This week I had a set list of tasks to complete on my Signalman’s panel. Last week I punched in the first 6 x RJ45 sockets for the DOWN tracks. I installed them into my 6 way socket holders at the back of the panel. Next job was to test these. As I wired these to the panel, I realised that I had wired all the wires to the rear of the Rj45 sockets back to front. Whoops. The wires that should have been on the left-hand side of the patch were on the right-hand side and vice versa. So I had to remove the 6 x RJ45 Sockets from the rear of the Signalman’s Panel. I then had to unpunch the wires in the sockets, and then re-punch them in the correct side. Soon I was back to where I should have been when I started. I then tested all the plugs with the test track and everything was working. So today I installed the 4 x Branch Line RJ45 plugs and tested them. By the way, these were also wired incorrectly last week. The sockets have all signal aspects working, except for the Shunt Ahead Aspect on signal B1. I’m now worried that I connected the two wires on this socket back to front. The Shunt Ahead Aspect on the Signalman’s panel works correctly. That should be an easy fix next week. I have also set up a new Positive and Negative line inside the Signalman’s Panel for the 11 x IR detectors on the second slave Arduino Uno. These positive and negative lines are not yet wired back to the Arduino. But the first three IR detectors connected via the RJ45 plugs are wired to them. These base power lines provide power for the 11 x IR detectors connected via the RJ45 plugs. The temporary IR detectors that I use to test the panel are already wired and still working. So I have not yet tested the 3 x IR detectors for the Branch Line.
I went to Jaycar this morning and ordered another 10 x RJ45 Sockets. So when they rock up, I will install the 7 wires into each of these sockets (hopefully into the correct sides this time) and then put them into the rear of the Signalman’s Panel. The wires then get fed through to the electronics inside the panel and everything gets terminated. It then gets tested and hopefully it will all work first time, and this will close out the UP Dual Gauge signals and the DOWN Dual Gauge signals.
I did discover a logic bug when I get multiple consecutive IR sensors going off at the same time. I know exactly where this occurs in the code and why it is occurring and how to fix it. But I just need to find the time.
So while testing the new Branch Line connections I found that the Green aspect on DOWN Signal D3 is not working. So I must have knocked something inside the Signalman’s Panel, as this was working last time I tested it. But quite a lot of wire moves have occurred today. I will investigate that failure to light that LED tomorrow. Both the LED on the Signalman’s Panel and the signal on the test track when wired in, do not light. So that gives me a good idea where to look.
I went to George’s shop during the week and replaced the bung IR reset detector on his level crossing display circuit.
This week I tried to fire up one of my home layout based level crossing detectors and it would not. I never went back to it to determine where the power was not reaching. But the Arduino has power but the 5 x IR detectors are not powering. When I get some time next week I will fix this. The other level crossing detector is working well. I was planning on testing running the level crossing unit off track power. So again next week I will rectified this.
Next weekend is the Redlands Club’s Hobby Show. I will be there on the Saturday (at least) working on the NMRA stand.
I have now reached 1000 posts on my blog.
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