Ops Session Update

On Monday I was going through my list of tests for the layout prior to the Ops Session.  After adding a power jumper in Grafton Yard between two tracks, I tested two locos which ran well on the test track, but had some issues on the layout.  I am thinking that I need a snubber added to my return loops at Grafton Yard to clean up the signal and this might help these two locos on the layout.  I did some checking on three trains to ensure that their wagons were in the correct order so the operators had a smooth run on the weekend.  They basically were all OK.  However, I could not find the timetable cards for one of the trains, No. 11 and its return No. 12.  The North Coast Control list had those timetable cards in it, but the main layout timetable card box was missing both these trains.  I remember that this train may not have run in the last iteration of the timetable.  The shunt lists for both trains was also missing from the shunt list box on the layout fascia, but again a copy was in the North Coast Control Box.  Maybe the cards were missing at the last session.  So it appears that I must have removed the cards in the distant past to do something, and I did not return the cards back to their rightful place.  Whoops!  So I printed a new copy.  I also did a small run of NL1 (the Brisbane Limited) out of Grafton Yard and I found out that the express goods wagon and the railmotor wagon were at the wrong end of the train.  That was my fault, as I can remember that I supervised the return of this train in the past session, I must have told the driver to do something wrong.  So I shunted these two wagons back to the front of the train, and parked that train back up in Grafton Yard. 

So I printed up the two missing Timetable cards, and the two missing shunt lists.  I inserted them into the correct position in the timetable sequence and noticed that another card seemed to be missing.  As I was going back upstairs and sitting down in the office to print the missing timetable card, I noticed buried under my multimeter, some timetable cards.  Wouldn’t you know it.  Cards for No. 11 and 12 were found along with the shunt lists.  Underneath them were 4 more timetable cards.  One was the missing one I was about to print.  So an audit was undertaken so see if there are anymore missing. All four of these cards were missing from the shed.  I found another 6 cards on my desk.  But these existed in the shed, as I reprinted new cards for the last session.

On Tuesday about 9 of us met at Cliff’s place for our fortnightly gathering.  It was another good night of great discussion.

On Wednesday after the boss left, I got my track plans out along with paper and track and continued on the design process.  I had read during the week in the AMRM magazine that a NSW Railway Club had 900mm wide modules and I think 2400mm long.  So I took a step back to see if that was possible on my potential layout.

I went down to the shed and tested the headsets and the phone system on Friday morning.  Headsets were all OK, but the phone between the main layout yards and North Coast Control did not work at the Grafton Yard/Acacia Ridge Yard end.  I pulled the control box apart and found a couple of broken solder joints.  So these were fixed and all was good again.  I then added some lettering to the control boxes and the phones, advising how to use them.  I then decided to give my Signal Panel a test before I released it for the Saturday crew and I found out that a few panel switches were not working.  I traced it back to two wires that had come loose from opening and closing the panel.  So they were also fixed.  I then noticed that two signals on the Branch B1 and B3 were playing up.  It took me a while but I dabbled with the Arduino code and got everything working again.  It has me perplexed, as I thought that I had tested the Branch logic and had everything working properly.  Anyway, it is all good now.

When Saturday dawned, I took the signal panel outside into the pergola for the guys to view later in the arvo, and with all the ambient infrared light from the sun, every IR detector lit up.  That was a real bummer.  So it could not be used.  Anyway at a few minutes before the appointed kick off time of the Operations Session, I turned on track power and I had a short on Power District 4.  That means I had an issue somewhere between Cougal Spiral and the far end of Acacia Ridge Yard.  Acacia Ridge Yard includes the auto reversing section of 4 tracks for trains that terminate there and return south to Grafton Yard.  I was stumped.  I could hear the auto reverser in that section chattering away, but it did not click.  I could not find a loco sitting over a set of points – which is the usual cause of a short.  It took me about 30 minutes, but the steel train that sits on one of the reversing tracks had a wheel of its last wagon sitting directly over the joint that is the boundary of the reversing section.  It bridged the isolated section with the wheel across both sections.  I moved the wagon 1cm and the short was removed.  What a waste of 30 minutes!  I had moved that train only on Monday when I tested each loco.  I guess I did that and then shut the layout down.

Photo by Darren Lee.  This is me trying to work out where the short was.  I was pulling out what hair I have left.

Anyway the Ops Session brought back some memories.  I was going to increase the output voltage from my NCE 5 Amp DCC system after the previous Ops Session, but I never got around to it.  Trains run very slowly in the Grafton Yard district.  It had the lowest track voltage output of any of the power districts.  During the session 8047 and 4848 on the steel train ended up being a total failure.  It turned up that 4848 while originally running, was eventually failed for being dragged around by 8047.  Then 8047 developed a straight short within power district 4, but it took us a minute to work out that this loco was causing the short.  So we removed those two locos and replaced them with a 44 class and that train got going again.  Apart from that we had a few trains separate, but once we got started most things worked.  Loco 44236 had working lights and sound but could not or would not move in Grafton Yard.  So we replaced that loco as its train prepared to get under way, i.e. the operator talking to Control and awaiting line clear to take the staff for the section Grafton Yard to Rappville Loop.  I took 44236 to the programming track, ran it on DC and it sprung into life.  I have no idea what caused it.  So we quickly swapped 44236 back onto the train, as the train was still within Grafton Yard just about to leave.  We had problems with the tracks into Acacia Ridge Yard not consistently providing power to the frogs of the points.  I will clean all the points this week.  Anyway we ran 16 trains with our reduced crew complement.  The main reason for today’s session was to give Darren 2 hours as Dispatcher on the layout, to complete his 10 hour requirement to help finalise his Dispatcher AP.  We ran for 2 and a half hours.  It would have been 3 if not for the initial short.  Also with most of the guys having fun in Bundaberg at their train show, those left back in Brisbane wanted to have fun as well.  So we scheduled this rival session.

