Santy comes tonight. Ho,ho,ho!

The week's evening work concentrated on the Raspberry Pi. I was trying to get the wifi to go int access point mode, without much success. Researching the problem is lending itself to a possible driver issue. The reason for trying to get it into this mode is to have it generate the static IP address/es required for smartphone / tablet connectivity via Engine Driver or something similar. This hasn't been resolved as yet but I am sure it will sometime soon (hopefully). The other thing was to get JMRI connected to the NCE and MERG system USB interfaces. I had success with JMRI capturing the MERG signals. As for the NCE system I will have to try this separately as with the MERG connected JMRI could see two USB devices but I had no idea which USB was what. I made some progress with researching persistent device names which will identify them either as MERG and NCE interfaces. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

On another front I have been waiting for a MERG CANACC8 kit to come into stock. This kit can be converted into a servo output controller (CANSERVO8) as I was wanting to try my hand at automating the ratio semaphore with a servo. So through the week one did so I purchased it. While I was in the MERG shop I thought I would suss out their servo mounting brackit kit, so one of these were purchased. Next over to eBay to purchase some SG90 servos. You can really get a bargain with these from the Chinese based stores. I picked up a 10 pack which included postage which with dollar conversion came up to about $2 per servo! Bargain. Then I stumbled on a couple of OO gauge yard LED lamps from a UK site. I have been looking around for something like these since last year when the brass models I was interested in where not available outside of the UK. I got two packs. Then while I was in eBay I happened onto another Chinese site selling 20 LED street lampposts which I was wanting to replace the bulb variety I had purchased a couple of years ago. Then while I was at it I thought that I could possibly make a working semaphore lamp from SMD LEDs. So across to LEDBaron (a German company) and bought a 10 pack of pre-wired SMD LEDs to have a go at. So a bit of a buying splurge to get ready for 2013's projects.

So the big jolly fellow in the red suit passes overhead tonight, magically dropping off his gifts. Merry Christmas to all my followers and thanks for taking the time to read my musings.

Pi Wi Fi Yah!

The week started with me pottering around with the PIC programmer and the breadboard working out how to make things happen. I got the LED flashing and being able to recognise a off and on signal. May not sound like much but it is a start to know more about the potential use of PICs on the layout.

The new wifi dongle from the UK arrived during the week. Friday night arrived and I decided lets see if the Pi recognises it. Popped it in, turned it on, waited for the boot up and nothing happened. Aaarrrgghhhh!!!! Then I thought that perhaps all my ginning around previously had buggered up the backend configs etc. So I took the momentous decision to start from the beginning again and reimage the SD card. After a bit of ginning around to get the screen output displaying correctly (overscan settings to adjust the left and right pixels) I was able to read the screen. I fired up the windows gui and it had an application I hadn't seen before to do with the wifi config. Well this was a start in the right direction! Fired this up and with a few clicks and text entries entered, BINGO! the dongle was up and running, scanning and seeing my wifi router. The little bugger even auto-connected and I had an Internet connection. THANK GOD! Hooray, and all that nonsense!

Saturday had other things to do, and the night was a right off due to a street Xmas party. I behaved myself and only had three heavies before heading home to look after a sick son, but you have to have a couple more while getting dinner ready don't you;-) ? So after the fifth heavy I was a bit weary.

Sunday morning was more promising in that I was able to get sick son lying beside me in a chair watching Thomas the Tank Engine while I tinkered around with the Pi. I installed JMRI before switching off for the day. In the evening I was able to configure JMRI and was able to fire up Engine Driver with a connection to my smartphone.

So this week, investigate how to convert the Pi into an access point rather than have to rely on the wifi router to make the connection. The reason for this is eventually I don't want to have to connect the Pi to the Internet but just use it as a wireless LAN to just connect wirelessly to smartphones and tablets. For updating of the software etc, I would disconnect the Pi from the layout (as it is in the shed) and take it back to my computer in the house and hard connect via ethernet cable to my PC to get an Internet connection. The other option could be to have a second dongle. One would be configured as the Internet connection and the other the wifi LAN access point. I might be getting ahead of myself but it is a plan m'Lord! First things first though is to next connect the Pi/JMRI to the NCE and MERG systems and test connectivity.

Not sure if I will get back to the PIC programmer this week, but with Xmas-New Year approaching I will have some spare time (amongst the Things to Do list that has been waiting for me all year!) to tinker with the programmer.

And now the photos from the weekend

As promised in the previous post here are some photos of Lachlan and myself with our trophies.

I have no idea why this won't insert in the correct orientation (portrait)!
Sorry!

Winners' Weekend!

