OO scale rollingstock relocated

As the title suggests, nothing done this week. Very busy at work and stuffed by the end of the day so no modelling, MERG or Raspberry Pi stuff done of an evening. The only thing I did get done was late Saturday arvo I moved my OO scale rollingstock into the recently put together and painted OO storage trays cut down by the Club from MDF about a year ago. I only recently put them together and painted them. Unfortunately these trays don't fit into my current storage box due to a higher tray height, but the intention is to only use one or two at a time if transporting somewhere and lash them up via velcro straps or something similar. I now have some freed up space in the storage box and empty HO scale trays to store some of the NSWGR rollingstock currently stored in the cupboard. I can't see much modelling again this week but you never know whay surprises might be in store.

Terraces' "shingle rooves" done

This week I was able to complete the "shingle rooves" of the terraces. The "shingles" being the individual paper strips overlayed on the previous row. Very tedious but good looking. I didn't get around to actually gluing the rooves into place but a job for this week along with the ridge capping.

Yesterday afternoon I was staring at the layout out in the shed (I had the tilt-a-door up) from the kitchen window and something that has been bothering me about how to muck around with the NCE system's connection to the Raspberry Pi dawned on me. There right in front of me was the answer. The separate programming track. A length of track on an MDF strip. I could move this into the study. I'm pretty sure it isn't needed but just in case the SB3a command station needs some sort of feedback, I can connect it to the programming track, remove the NCE USB module from the layout and bring it inside as well and connect it to the SB3a via the flat bus cable. I can then connect it to the Pi and start working out the UDEV rules so that JMRI can recognise the USB port. So maybe something different to do one night this week.

The wifi dongle issue on the Pi is still slowly being worked out by the online community.

This afternoon I spent a bit of time mentoring Lachlan about how to ballast his diorama. Starting to look good.

So this week a couple of things on offer, the terraces and the Pi.

Terraces creeping to conclusion

A quick update of the week that has been. The terraces progressed with the installation of the loft floors which also incorporated the external guttering (for some reason!). Next to do are the rooves. This will be tedious as there are a lot of overlapping 'tiling' strips to be glued down, but it does look good in the end.

On the wifi dongle issue with the Raspberry Pi there were some solutions bantered about on line but nothing you would say is a definitive answer. I'll wait and see what happens this week. Once this is sorted out I get back to working out to do the UDEV rules so that JMRI can connect to the layout.

On the MERG CBUS front, I have been reading about RocRail (European software and hardware developer) and their associated CAN based modules that can be used with MERG CBUS. They offer some additional functionality to those from MERG.

So this week more on the terraces I reckon as I do want to finish it ASAP to get it behind me and ready for the modelling competition at the Club. Today I showed Lachlan how to do static grassing, and he went ahead to grass his diorama. Not bad for a first attempt.

Diorama's started

I forgot to mention last week that I started helping Lachlan and Matthew with a couple of dioramas. The main aim being for Lachlan to submit his into the Club Modelling Competition. Matthew's is purely just to be doing the same as his big brother ;-)

So I will be mentoring Lachlan and he will do most of the work. I have just done the timber cutting and nailing of the track for him. This way we can enter either of the diorame or President's Choice categories. We continued with these on the weekend just gone.

No work progressed on the terraces unfortunately.

As for the MERG output module issue with the LEDs and the pushbuttons, I think I might need to use latching relays to keep the current to the LEDs if the intention is to use them as route indicators. Further investigation needed.

The Raspberry Pi wifi dongle issue looks like a known issue and the community seems to be on the case to sort it out.

Hopefully this week back to the terraces.

Blog List updated

Something I've been meaning to do has been to update My Blog List.

Added to the list today:

• NSW Rail Rambler (NSW)
• Jon's Shed (Oz)
• Brian Ford Trains (UK)
• Bron Hebog (UK)
• Shelley Railways (Oz)

Removed due to inactivity or closed down:

• Abbey Creek (Oz)
• Nathan's Point (Oz)
• Rhyd Ddu (UK)

MERG modules done!

Since the last post on Wednesday, I have concentrated on getting a least the Experimenter's Kit modules done and if time permitted start the solenoid driver module. Well I was able to get all of them done once I started. The CANACC4 solenoid module was certainly the most time intensive module I have built to date due to the number of components on the board, but well worth it in the end. Tonight I connected it up to the CBUS test bed and the laptop runninf FlimConfig and it was a breeze to program. I had an old test point with a Peco driver underneath so with a small bit of bodgying I was able to connect the point motor connected into the module. I then configured the two pushbuttons on the CANACE8C to activate the point motor. Perfect. I then thought why not see how a couple of LEDs in the CANACC8 would go to mimic indicators on a panel. Slight problem was that the LEDs only flashed with the pushbutton activation and didn't stay on. I knew there was some way of keeping them on but for the life of me I couldn't remember. A bit later after I had disconnected I referenced the manual I finally found and I will have to try its suggestion the next time I connect the laptop to the testbed. Hopefully this will be tomorrow as the missus is taking the kids over to a playdate for a few hours in the morning which will give me some 'alone time' on my public holiday time off .

This afternoon I spent helping Lachlan and Matthew start the small diorame baseboards for their modelling competition entries for the Club comp in December. I am specifically going to mentor Lachlan so that he can enter something. Matthew is more like being a part of the process! I cut down some ply for the base and some MDF for the backboard. The boys painted the baseboards in brown to start with for the dirt and then we start moving upwards. A small project which I think will be achieveable by Lachlan before December.

This week hopefully sort out the above LED problem, maybe put some time into the Raspberry Pi and its connectivity with the Wifi / JMRI / Engine Driver, and the UDEV rules for connecting it to the layout. The last one is a big maybe.

Then it will be back to the terrace houses.

Terrace back walls finally done

I've delayed updating this blog by a couple of days so as to have something to write about. I have finally been able to finish the rear walls which have been extremely time-consuming. Some photos below. I've elected not to put in curtains on the rear windows as you will not be able to see them on the layout.

Apart from these, nothing else has been done, because as mentioned, time was consumed with these alone last week!

Time for a change this week so I might get around to one of the MERG modules.