The Rail Train traversing Cougal Spiral heading towards Kyogle

Jeff and his son Cooper were a 2 person crew today.  Cooper was talking to North Coast Control for permission and advising where they were.  They are running the Oil Train with only the gas tanker to be placed into the unloading track.

Two first timers in this shot.  Dean and Kevin handled the situation admirably.

Darren Lee took this selfie of himself at North Coast Control.

Darren Lee captures the crew after the session finished.

Today I went down to the shed and bit the bullet and wound the power output from the NCE 5 Amp dcc system to 16V.  Because I provide two levels of current measuring on the layout , the actual voltage at the rail is much less.  The first stage is the complete layout current draw and the second is current draw by Power District.  These two processes reduce the layout power.  I’ am now getting between 14 and 14.5V to the track in each power district.  Now that this change has occurred, I went to the point motor that was controlling the standard gauge point at Dutton Park that directs trains to either South Brisbane Interstate, or Fisherman Islands Yard.  This point was only operating in one direction, so had to be manually reset back the other way by a signal crew after a train goes to Fisherman Islands.  It had been on my ‘To Do’ list for many months to adjust this point.  I was planning on increasing the capacitance on one output of the NCE point motor controller, but never got around to it.  Alternatively I could adjust the alignment of the point motor to the point.  However, after testing today after increasing the layout track voltage, that point now works.  I give up!

While on my Mr Fix-It run today, I re-soldered a wire in the Glenapp to The Risk staff machine power supply as this went out late in the session.  I noticed while shunting some trains in Grafton Yard that a KD spring had caused a Steel Slab Tilt wagon to uncouple from its brother.  I added the KD spring and that was now working.  I looked at 4848 which had stopped running.  I opened it up and the wire had come off the Powerline 48’s motor.  That was quickly fixed and 4848 was working again.  8047 was another issue.  I put it on the track and got a direct short.  I took off the shell.  Nothing obvious.  I put it on my DC test track and it sprang into life.  It then ran on DCC again.  I put it back on the layout and it was running.  I give up Again!  So I moved these back onto the steel train that was sitting on Grafton Yard.  I checked the timetable card box and worked out that two timetable cards were in the wrong timetable sequence order.  I had their sequence numbers wrong.  So I fixed them up in the EXCEL Spreadsheet that is my timetable.  So I am now ready for the next Ops Session.  Maybe I will have the next session on the Sunday of the Sydney RPM weekend for those staying in Brisbane.  Oh to be a disrupter!

Layout Testing on Two Fronts

Early on during the week I cut up some styrene 'I' beam that I use to simulate lengths of rail.  I use this for fence posts made from rail.  I painted a few lengths and also cut up some fence rails from styrene strip.  This is ready for the next working bee on the Div 1 modules.  I also found a sheet of some laser scribed wood planks.  This was stained and is also ready to be taken to the next working bee.

Wednesday this week I again unrolled paper onto the floor in the kitchen/family room and threw down some track to continue the planning of the future exhibition layout.  I am trying to confirm the size of each layout module and the exact location of various items (particularly track) within the module.  This layout is then transcribed onto some small paper templates for each module.  These templates are 10 times smaller than the real modules.  It is pretty easy when you have a floor with 30cm tiles, as it is very easy to draw where everything is located on these small diagrams with a 3cm square grid drawn on them representing the 30cm x 30cm floor tile. 

Bit by bit some modules are shortened in length and width and the module edges are initially adjusted to allow for the position for a set of points that does not get positioned over a module join.  After next week I might have a completed 'version 1' of the complete front of the layout before I implement selective compression.  The layout is too long at the moment.  I am also using Google Maps to help with the location of road over rail bridges, level crossings and creeks, as well as some buildings.

On my way to the Club on Saturday I stopped off and bought some styrene as I had basically run out of 0.060" 'I' beam.  While at the Club on Saturday I took some measurements of the Club trailers that the Club layouts get carted around in.  I will use these to help design my future trailer for carting my future exhibition layout around in.  I think once I finalise the layout size, i will build a 1:10 scale copy of it in styrene and also look at how they will fit into a scale 1:10 trailer.  If only I had the funds allocated and approved to start building it.  I might win the lotto soon.

I spent a couple of hours down the shed after lunch today preparing for the Operations Session on my layout next weekend.  Next weekend is also the date of the Bundaberg Model Railway Exhibition.  A lot of people are heading up there, but quite a few are not.  So I thought I would give those not attending Bundy something to do back in Bris Vegas.  I’m still awaiting a few RSVPs to the session, but we have about 5 days before the Ops Session is run yet, so it is not really an issue.  I went through all the timetable cards and then gave each loco a simple test.  I found two locos that are not working for some reason.  They have been replaced in the timetable and I will spend some time next week pulling them apart and investigating them.  It has me perplexed what causes them to have issues.  I am also going through my loco fleet and updating a Loco card for each powered vehicle on the layout with a decoder in it with what each function does for that loco.  These cards will be located in a card holder on the fascia next to the timetable cards.  These cards will be in numerical order.  Layout operators can pick up a timetable card, and then find a loco card for their loco so they know what functions are available on that loco.  That is the plan.

Planning the New Layout, and Scenic Work on the FreeMo Modules

On Monday I visited a local Hobby Shop and it helped me plan for what track I will need to procure for my future layout.  On Tuesday I got the vacuum out and gave the shed a once over.  I had daddy long legs spiders everywhere, but now they and their cobwebs are now in the garden via the vacuum cleaner.  I had 12 guys come over and when they left the pergola they thanked me for the light show of the moon changing colour throughout the night.  PK was caught putting signs up on the layout.  I'll have to do something about him.  I ran the XPT from Cassino to Grafton and still some swear that it did not run.  A number of attendees where watching it run.  Others purposely ignored it so they could deny the truth.  It is sometimes hard to get good help.  I also had my signal panel out for the group to peruse and when I was demonstrating it, at least one switch did not acknowledge its throwing.  I knew I had a wire off.  This was the switch for signal D2.  So I could not run any shunt movements because of that wire issue, as I could not turn off the Down automatic signalling. 