Saturday afternoon was the final Club Monthly Meeting for the year which means the Club Modelling Competition. This year we also added a Photo Competition. As I had been organising the competition this year, I was pretty busy for the hour before the Club Meeting and the hour after the meeting. It was great to see so many entries in the expanded categories that were developed this year. Some might fine models were displayed. Unfortunately as I was running around sorting things out I didn't get any photos! I will see what my mate PK took and get some snaps uploaded.

I was very surprised to pick up the Structure Minor category. There was only two of us in the category and I thought the other model might have pipped me at the post but the judges thought otherwise, so The Terraces are trophy quality! Bugger me! Also my son Lachlan picked up the inaugral President's Award for a mentored model. He was over the moon and hopefully encourage him to develop his modelling skills for the following year. Once again once I have some pics of the trophies I'll up load them. Lachlan was also lucky in getting one of the winning tickets in the annual Xmas raffles. So we (I mean me!) came home with a bottle of chardy (already in the fridge), a 149 drill bit kit which will come in handy, a small Thomas throw rug which the youngest Matthew has already taken, and various lollies, bottled fruit and such. Upon getting home the missus checked the use by dates on the food, and all but the passionfruit pulp (Lord knows what this will be used for? Something for the mother in law) was out of date. I must mention to the membership next year no regifting or check the use byt dates. The jar of fruit salad was 18 months out of date!

The PIC programmer arrived through the week and I have only had a chance to put together the programming shield and put the software on the PC. Hopefully this week some success on using this.

Yet to receive the wifi dongle from the UK, so nothing further on the Pi.

So pretty happy with the weekend outcomes.

Pi Wi Fi - no way!

As the terraces were done, I focussed on the problem with the wifi and the Raspberry Pi. Online research followed by application of said fixes was not working after three nights. I decided that the problem must still be with the manufacturer's latest firmware not operating correctly on the Pi's linux. This is a wild arse assumption but I had to blame something! So my answer was to order a wifi dongle from the UK which is supposed to work out of the box according the the Pi online community. As it was it was half the price including postage than the one I have. I will use the D-link that didn't work on the Pi with the PC instead.

I have decided also not to progress with the JMRI and Pi integration until the wifi connectivity is sorted out as I need a wireless LAN operating for connectivity to the Engine Driver app on the smartphone, as well as experimenting with remote terminal connectivity via WLAN.

I also received in the post a Ratio GWR home semaphore kit to try. I started it on Saturday and got to the point of it being operational. This has now perked my interest in possible investigating MERG's servo control to operate the semaphore. Something else to research!

Still waiting on the PIC programmer so may not get to banging up some PIC smarts to operate the terrace LEDs so might have to resort to just connecting them up in parallel to a 9V battery for the club modelling competition this weekend.

Apart from progressing with the semaphore kit, not exactly sure what I will get around to do as I am waiting on things to come in the mail. One of those things I have to sort out is the electronic components drawer as it is a bit all over the place!

Terraces are done!

Well they are finally done! After a night or two of completing the final details (chimney pots and steps), I masked up the windows ready for the weekend matt finish sealer spraying. I did the first coat on Friday night, then followed this up Saturday afternoon with a second coat.

Front

Back

Look closely and the interior details are noticable (just)

Other things this week was I purchased some accessories for the PIC programmer that should hopefully arrive this week or next. These included a development breadboard, connecting jumper wires, and some experiment components based on the list in the PIC programming in BASIC book recently read.

So this week I can concentrate on getting back to the Raspberry Pi and JMRI integration, but first that damn wi-fi !

Into the home straight for the terraces

This week I have been slogging away at getting the terraces done. Last night I had just begun when we lost power due to a storm. Today's weather was just as weird with a storm in the morning, afternoon and night. I took the opportunity during the afternoon storm of putting the foundation onto the terraces. So this week I just have to put the door steps on, glue the chimney pots in, and prepare the windows with masking tape ready for the weekend when I'll spray the lot with matt spray / Dullcote. Then I'll be done!

Nothing done with the Raspberry Pi apart from reading and researching what's been happening in the Pi community of late. Some people have been making good progress with integrating JMRI with various DCC systems, but nothing for NCE yet! I might be the first!

As for the PIC, I'm still researching what's on offer for the programmer and software.

Yesterday the missus gave me a pass out for a short time to get away from the kids as they were driving me mad due to being cooped up inside due to the bad weather. I couldn't get to the shed due to lightning being around. So I took the opportunity while doing some shopping of dropping by the club. I had put a tray of rollingstock in, along with my Cab "just in case!". So I was at the club for a little over an hour in the afternoon and was able to run a BR OO scale train on the club layout.

So this week complete the terraces as mentioned above and maybe, just maybe revisit the Pi and JMRI. I also still have to sort out the wifi problem.