane Interstate for the southbound Brisbane Limited.  He then got the actual Brisbane Limited and ran it back to Grafton, until I turned off wifi in the shed (forgetting that PK was using a phone (engine driver) to run the train).  The train then had no control.   I had to fire up an NCE ProCAB radio equipped throttle to take over the uncontrolled Brisbane Limited. 

PK practicing some pole dancing in the shed.

I was kept busy during the session, responding to enquiries or fixing issues.  48126 was not running on its scheduled train, it was replaced by 44236 on #20 at South Brisbane track 10.

I had the wrong loco number on a stock train timetable card.  I had 44236 instead of 4894.  44236 could not be in two places at once.

4894 sitting in the Kyogle Stock Siding with its load of beasts.

I also had the wrong loco number on one of the locos on the Brisbane Limited.  The other loco was still having troubles in its runnings, and it had not been cleared from the shops yet.  To make matters worse, the air conditioner in the shed would not start.  But I tested it on Friday and it worked fine.

People using Engine Driver needs to understand that if I have my consists already set up, no need to do consisting on the phone.  What sort of establishment do you think I run here?  If they use their Procab throttle, they just choose one of the two locos and it just runs.  If they decide to use some other (non preferred) method of loco control, they don’t need to set up their own consists.  During the session, there was some unusual trains running.  Somehow, a number of hours before it was supposed to run, the loaded northbound steel train ran from Grafton Yard to Cassino and it sat in the platform road, causing all sorts of issues about 4 hours before it was due to run.  I have no idea who did this.  I think someone took the wrong train.  Because of its location it stopped access from the back platform road out onto the mainline and across over to the yard.  In an effort to alleviate this issue, Kyle backed up over a set of points and did a Marty and derailed the coil wire wagon. 

The end Result of Kyle backing up over the points at Cassino to allow his 620/720 set running a Mountain Goat to get out of the dock platform.

At about the same time, The Guru put his shunt train in the dirt between Cassino and Old Cassino due to a set of points being set to the wrong track. 

Arthur's train in the dirt. Hehehehehe

The derailment has been fixed and off he heads towards Grafton Yard with the branchline shunt.

The next train coming off the branch was the ballast train held up by Arthur's issues.

Geoff sitting in the big chair as North Coast Control.  He did a great job.  He has now got the hours up for getting his Dispatcher AP.

I purchased some 12mm points and flex track on Saturday, to allow completion of Sunnybank Station.  Andrew turned up at my place to drop the track off and he participated in the Op Session.  This morning, I have started laying the track from the far end coming back through the platform.

Today I started fixing issues from the Ops Session.  First was one headset plug-in point was not transmitting, but you were able to listen from it.  The panel was fractured.  This over stressing no doubt caused a wire to come off the push to talk button.  I resoldered that and restrengthened the side of the panel.  I checked out one sleeper wagon from the Brisbane Limited and it had issues going through the points at Acacia Ridge Yard.  I ran it through in both directions and could not replicate the issue.  PK failed another coach on the Brisbane Limited, so I tried to address that.  It has been put back on the train.  I also had to re-arrange the wagons on the oil train, and the Murwillumbah Branchline pick up goods, so they are in the correct order for teh next operations Session.