On Wednesday I open up the signal panel and the wire providing powering to D2, D2Shunt, D1 and SS2 (for shunting out of the narrow gauge siding) had come adrift, so it could not provide feedback to the Arduino and thus these switches could not be set.  So a quick solder and everything was as good as new.  Maybe I should have tested the panel on Tuesday afternoon as I could have quickly soldered that wire back on and had it working 100% for Tuesday night’s show.

Also on Wednesday when the boss was out I took over the kitchen and family room floors and started layout out paper and then track to work on the future layout's track plan.  I am getting there.  Maybe I need a box or two of track to lay down on the floor as I am quite short of lengths of flex track and dual gauge track.

We had a working bee on the NMRA Division 1 FreeMo modules on Saturday and two corner modules received some treatment.  I think they look a lot better than they did before we did the work on them.  We also came up with a plan of attach on these modules to add some more detail at the next such session.  It is amazing how a small amount of effort can bring a module to life.  We built a bridge with supports, added dirts to the painted baseboard, and then added some fencing and then coloured scatters.  A few telegraph poles were also added.    We also blended dirt around some items that were glued down on the module, and were sitting quite proud of the baseboard.  So we added quite a bit of dirt and they now look quite natural in the scene.  We even added some static grass from a static grass machine to one section on a module and that looks good.

Today with all the rain I started working through the list of items that I need to build for the FreeMo modules.  I have built some roadway - stained balsa that will be cut up and glued on a module.  I have put together a small section of fencing, and made a few gates for one property.  But the gates need to be painted yet, as does the fencing.

One of the modules that was being worked on.

Track Plan Develops

On last Sunday evening I realised that I needed to make some logic enhancements for my Dual Gauge operation of my panel switches.  Most of that was done that evening.  The next morning I made the small changes to signal DG4 and it now seems to allow normal operation of the signals as train on the UP Dual Gauge travel past it, instead of that signal just sitting on a red signal aspect and never changing.  I also found and fixed a number of issues with Signal DG4 and its shunt into the sidings aspect.  It now clears after other switches on the panel are reset, the points are changed or a train passes the IR detector for signal DG4.  So I now think that is working well.

I also implemented a small change, that if I select the self-test switch while the panel is in normal operation, it will clear the LCD screen and its memory of what is where in its message queue.  So I don’t have to restart the panel to reset the display when it gets orphaned lines that won’t scroll off the LCD screen  It will be just a quick flick of a switch and everything resets.  So that is working brilliantly.  I am also looking at another special panel based reset process, (basically my own Ctrl-Alt-Del feature) if my Dual Gauge logic gets out of whack somehow.  My Dual Gauge has 4 UP signals, and 4 DOWN signals.  It also tracks if there is an UP train or a DOWN train, or there is nothing on the track.  If I get into a jam, I was thinking that if I set all the Siding Signals to Depart, I would force a reset of all the logic on the Dual Gauge Track.  This is very easy to do, but I may not have to do it, if everything operates as designed.  This will be in my back pocket as a possible solution if things go haywire.

So after a few hours sleeping on it, on Tuesday afternoon I decided to go ahead and implement a special reset of the Dual Gauge signalling as a 'just in case' scenario.  I tested it and all was good.  So as it currently stands the panel is 99% complete and I do not think there are any issues with my currently tested logic.  So that allowed me to move onto my next task, the actual physical track design.

Tuesday night we car pooled down to Sparkles place.  We had about 10 or so people there.  I was able to pick up a roll of paper from Sparkles, which will assist with layout planning of the baseboards.  On Wednesday arvo I tried to do some more layout planning, and it dawned on me that I probably need more then 2.4m, maybe 2.7m or even 3m between my signals on the future layout.  That might mean that the layout could end up being up to 9 to 10m long before I include my returns to the back of the layout.  I think I will need to do a lot more planning with pieces of track thrown on the paper baseboards.

Thursday I got out into the garage and rolled out some paper and a few pieces of track trying to get a better understanding of the layout on the future layout.  I have a feeling that the northern end of the layout will wrap around the side of the display.  That way the first signals will be on the side of the layout and give me a decent distance between the signals.  I think I have made a good effort of the first two modules.  It dawned on me that I still need a huge amount of track to purchase, particularly for the dual gauge.  I have come to the realisation that the standard gauge track will probably be code 83 track.  I will have to purchase everything from scratch.

The second module where the branch comes off on the left.  The first of the sidings on the right.

Shown from the other end

Saturday we went to Paul’s place to continue the teaching of the students in various NMRA disciplines.  The white plastered 30cm x 20cm modules, were painted, had various dirts and sands added with a covering of glue, and then they were covered in some ground foams and scatters.  The track was then added, and then ballast was applied from a plastic honey jar with the twist lid.  This allows the flow of ballast to be regulated.  This was then set in place with diluted aquadhere with a touch of dishwashing detergent from a pipette.  Some attendees then added some split post fencing that we made a few weeks before and then added a telegraph pole or two, again put together at the last session.  QED!  The module was then put aside and after lunch the attendees were then split between the styrene and trees clinics again.   What a great day.  You should have seen some of the little dioramas – they were pretty good.  A great place to take a photo of a model on.

It seems that the most of the attendees on the day were getting a bit over excited about the upcoming NMRA elections for Div 1.

