Working on the Test Track

This week I went to George’s Shop and did some repair work on the level crossing detector he has on his Shop shelf layout.  It is now working again after it was moved and some wires were then too short to reach the previous locations where the hole was in the baseboard for the IR detector to poke through the track.  But one IR detector had gone missing and another no longer worked.  I had replaced the missing detector and that exhausted my spare collection of detectors.  I ordered a few more on Sunday, and they arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  That will allow me to replace the no longer working ‘reset IR’ detector and throw that old bad one away.

On the home front, I got thinking that for two of my level crossing detectors currently run off  a USB power source.  On my recent home based Arduino projects, I have them running off my layout DCC track power, rectified the track power, filtering it and connecting it to my Arduinos.  So today I searched around and found two of my power supplies (rectifiers and filtering set ups), and soldered some wires to them ready to connect to DCC track power and then I found my plugs so I can connect the output power to the Arduino running my level crossings.  I will test this out next week to see if I can get enough power for teh Arduino and not take too much track power. 

I also did a bit of work on my Signalman’s Panel and test track.  I also traced back the non-working shunt ahead aspect of signal U2 on the test track.  It determined that the connections all worked at the signal.  They worked under the signal before the RJ45 patch point.  It all worked on the signalman’s panel.  Then I traced the wire from the rear of the signalman’s panel to the plug in the panel and it had separated.  So I resoldered it back on and the signal was back working again.

I decided to remove a few of the plugs that connected the 10 x IR detectors on the Signalman’s panel for the UP and DOWN signals.  I decided that I would solder these to strips of copper inside the Signalman’s panel and do away with the plugs.  These plugs gave less than satisfactory electrical connections when connected via the Arduino plugs into a distribution board.

On Friday I finally got around to laying track on my test track module.  But I did not check that the IR detectors would fit through the sleeper spacing before I packed it up and put it in the car for showing off at the Saturday NMRA meeting.  I was doing a presentation on weathering and talking about the Frosted Glass can of spray paint, but it appears that it is no longer available.  That stuff was great.  But we have it on good advice that a new product is on its way out of the same factory.  I also took my model of the future layout so attendees at the meeting could see what I was proposing to build.  I also took my test track and Signalman’s Panel and set them up on two blow-mould tables in a garage at the NMRA meeting.  However, even in the garage, the sunlight that came in was causing havoc with the IR detectors at one end of the Signalman’s Panel.  Eventually I got them working, by putting the garage door down.

While at the meeting I had a phone message from Jaycar that an order for some RJ45 sockets had come in.  So today I picked them up and I have also patched in the various wires to all the RJ plugs.  The first 6 plugs for the DOWN signals have been installed in the rear of the Signalman’s Panel and the wires fed through the rear of the Signalman’s Panel but the wires have not yet been terminated.  That is a task for the coming week.  I also punched the wires in the next terminating socket for the Branch line signals.   I will install them next week and terminate the wires inside the panel.

While at the NMRA meeting one signal decided to stop showing a red aspect.  The LED had come adrift from the common bus wire inside the third signal on the test track.  I am quite happy with the progress that is being made with the Signalman’s Panel.  

That was post number 999.

Testing the Test Track and Signalling Connections

Earlier this week I began wiring in the second cable connection from my signal U2, and the siding signal SS2.  I then did a bit of testing and some things worked and some did not.  It basically all came down to bad connections for my jumper cables in the Signalman’s Panel.  So these were adjusted, reseated and resoldered and most things are pretty good.  I then found that the two red signals on my extension U3 and U4 are not lighting.  So I will have to disconnect the signals and check the LEDs inside the signal.  I thought it is just a cold solder joint.  As suspected for U3 I had to resolder the red LED to the common in the test track.  For U4, I had to remove the red wire in my RJ45 socket and re-patch that wire.  All is now good. 

So at the moment everything seems to be working on the UP line testing, except that initially I had not tested the shunt ahead and routing aspects for signal U2.  So on Thursday I tested the shunt ahead aspect on signal U2 and it worked fine.  I then did some more testing and I was having an issue with the route indicators on signal U2 on the test board.  I jiggled a few wires around inside the box and then rebooted and all is now good.  However, I am seeing some strange aspects occurring when a random IR detector goes off out of sequence.  I will look into this and determine if I need to make the logic aware of this.  I am currently testing the Signalman’s panel and the test board out in the pergola and I am currently surrounded by lots of sunlight, so this is playing havoc with my IR detectors.  An example of this for example is if U3 and U4 are green and then U4’s IR detector goes off.  U3 stays green and the driver is then confronted with a red signal without first getting a yellow aspect.  On other signals this is handled as both the U1 and U2 signals have Hold switches on the panel so the signalman can set the signal to a Red Aspect to do something ahead, like set points etc.  However, no such logic appears for U3.  It will be easy to incorporate by I wonder if I really need to do this.  Maybe if someone is cleaning the track and sets off an IR detector?  But all the other signals can work themselves out of any predicament given the logic I have implemented on them.

