Software news

 I am busy resurrecting my "Car Cards" software that I used on my previous Kato round-roundy. I am making some changes to it to get a mobile phone view that is reminiscent of the development I did for the final project unit of my Open University course. This look like so (right click for a bigger version):

I don't have the software to make a true mobile phone app like the one shown so it will be a simple web page. There is also a back up web package that provides views of all of the relevant data.

This is how it goes.

Data is stored for the variety of information needed to decide on car routing. This includes trains, cars, locos and industries. Each loco is listed with its road name, running number, loco type (passenger, road or switcher) and DCC id. Cars are listed by their road, car type, AAR designation and an image address. Industries are listed by name, town, car type and allowed time on site. An industry entry is required for each car type at any specific industry so an industry might be listed multiple times. The intention is that this process should be fairly similar to the MicroMark car card package.

There is a single display which is the current train being processed. This lists all the relevant data for the train and all the cars as in this example.

Once you have moved all the cars as described, you click on the "Process Train" button. The database is updated with all the new locations and the next train is built and displayed.

Using a web browser will result in more information being available so you can not only create and process trains but you can also list each data list - trains, cars, locations, etc. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that it will also create unit trains - that is a train with one type of car - coal hoppers, container flats and so on.

It is a simple system as it only deals with a single yard fed from staging which is all I need at the moment. My original Open University project was for a much more sophisticated program that allowed for multiple databases and much for flexible layout design - end to end with three towns or something similar. However, this requires more work before it can be offered even for testing. The Open University project just required me to develop an outline program that produced some test results. I expect to offer that system - Old Bill's Switch List - sometime next year.

Once I am happy with the existing Car Cards system, I will offer it up for others to test but I need to make it multi-user first. Expect that sometime after Xmas as I would like to run some trains myself first.

The board and staging are complete

 Well, the board is complete and I have finished the wiring so far - all of the DCC bus is in place plus all of the points are connected to ESU Switch Pilot accessory decoder boxes.

Here is the underneath showing the wiring before I fitted the point connections.

You can see the square supporting boxes and the attendant legs . Each box is fitted around the specific leg. You can see the area around the base of each leg. These were designed as flexible boxes that can be adjusted to get the height right for each leg position. Once they are right, I run hot glue around the tops and fix them in place.

As you can see, there are lots of little connectors. I have a wide range of these from a simple two channel through up to a 5 way single channel. Here is a three channel.

From there, I have fitted three ESU Switch Pilots to control the points. The Switch Pilots output three wires - a common and a left and right. However the Kato Unitrack points require two wires so some conversion has to take place. I use DCC Concepts DCD-SDC6 which make the conversions.

I have had a few problems from the testing. In trying to sort out one point where I had missed getting into the rail joiner I managed to break a rail away so that £30 for a new point. Then I had some trouble sorting out the double crossover. I set it up on the ECoS controller along with two points to make a single crossover but every time I tried either one, the two way would work. I haven't really sorted this out and it is looking like the four way crossover (which is a single Unitrack unit that costs £50!) has failed but we have some way to go to get to the bottom of it.  Also, in my usual stupidity, I opened up a point to see what was inside and it all sprang apart. I thought that I had sorted it but it turns out that I hadn't so that is another point that I have had to buy. It gets better because when the new point arrived, it was faulty. Not only does it not work through the ECoS but also doesn't work manually. Tony at N Scale American Trains rapidly agreed to put a new one in the post without waiting for me to return the faulty one. That is good service!

All of these issues will be easy to correct once the replacement arrives so I have set the railway up in its chosen place.

It turned out that I hadn't got the legs long enough so, currently, I have put some foam core sheets underneath each pair to get the top level. I have also built the staging extension which is detachable from the main layout. This is a box with legs to get it level.  Here is a shot of the staging.

You can now see the two storage points for the connecting tracks. I have ordered some barrel plugs and sockets. Needless to say, I have to buy 10 when I only need a couple. One of these will be used to move power from the main layout to the staging. The other will be involved in powering an Arduino based light detector on the staging that will control a color light signal on the route off the main board. That's for the future though. 

I am awaiting the replacement point and then, maybe, I can run some trains.

We have legs

 We now have legs on the baseboard. These are made, like the board, out of 5mm foam core. I have some special cutting tools to use with foam core. One of them has two blades set in a v shape that are custom designed to cut a -V- into the board leaving the outer paper layer intact. This is what it looks like.

I also have a tool that takes 5mm of the end of a board, again leaving the final paper layer intact. This gives me a channel that gets UHU paper adhesive applied and makes the final edge of the box. With a careful bit of calculation, this can be folded up to make a leg that is 3" square and is very strong.

I then create a box for each leg to go into on the underside of the baseboard.

We end up like this. (BTW, it looks as though it is sagging in the middle but this is an optical illusion. The board is flat and checked with spirit level plus rolling stock stay stationary where put!).

As you can see, each leg has a collar around the base and a flat plate. The collar is made to be just big enough to be an interference fit around the leg. The legs are then put in place and the board levelled using these collars. Once in place, they are hot glued into position. It isn't too stable front to back but it is close up to the cabinets so that shouldn't matter. 

As you can see, the board is longer than the gap and thus rests on the end of the desk. The desk has an electric height adjustment so it can be set to support the board exactly. Why would I do this instead of using wood as everyone else does? Well, I have a lot of arthritis and if I have to walk more than about 30 years I resort to an electric wheelchair. I have extreme difficulty in getting onto the floor and even more difficulty getting up so I need this to be as light as it can be so that I can pick it up, turn it over and work on the underside whilst it is on the dining table. 

Well, that's it for now. I am charging uop my wireless Dremel so that I can start wiring up for DCC. That's for next time.

Thanks for watching.

David