Today I did a bit of a tidy up for this coming Tuesday.  The disturbance in the force is being rectified with the correct Tuesday nights returning into equilibrium with the guys coming to my place.  Next Wednesday I will continue track planning activities for the next module.

Still Struggling with the Signalling Panel

You do not have to be Einstein to guess I have continued my work on the Signalling logic for my future layout’s signal panel over the last week.  I had plans for implementing SPAD detection.  I can do it on a couple of signals, but not on all of them.  So I might back off on that thought for some time.

During the week, I installed a second Arduino UNO to attach 11 Infra-red Detectors to.  These are for the Branchline and the Dual Gauge line signals.  These IR detectors were installed into a piece of cardboard (just like the 10 other IR Detectors for the UP and DOWN Lines and the Siding lead lines) and were wired up back to the new Arduino UNO and the UNO was added to my I2C bus inside the panel. These detectors were all tested and work well.  That allowed me to then move onto the logic for the Branch Line and the Bidirectional Dual Gauge Line.  The Branch line signalling is relatively short – just three signals but it is also Bi-directional.  This means that an UP train will not effect the signal on the DOWN and vice versa, however the IR detectors will still light up to show where the trains are on the layout.

Now I have fixed up the branch line logic, and I have implemented all the Dual Gauge logic.  I have strenuously tested all the shunt movements, and cancelling the shunt movements via resetting the switches, or changing the points underneath the train and everything gives the correct results. 

From my point of view I think there is just one bug remaining, and maybe one item that is causing me some minor inconvenience.  I think the DOWN Dual Gauge logic is working perfectly, but the UP Dual Gauge logic has one signal that clears to yellow too early and my brain is currently fried a bit too much to see the cause.  I will have a good look at it tonight, or if that fails, tomorrow.  When this is fixed, I think the signalling logic will be about 98% done.   I have also installed the logic to determine if we have an UP or a DOWN train on the Dual Gauge.  But now thinking about it, I might have to dive back in and look at the UP and DOWN logic in regards to signals at 'Hold'.  This code to set and release these signals must execute regardless of an Up or DOWN train running.

The logic inconvenience can be fixed later if I don’t like it.  Basically I have some reversed logic in one of my panel switch implementations, e.g. I test certain logic tests in a different order, and thus it does not send a message to the LCD screen until a second switch is also set.  Everything works here though. 

So it is possible that on Wednesday when I have a free house with the boss out, I can roll out my 1:1 scale 8m long track diagrams onto the floor, throw around some points and some flex track and do some more detailed design work on the various layout module lengths and widths and where the modules all overlap etc., as there are modules that end up side by side, as well as end to end. 

On last Saturday (yesterday) we had our first monthly NMRA meeting for the year and I gave a talk on our trip to Rosehill Exhibition last year.  I also took along my signalling panel in the hope that at least one of the two QR Train Controllers in our group, could give me some feedback on my signal panel.  Things like the messages I give on the LCD panel, and other comments about the panel.  But the two slackos did not turn up.  I spoke about the panel at Show and Tell and gave a few demos during various breaks in the day.   I found a couple of issues during this testing.  A wire broke in transit and I found a bug in my Down Main Shunt Logic.  Both of these were fixed last night.  I will be adding a whole lot of signage to the panel over the next few days as well, to make it more understandable or self explanatory to the operator.

More Signal Panel Progress

I have been ‘head down’ and ‘bum up’ coding in my Arduino driven Signalman’s panel for my future exhibition layout.  I’ve jumped head first in and fixed the scrolling of the LCD display on my panel.  I made the variables I was using to control the messages to be displayed on the LCD screen global and now I do not have to pass anything to the function that will do the actual scrolling.  That fixed my issue.  I still get some ghost entries not scrolling off occasionally, but I will identify what causes them and fix them in the future.  Given that my LCD screen scrolling seemed to be working as expected, I then started to offload lots of other messages into the LCD panel.  I added messages like when a signal is set to hold, or when a shunt move is given a signal approval.  Then when the signal goes back to stop, the cancelling of that shunt move signal is also causing a message to be sent to the LCD.  I think this will give the Signaller a better understanding of what he is doing, through positive reinforcement.  I also fixed a bug from last Sunday where Signal U2 after having its Hold status released, it just sent the signal through yellow and then green, instead of remaining at red if a train had just passed that location and was in the section ahead.  That would cause an issue if it continued.  I realised that I had not set a particular flag when I re-wrote that section of code used for signal U2.  One small change by setting the flag and the signal logic resumed working like a bought one.  Occasionally I get signal U1 being orphaned on a red signal after having its HOLD status released.  But it is a timing issue.  If I then set the signal again back to Hold and then release it again, the signal comes back and the aspect is correctly set.  I think I can live with that one little hiccup.  It may even be a design feature!

At this point in time I have two messages that are not being displayed on the LCD panel.  I think I am setting them correctly in the code.  So I will look into that a bit more next week.  I jumped in further and moved onto signal D2, and worked on its code.  I then moved to the two of the three signals on the Dual Gauge line that can be set to Hold.  I will install my next slave Arduino to handle the signals on the branch line and the dual gauge next week.  I will get this working before I start looking at any Dual Gauge IR Signals.  Then I will get the Dual Gauge Up signals working before I do the DG Down signals. I continued along the coding path on Wednesday and I feel that I now have the DG held switches for DG2 and DG4 working.  It allows shunting into the sidings so I’m happy.  

On Wednesday evening I think I mastered the DOWN held signal at D2.  I can now shunt to the UP main.  However, I was perplexed why my shunt switch on the panel could not get the D2 shunt signal to light.  I traced it back to a solder joint had broken.  So I resoldered that jumper wire and it worked.  I was very happy.  I noticed that one signal DG5 also stopped working.  So I jiggled some wires and all in now good.  However, signal SS1, the standard gauge shunt signal from the siding to the Dual Gauge did not work.  I was thinking that I will have to investigate that further.  Also at that stage I have not yet tested a train leaving the standard gauge.  I noticed that the SS1 signal went out maybe on Wednesday morning.