I measured my test track and wouldn’t you know it, it seems about 1 inch to long to fit behind the back seat in my car.  That was assessed through guesstimation, as I have not physically tried it yet.  But on Friday afternoon when I did try and put it in the car, I could just get it to fit behind the rear seat headrests.  So I took my Signalman’s Panel and the test track to the Club on Saturday and after the monthly meeting I set it up on two blow mold tables.  I fired the system up and discussed how it worked for some interested passersby.  But at the end after all the opening and closing of the panel lid, one of the wires for a point control lost its wire.  So I could no longer route trains to the branch or the Down Main.  So on Sunday morning I fixed the broken wire and everything was working again.  I did notice that I needed to name the Points and the Catch Points on the signalman’s panel so when the messages come up on the panel, the signalman will be able to understand what is happening where.  So I have now printed off the new name tags, and fill affix them next week.  Another task I did today was to verify the resistance of the resistor on the Green aspect in Signal U1.  I removed it and measured it at 1600 Ohms.  It was supposed to be a 1K ohms resistor.  I don't know how I got that wrong.  So I replaced it with a 1K ohm resistor and now that signal is a bit brighter both on the Signalman's panel and on the test track.

I also took my level crossing test track to the Club and showed this off to the Club’s electrical guru following a discussion we had the previous month.  He wants to implement a couple of level crossing flashing lights in various locations on the HO Clubroom layout.  So he wants to borrow my Arduino code.  I sent him a copy this morning.

While at the Club yesterday, my mate Greg presented me with a couple of 3D items that I asked him to design.  That was a tradie's tool box to go into the rear of a 4 Wheel drive tray or the tray of a ute.  The second item was a surfboard.  I will paint them this week and see if I can place them on my layout.  If they come out good on the layout, I will place a bulk order for these and we will sell them at our Club's next Buy and Sell.  Another item that Greg 3D printed were the shunt ahead signal housing and the rabbit's ears (route indicator) for my U2 junction signal.  This afternoon I fed the LED's into their new homes.  But I must have knocked something as the Shunt ahead yellow aspect no longer lights on the signal.  But it does on the Signalman's panel, so it will be easy to trace back and fix the issue tomorrow morning.

I think I will take the Signalman's panel and the test track to the NMRA meeting next Saturday and show the guys there how the progress goes.  I am waiting on a bulk order at my local Jaycar which should turn up this week sometime, so I will be able to wire up the Down Signals and maybe the Branch Signals.

This actually is my post number 998 on the blog.  So in a couple of week's time I will hit the 1000 post mark.

Signalman's Panel is Progressing

This week I was struggling to get motivated to do much work.  I spent a lot of time watching replays from the Commonwealth Games during the day and live stuff at night.  However on Tuesday I started work on wiring in the wires from the first lot of rear RJ45 connections on my Signalman’s panel for CAT5 cables to be plugged into the signalman’s panel internals.  On Tuesday I spliced in Port 1.  On Wednesday I did ports 2, 3 and 4. 

While playing with the Signalman’s panel, it occurred to me that when I tried to set the B1 Signal to Held, no message was displayed on the signalman's screen.  I thought that the wire inside the panel had come adrift so I went looking.  I could not find anything amiss.  Then it dawned on me that when I last changed the Arduino code that I might have rationalised it too much and removed that message being written to the display.  I then checked the code and I was correct.  I just need to spend some time working out what the circumstances should be to display that message again.  I think I have adjusted the code correctly but I have yet to upload the code to the Arduino and test it in anger.  Maybe next week.

On Saturday I spent a small amount if time in the shed and cut up some thin MDF to form lids on two of my recently acquired storage tray frames.  I have now done a bit of a re-arrangement and placed two more storage trays frames into the shed.

Sunday included a trip to Jaycar to buy some more Rj45 CAT6 sockets so I can punch in the various CAT5 wires into the sockets ready to do the DOWN port connections.  However, they had only one.  I placed an order for another 10.  Hopefully I will get these in about a week.  It is now time to strip a few short lengths of CAT5 cable to allow me to punch them into the RJ45 sockets.    

I am yet to plumb the 5^th usable port into the first lot of UP port connections in the Signalman's Panel.  I will get around to it, maybe this coming week.  But I have wired up the next RJ45 socket to enable me to connect up my junction signal for signal U2 on the test track.  This signal has two route signals, a shunt ahead aspect as well as the normal 3 aspects (red, yellow, green).  I managed to feed all the wires for these down the signal post today and basic testing shows it working.  Again next week I will attach the signal to my test track, and wire that in, and then add the RJ45 plug to the rear of my Signalman’s panel and wire it to the internals of the panel.

This is the U2 signal for the UP track on the future layout which has 3 aspects, the shunt ahead (for access to the sidings) and 6 white 0402 LEDs wired in two pairs of 3 LEDs for the two diverging routes towards the DOWN Main and the BRANCH.