Terraces have lights

This week I was able to resume work on the terraces after the last two weeks spent working out the MERG testbed problem. As the terraces will only be seen from the front, I decided only to light up the front rooms, and then alternating between top and ground floor i.e. flats 1 and 3 are ground and 2 and 4 are top floor. I did my usual thing of using clear LEDs painted with Tamiya (transparent) Orange to give that incandescent look. Intention is hopefully to put each on its own circuit and somehow automate a on/off cycle to give the 'lived in' look. Clear plastic in for the windows and curtains in place. The doors are also in, but I've had to pait the back of the doors black for the ground floor lighted flats as the doors were mounted on clear plastic for the skylight, and as such internal lighting was showing through the whole door. This week I'll put the window ledges in and then glue the whole front walls into place.

On the MERG side of things I've been researching what various IR detector arrangements are out there. I stumbled on this one site which had a very good solution that's been used by the robotics fraternity and would equally work for model train detection. Many possible solutions entailed developing a voltage compartor circuit between the IR emitter and receiver so that it would know when something has gone over it. This robotics solution has all the necessary circuitry on one chip, an IS471F. This chip also has the ability to modulate the IR emitter's light output to the receiver circuit so that ambient light doesn't affect it. So I found a supplier in Oz and sent away for one of these chips to give it a go. If it works out, then cheaper chips can be found from Chinese electronics sites. The other thing on the MERG side was I was contemplating the AC power supply over the DC, and thought why not try the transformer for the NCE SB3a. It is 15VAC 5A (fits criteria) and I reckon I could have it supply two circuits, one for the DCC SB3a and the other for the MERG CBUS power bus as I don't think it will ever have a full 5As of consumption with my small loco fleet and the accessories to power.

On the Raspberry Pi front, I've been trying to work out a problem with JMRI integration and CPU maxing out, over the weekend. No joy, so I've posted a question on the jmriusers Yahoo forum and will see what answers I get back. I took the Pi to the Club meeting on Saturday and it certainly raised the interest of the electronics buffs amongst us. One member said to investigate using VNC on the Pi to access it without a directly connected terminal but rather from your smartphone or tablet. Something to work on later but if it can it has possibilities in the Club context.

So this week more on the terraces and maybe the IR sensor made up and tested on the MERG CANACE8C.