So while on my morning walk on Thursday, the old grey matter was thinking about my Signal SS1.  I realised that on Wednesday when I finally started to get signals DG2 and DG4 to respond to signal aspects.  The signal at one end of the board would light, but the track detection circuit LED at the other end also came on.  It was then that I realised that I needed to swap the addresses of my Dual Gauge Up and Dual Gauge Down expansion boards.  I did this and thought nothing further as it then brought the track detection LEDs and the signals back into sync.  However, it did not click that the SS1 signal was extinguished following this move.  So while on the walk, my brain was wandering and it turned to signal SS1.  It was at that point, I realised that the Red and Yellow LED addresses which used to be on the UP Board at ports 12 and 13, where now on the DOWN Board at those same addresses.  The code in my Signal logic, still had them setting LEDs on and off on the UP Board.  So on Thursday afternoon, I changed the code to move the addresses in the code to the DOWN board and wouldn’t you know it, after compiling the code and sending it to the Arduino, the SS1 signal now turned back on.   The plan for the rest of Thursday was to write the code for making the SS1 signal work for a standard gauge train leaving the siding.  That was to be followed by the Branch signals, then DG3 for trains stopping movements into DG4 when a train is entering or leaving the dual gauge line into the standard gauge sidings.  

So all the code for the Branch signals was written and tested and apart from one message not appearing on the LCD screen, I can shunt from the branch to the UP Main, and exit to the DOWN Main and head north.  It is now also working like a bought one.  I took it to the Club on Saturday and showed it off.  I got plenty of questions and lots were interested. 

Saturday evening I started assembling all the wiring for my second slave Arduino for the next lot of IR detectors to be installed.  Then on Sunday after another purchase at JAYCAR, I found and fixed a few cosmetic errors in my signalling logic.  Some signal aspects were not cancelling when I turned off their activation switch on the panel.  But as I was doing these changes, my memory utilisation in my Arduino continued creeping up.  It got to over 6200 bytes.  That caused a warning message to be issued by the IDE compiler, that the Arduino could become unstable due to lack of free memory.  I did some research and found out how to reduce this usage.  Basically every Serial.print statement e.g. Serial.print(“blah blah”) for debugging and programming tracking purposes, was changed to a Serial.print(F(”blah blah”)) and my memory usage reduced down to 2373 bytes.  I was amazed! 

I had a basic test of the program on Sunday afternoon and of the items implemented about 95% are working as designed.  I know of a couple of small improvements around SPAD detection.  I display this SPAD message every time around the logic loop, instead of just once while the IR Signal detection LED is lit.  I’m just too lazy to code that change in the first 8 places in the code today.  I also have the RED aspect on DG7 lights intermittently.  Its address is pin 9 in the DGBoardDOWN,  But I do not know when I activate it in the code.  So I have just referenced the wrong board or wrong address somewhere, but my brain is so fried I cannot find it.  But I will. 

Progress is good and satisfying.

Still doing Signalling and a Clinics Day

I spent time on Monday reviewing my wiring in my Signalman's panel.  I had wired up 10 IR detectors to an Arduino UNO, which I moved from my Arduino MEGA.  I found that I had wired about 2 or 3 IR detectors back the front.  So that was fixed, and now my slave Arduino UNO was powering up and seemed to be working.  I then did some work on the main Arduino MEGA.  I was wondering about power draw again.  I started looking for a 6V or a 9V power supply in lieu of my current 12V power supply in case I am overloading the voltage regulators on the MEGA board, when it must drop that voltage down to 5V.  It seemed that my current MEGA had bit the dust and was not allowing my computer to link to it and upload a new version of its program from the Arduino IDE.  I then did a google search to see if you could repair the Arduino.  Someone was offering $89 to just look at an item’s board.   Well I could buy 4 more MEGAs on eBay for that price.  I looked on Ali Express and I ordered 3 more spare MEGA boards for about $17 total - delivered.  It looks like I need to throw that MEGA away and install my current spare board.  Thus the need for some more spares in the back pocket.

On Tuesday morning I bit the bullet and swapped out my bung Arduino MEGA for my spare one.  It fired up first time.  I then decided after reading that the input voltage should be 7-12V on the Arduino, to not get the 6V power supply and settled for the 9V version.  I used by NMRA account code and saved $4 on that one item.  I have saved this year’s membership fees already through these discounts for sure.  While replacing the Arduino MEGA, I managed to displace a few wires that I had jerry rigged for testing the IR detectors.  I also had the top of the panel come falling down on me and that dislodged a few more wires.  So after finding them, normal services were quickly resumed.  It must have been just like QR on Tuesday as there was an intermittent signalling fault on the network out near PK’s place.  I think he had a hand in its cause.

We had our Tuesday Nighter’s get together at Geoff’s place on Tuesday evening and it was good to see 10 of us turn up.  Geoff asked people to bring what they were working on.  I brought along my Signalman’s panel.  I borrowed some of Geoff’s electrons and turned it on and gave an overview of how it operates.

I went into town on Wednesday to pay up my Lotto debt.  I chose to split the travel with bus then train, just to look at what has changed over the new year network shutdown.  Well I can advise that there is new track laid through the new platform at Yeerongpilly.  However, it is not connected at either end and there is no overhead wires above it.  There is also significant progress in Clapham Yards for the new train staging facility.  So there is some progress.

