You could do it and it could work much like an X-10 control system. It's a pretty noisy environment though with an irregular connection through the track and brush motors with all the arcing. I suspect you'd have a more reliable system using something like xBee or the serial transceivers sold by Parallax. I'd use X-10 as a model (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard)).
If you need more than that, use Google, or your favorite search engine and search for DCC train systems.
Regards,
Bruce Bates
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Involvement and committment can be best understood by looking at a plate of ham and eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. ANON
If you're building a model railroad, I strongly suggest you go to http://www.nmra.org/standards/standards.html
and use this as a guide in anything you design.
NMRA is the industry/hobbyist group that sets the standards for manufacturers of model railroad equipment. It exists so that equipment from one source will work with equipment from another source. If you set your system up according to S-9.1 and S-9.2, it will work with commercial DCC equipment.
Parallax has published an artical/application note complete with software and schematics using a BS1 to control the speed of three (3)·N scale·trains. Check out application note #21 "Fun With Trains" http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/appnt/stamps/bs1Appnotes.pdf·· The trick is the custom PWM software. This can also be done with the BS2.
I thought there was another resource for BS2 to HO train interfacing, but I can't find it now. Basically, you use a TIP-120 power transistor to control the voltage to the HO track. That's for "DC" based trains.
The other suggestions above seem to be for "DCC" based trains -- which have an on-board processor to accept a standard PWM train control signal.
Well, if you're putting a 'controller' in each train, you might as well go with DCC controllers. There's no sense trying to re-invent the wheel, when you've got companies manufacturing millions of modules every day for rather low cost already.
So then your problem becomes -- "How do I provide a computer interface to DCC enabled HO locomotives?" -- for which I assume there are already equipment in place to do that.
Which speed controller were you looking at at hobby-lobby? I didn't see any that would be approriate for use in a model railroad.
You can buy the DCC decoders for around $30. Try http://www.tcsdcc.com/DecoderSelection/HO%20Series.htm these come with a harness connection to allow them to work with non-DCC ready locos. They even include instructions for properly wiring them in different "legacy" locos.
Now, the controllers and power units are another story, as they are the expensive components. That would be an interesting project to build. Since the encoding scheme is covered by the NMRA standards, so that any controller can operate any DCC equiped loco, you should be able to duplicate that functionality with your own design. The BS2 should easily be able to generate the·PWM digital signal that DCC uses.
Also, any equipment you buy in the future will work with your encoder if it is DCC equiped.
I think you misunderstand. We're suggesting you BUY it commercially, because it's extremely unlikely that you CAN build it cheaper.
And that recommendation comes with a lot of history, experience, and expense behind it. You build something yourself IF you want the education and experience -- it's extremely difficult to save money at the same time.
Actually, whether it's cheaper to build or buy is determined by the project at hand. The project I'm just finishing up was a case where build is cheaper than buy. My final build cost for the weather station was about $1200. An equivalent commercial model (of which there were none that matched all my requirements) would have been 2 to 3 times that price.
In this case, with the model railroad train control, the train mounted decoders would probably be cheaper to buy and would be designed to fit into a train. The encoder and power modules might be cheaper to build, and depending on the design, may even offer some features that are not found in the commercial encoders. The best advice would be to design the unit and work up an estimated cost. Then compare that with the cost of commercially available equipment that has the same features.
rockybulwinkle
Posts: 36
Comments
Digital Command Control (DCC) systems already exist. Here is information about the various systems, and how the signals are encoded:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Command_Control
If you need more than that, use Google, or your favorite search engine and search for DCC train systems.
Regards,
Bruce Bates
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Involvement and committment can be best understood by looking at a plate of ham and eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. ANON
http://www.nmra.org/standards/standards.html
and use this as a guide in anything you design.
NMRA is the industry/hobbyist group that sets the standards for manufacturers of model railroad equipment. It exists so that equipment from one source will work with equipment from another source. If you set your system up according to S-9.1 and S-9.2, it will work with commercial DCC equipment.
Parallax has published an artical/application note complete with software and schematics using a BS1 to control the speed of three (3)·N scale·trains. Check out application note #21 "Fun With Trains" http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/appnt/stamps/bs1Appnotes.pdf·· The trick is the custom PWM software. This can also be done with the BS2.
I hope this helps.
SJW
I thought there was another resource for BS2 to HO train interfacing, but I can't find it now. Basically, you use a TIP-120 power transistor to control the voltage to the HO track. That's for "DC" based trains.
The other suggestions above seem to be for "DCC" based trains -- which have an on-board processor to accept a standard PWM train control signal.
So then your problem becomes -- "How do I provide a computer interface to DCC enabled HO locomotives?" -- for which I assume there are already equipment in place to do that.
You can buy the DCC decoders for around $30. Try http://www.tcsdcc.com/DecoderSelection/HO%20Series.htm these come with a harness connection to allow them to work with non-DCC ready locos. They even include instructions for properly wiring them in different "legacy" locos.
Now, the controllers and power units are another story, as they are the expensive components. That would be an interesting project to build. Since the encoding scheme is covered by the NMRA standards, so that any controller can operate any DCC equiped loco, you should be able to duplicate that functionality with your own design. The BS2 should easily be able to generate the·PWM digital signal that DCC uses.
Also, any equipment you buy in the future will work with your encoder if it is DCC equiped.
Post Edited (MSDTech) : 4/17/2008 3:46:09 AM GMT
And that recommendation comes with a lot of history, experience, and expense behind it. You build something yourself IF you want the education and experience -- it's extremely difficult to save money at the same time.
In this case, with the model railroad train control, the train mounted decoders would probably be cheaper to buy and would be designed to fit into a train. The encoder and power modules might be cheaper to build, and depending on the design, may even offer some features that are not found in the commercial encoders. The best advice would be to design the unit and work up an estimated cost. Then compare that with the cost of commercially available equipment that has the same features.