I had been trying to write some Arduino code that will track messages on my LCD screen, and after about 5 seconds of being displayed, the message will scroll off.  The code is basically working, but when I try to test it with multiple messages, after a while it gets confused and the messages do not scroll.  This has me perplexed, as the logic is simple as.  I will resume this logic testing next week.  I also have identified a few gremlins in my UP code.  But I can't put my hand on the exact circumstances that are occurring for me to track it down conclusively.  I will continue investigating.  

Saturday was the NMRA Clinics day opened up to 16 members.  We had some people pull out at the last minute for various reasons, but we had a great day.  It kicked off with my doing some terraforming on a small foam block about 30cm x 25cm.  This for shaped and then plaster encrusted tissues were laid over the foam.  This was left to dry while the attendees then made a single telegraph pole and then with the rest of their wooden stick offcuts were made into split post fencing.  The wooden items were stained in my ink pad ink and methylated spirits.  Then the attendees had a lunch break.  It is planned that these items will be used in day two of the clinic, which will occur on the 28th of this month.  We will paint the scenery block, and then add dirts, sands and scatters to bring it to life.  We might get some rocks and other detail items.  So telegraph pole and the split post fencing will also be added.  After lunch the attendees were split into two groups and we had one group making a tree while the other group made a signal relay box in styrene.  Following afternoon tea, the two groups swapped over and did the other session.  These were also well received and the attendees will also add these items to their scenery block on the 28th.  They also have more styrene and tree clinics on that day as well.

Jonathan showing the crew how the tree making is done.

Some of Jonathan's trees on display

Follow these steps and you get a tree like the one on the right.

Next garage has the styrene team working on their signal relay hut.

More Thinking About Arduinos Controlling Signals

This week I struggled to get motivated to do any modelling.  However, eventually I started doing some work with my Arduino UNOs connecting a couple of them together over an I2C bus with one reading IR detectors and the other flashing LEDs based on what IR detectors were detected on the first Arduino.  That seemed to work.  I was amazed I got it working quite easily.  This Arduino UNO will have 10 IR detectors attached to it, and it will talk to my Arduino MEGA which will run the signalling system.

Today I moved the Arduino UNO that will read my future IR detectors from the test bench into the Signalman’s Control Panel and then rewired everything.  When I started up the System, it seems I had some low voltage on my controlling Arduino MEGA and it did not seem to be firing up.  Last night it was running before I did any changes to the system.  I just need to trace back what I might have touched and try and ‘unchange it’.  I can’t seem to see anything conclusive as yet.  I have full power into the system from my power supply.

Earlier this week I was also called onto do a presentation at the upcoming February meeting of our NMRA Division.  Luckily, I had started the framework for another presentation.  So that presentation was completed this morning with the help of a couple of photos from PK.  At the same time I started the basis of another presentation that is about my Signalman's Control Panel.  But that will be quite some time before that is useable and thus the presentation will be ready.  Apparently I am also assisting a number of NMRA members to build a small Diorama next weekend and in another 3 weeks.  So yesterday I spent a bit of time putting a few things in a box to take to next weekend's clinics day.  It has been designed for up to 16 paid attendees, and at last count we have 12 nominations.  That is great.

Empty Nester

On Monday we packed up the car and drove to Sydney with my son’s possessions.  We overnighted in Beresfield.  Tuesday night we unpacked his stuff at his share house in Glebe, and we drove to our hotel.  The Hotel was just about a 500m walk from his house.  I was amazed that when driving down Glebe Point Road there were tram tracks in the bitumen!  I knew that there was the old Tramshed a few km away, but I had no idea that trams ran down that road.  I later walked to the Tram Shed, and there is a tram sitting in one of the roads in the shed.  There is still plenty of track embedded in the car park.  My son starts work in about 3 week's time down in Sydney.

The Tram in the Tramsheds

A Three way in the carpark

More rails in the footpath

A sign to its past

I took the opportunity on Wednesday to catch the tram to Central and watch the Indian Pacific arrive into platforms 1, 2 and 3 over an approximate 45 minute period.  I find it very perplexing that the shuffling that occurs once the passengers have boarded and the various consists on the platforms depart to the outskirts of the station and the loco that brought that train in, goes to another platform to remove the next section of the train to outside the platform.  This complex shunting movement seems over complicated.

The main board at Central

Ther arrivals board showing the three sections on the IP

The first section arrived, and disconnected the locos.  They ran to the end, while the shunter changed the points

The Locos are running around the consist in platform 1.

The second part, arrived in Platform 3, with the second train loco.

The Locos from the first consist, attached at the front and are pushing the carriages back to the stop blocks in Platform 1.

The third consist arrives in Platform 2.

This section was the last to arrive, but first to leave.  Then loco then follows the section out and then attaches to the cars in Platform 3.

This section in Platform 3 leaves, and loco follows the train out.  No doubt this then goes over to Platform 1 and then takes that section out of the platform to the yard where they are all joined up.

The station Schematic of Central

On Thursday I caught a train from Central to Circular Quay so I could ferry over to Greenwich, as I wanted to walk past my father's family home in Chisolm Street.  I took a couple of photos and then walked back to the ferry terminal for the trip back to the city.  I had a good chat to a couple of old Fisherman casting off from the jetty.  They were having great success and go there4 every Thursday.

On Friday we heard from Arthur, that a local hobby shop, fairly close to us in Brisbane – HobbyOne had closed its doors.  It appears that it is doing mail order.

We drove back today from Sydney and normal programs have resumed in the household, all be it with one person down.

More Control Panel Progress

So I have been having fun with my control panel coding and incorporating an LCD display panel into the mix.  Basically I started by writing code to test the LCD display.  I then moved to adding a series of text outputs that follows the testing of the LED lights on the panel.  All the LEDs get exercised to ensure that they all work and their wires are all connected.  I have also incorporated a self-test switch on the control panel to be run during startup of the Panel and Arduino.  When the switch is set, the Arduino advises what addresses are readable on the I2C bus, and then it does the exercising of all the LEDs on the panel.  When the self-test switch is not set, the Arduino just sets the Control Panel to its initial state and then it starts running the layout.

Late on Monday night, I was having some issues with some panel switches not working correctly.  So I went back testing the various point control switches, did some re-wiring, and the control panel switch and hold switches all work perfectly.  I found a couple of typos during the testing, when the logic says set yellow signal, then I go and set the green signal, Doh!.  Some people are just dumb!  I then copied that code in a couple of places, so I had to change those snippets as well.

I was having issues with the operation of the UP 2 signal and its Shunt Ahead aspect and the two routes to other tracks - the DOWN track and the BRANCH.  So I bit the bullet and rewrote that whole section of code.  It worked so much betterer.  Hehehe!  There was an issue that the train coming out of the siding, and one going into the siding would reset the signals after the code cancelled them (set them to stop) once the train exited the track.  But I soon fixed that logic error.  Next test was for me trying to get the train from the UP track to shunt to the DOWN track and go to the BRANCH.  I realised that I had commented out the code for the Down and Branch logic while just testing the UP logic.. So I uncommented that out and got stuck in.  I did a few more tests, changed the location of some delays in the code, removed a couple of boolean flags from the logic, and I think the UP code is now 99.5% accurate.  I’m sure I will find a bug somewhere in the future, but every test I threw at it, seemed to work.  So the focus now turns to the DOWN trains and their code.

As work on the panel logic progresses, I again realised that the UP code does not match the DOWN code.  So I upgraded the DOWN code by copying the UP code and changing names to protect the innocent.  I think I have DOWN signals 1, 3 and 4 all ironed out and identical between the UP and DOWN sides.  I will take a bit of break and get back to DOWN signal 2 in a while.  I have ordered some more Arduino stuff online and so I need for this to arrive in the post over the next week or two.  One of the issues that I think I am about to hit is that after adding the next 4 IR detectors (for my DOWN Signals), it appears that I am potentially stressing the power limit output of the Arduino MEGA.  My research suggested that an IR detector would pull about 20ma each.   I measured one and got a figure of 38ma for just one when using the 5V supply pin.  I switched this to the 3.3V pin and got about 18ma.  So the thinking was to offload the control of the IR detectors to a number of slave Arduino input boards on the I2C bus.  However, I could not find anything suitable.  I went looking and found out that I could just have say 10 IR detectors controlled from one Arduino UNO and the other 11 IR detectors controlled by another Arduino UNO.  NO need for special input boards.  I can then give these Arduinos an address on my I2C bus, like 2 and 3, and they will power up the IR detectors.  If this is still too much power for a UNO to supply, I will further break the bus down into UP, DOWN, BRANCH + SIDING and Dual Gauge offload Arduinos.  My Arduino MEGA will link to the Arduino UNOs on the I2C bus with a common GND reference.  The MEGA will poll the UNOs for their IR detector statuses and send that to the Master MEGA.  The MEGA will then take action and light the various White detection LEDs on the control panel.  In theory this is all child’s play.  In practice, it may not be.

While going through all these tests, opening up the panel and closing it again, I worked out that my self-test feature is not testing the 16 panel mounted switches.  I’m thinking that I need to verify that every panel switch is working in one direction, then ask the operator to change each switch to its opposite position and I will test again.  I will then ask that the switches be returned to their normal start up positions.  If I can’t read a different result from the two switch positions for each switch, then I have an issue with one of those switches.  Some of the issues I am having with the control panel is that a wire comes off a switch and my sensors are not reporting things correctly, and thus will not work as expected.  I then have to do through the consol log to verify various values of some variables.

This arvo while reading some stuff online, I realised that I think I can implement a SPAD feature on the control panel logic.  I will think about this a bit more and report back in the future.

Side Trip to Sydney

So late last week and early this week, I was in Sydney with the family.  We were looking at places to rent in inner Sydney for my son.  I recon I walked close to 30Km over the 4 days on which we were there.  We also caught some busses, trains and trams.  Alas we did not find something, but later this week, he looks like he had found a nice place near Glebe.  It might be either a bus, or light rail to work, but he could walk on some days – and certainly walk home on some days to save a few bucks and also get some exercise.

Standing at Wolli Creek platform

Looking into the harbour

Looking at Circular Quay

When I got I back home and resumed work on the Control Panel for the future exhibition layout, I wired up all the special LEDs on the panel, including the signals in the siding, the four shunt ahead signals and the 2 route indicator signals.  I was amazed, when I started soldering this up on Thursday and Friday, because when I got around to testing them on Friday everyone worked first time.  That is a bit unusual for me!

So focus now turns to moving back to the first cut of the testing program, with just 5 IR detectors wired up.  Once this seems to be working, I will switch over from a Arduino UNO to an Arduino Mega and continue the testing.  I will spend time working on the inputs from the various switches on the control panel and interfacing these with the Arduino.  Another rabbit hole that will throw a spanner in the works is testing my Arduino LCD screen.  This is a 20 character x 4 line screen.  My plan is to test writing text to it, and then incorporate some messages to the screen if the Signalman does something stupid, I can inform him.  That could be something like throwing the points for a crossover or a siding without first setting the signals to stop first.

I am also thinking of having a self-test on the control panel where every LED is exercised before the Arduino gets into operational mode.  I might also write messages as to what we are doing/testing as we go through the process.

More Ops Sessions Fixes and Signal Panel Progress

I had to continue my list of fix ups on Monday morning, this last week.  I started with my Bachmann Tamper.  It would run on DC but not DCC.  So I checked CV 19 = it was not in a consist.  I checked CV 29 and it returned 115?  What?  So I reset it to 0 and then set up its address again – 083 – and it was running.   This time the CV29 was a decent number.  I think I have had this happen before.  It must have been a short somewhere had scattered the decoder's brains.  But it is all good now.  

I had a another loco - 4894 - a reasonably new Powerline loco that was causing some issues and I tried to fix it.  During the recent Operations Session I removed a nail and a small screw from under the loco and I thought it might have another one inside.  So I pulled it apart, reset the loco and it was running well.  So this loco is a bit of a problem.  It ran in the wrong direction.  So I reversed the bit in CV 29 and it ran correctly, but the headlights now come on in the wrong direction of travel.  So I set up the two CV’s for the Output 1 and Output 2 in the reverse direction of travel and with dimming on F4 and all was good.  So that loco has been put back into service on one of the stock trains.

I checked the headset plug-in-point at Grafton Yard, and it was working, so there was no more to do.  Bill had DM’ed me on Saturday night and advised that one of the plugs in the plug-in-points at Cassino had been pushed through the panel.  I’ve had this happen before, so I just add a styrene shim in front and reattach it and all is good.  About 2 minutes work.  I had an issue with the point control for track 4 at the southern end of Clapham Yard.  So I thought I’d try direct entering the point motor address and it would not throw the curve route.  So it was either the output of the Point Controller or the point motor.  I looked at the point motor first and the common wire had come off one of the terminals.  So a quick solder and that was back working.  I also had an issue with the track power into tracks 2 and 3 at Acacia Ridge Yard – also the southern end.  This small section of track is fed directly from the point.  I got some sandpaper into the point between the stock rail and the point blade.  It was now working.  I then ran the train a bit further in track 3 and it went dead.  I looked up the line a bit further and I noticed that a crossover point was set to crossover.  I turned that point to straight and the loco moved.  Looks like I added this crossover and never added the jumper around the point.  So that was added and that section of track is now powered and now works irrespective of the point setting.  This section of track is where the 4 sugar wagons get dropped off during an Ops Session.

While I had the soldering iron going, I went to Cassino and switched two wires on a control panel for various lights in that area.  I had a car’s headlights and street lights labelled incorrectly.  I switched the wires and now they work according to the descriptions on the panel. Before my next Ops Session, I think I need to install some more layout street lights and control these with various switches on the layout fascias.  I think I will add two lights to West Street at Old Cassino and two lights to Fairy Lane just outside of Fairy Hill Crossing Loop.  But I think I’m out of miniature switches.  So ebay might get some more business from me.  I have ordered some more switches and a stack of LED street lights, so in a couple of weeks, I will get around to installing these on the layout.

There was mention on a timetable card that maybe one of the trains needed to come into track 1 at Acacia Ridge instead of track 2.  A review of the timetable shows that this logic was indeed correct,  Just 5 minutes before train number 18 was due to arrive, train 7A gets to track 2 and drops off some steel wagons in track 2.  So we have probably never had this issue because train 18 has been really late and the track has been cleared by the shunt train number 70.  So new timetable cards have been printed for train 18 advising the new arrival track.  I also added an extra line to the timetable card for train 7A to cover his shunting that occurs from 9:00pm until 9:10pm in track 2.  This tells the North Coast Controller in his string line diagram that train 7A is hanging around for a few more minutes in that track.  I also had feedback that one of the staff machines was turning off and on, but that occurs if there is a train running through a set of points and causing a short in a power district.  I checked out the three staff machines for this section, and all were working correctly.  Someone was just being too cautious. 

On Tuesday I had some success with my future control panel.  I identified one of my Arduino Port Expanders was not working.  I also identified that I had wired some jumper leads incorrectly.  So I fixed these jumpers, added the correct drop down resistors to the network and replaced the bad Port Expander, and wouldn’t you know it, everything on the I2C bus was reporting its address correctly.  Happy with my progress, I did some more shed work.  I found a loose wire off behind one of the Staff machine panels at Clapham Yard.  I also started running some narrow gauge trains.  I was running one from Fisherman Islands and one from Acacia Ridge.  I am going through the narrow gauge timetable, identifying what wagons will be placed in what sidings.  I have some fixing up of some trackwork, particularly in Acacia Ridge Yard.  I added some dual gauge points to a section and now the narrow gauge track does not have power.  So on Wednesday I fixed the staff machine wiring at Clapham Yard.  I also found the wire that had come off the narrow gauge track at Acacia Ridge Yard.  So all is now good.

Now turning my attention back to the Future exhibition layout's signalman's control panel.  I added the remaining connections to the white track detection LEDs on the panel and changed my test program and I had further success.  They are all working very nicely.  I then got the UP signals all working.  Next was the Down Signals.  There was some weird things occurring and it was not until I looked at my initial definitions that I left out signal output 3.  After that was fixed they worked brilliantly.  Next was the Branch line signals.  I think I had a bad green LED.  So that was replaced and then they worked too.  I added in the last two Port Expanders to the I2C bus and everything stopped working.  It looked like that the last one had an issue.  So I swapped it out for another Port Expander and it then joined the I2C bus.  So I then tested the Down Dual Gauge signals and they worked.  Then it was the turn of the UP Dual Gauge.  I had one Green LED not light up.  A quick check revealed that its common on that LED was not wired up.  I soldered that and all was good.  So next week’s job is to now wire all the shunt signals, the two sidings signals and the branch indicator signals. 

This Signalman’s Control Panel might just actually work.

Wednesday Walk

On a Wednesday I usually walk from my place to past the rail bridge and return and get a good 6.3km of exercise in.  This last Wednesday I heard a toot of a horn, just as I was walking under the rail bridge.  I thought that might be a train going past Barry's place.  So I waited a few seconds, and heard what I thought was a train approaching.  I think it was pretty obvious that someone was tooting Barry as the train was heading northbound.  I just had time to get my phone out and snapped a couple of shots.