Unfortunately the missus decided that the hobby (now rumpus as well) room needed to be further freshened up after the recent painting so she has been busy painting trims and doors which I thank her for, but the hobby table has had to stay in the shed to give her room to do her painting. She is hoping to have this finished by the Easter weekend, so maybe I can move back in then.
My old PC which has all the PIC programming applications on runs on XP so I am currently reluctant to connect it to the internet to do any app upgrades etc before moving onto Mr Mackie's project. I could still do this in isolation but if I need to go out into the big wide world it might be an issue now that XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. Decisions, decisions..
The Club layout is now operational on DCC with a number of NCE UTP panels about the layout so that it can be shared. I took the VR Walker railmotor down for a spin and it was a bit stuttery (is there such a word? Is now!). At first I though it might have been dirty tracks and dirty wheels. The track was cleaned and I cleaned the main traction wheels, as the end bogies are purely for pickup purposes. But it was still stuttery. So maybe a good clean all round and check the gears for any rubbish or greasing issues was suggested by another member. Hopefully I didn't pickup any loose ballast as it was later discovered the stuff was magnetic.
Apart from that, just idling along.
A quick update as no modelling has been happening due to the house renos starting last week and proceeding through this week. As a result the study/hobbby room is chockers full of furniture being stored out of the way!
On the day of the last posting, the Ebay purchase of the Hornby transformer arrived in the mail. Still pretty good working quality but the variable speed is a bit skittish, so might have to look into that. Might just need a potentiometer replacement?
Mr Mackie was elated that the IR transceivers had finally arrived from China and is now questioning when his crossing detector will be made. All in good time!
Last week two of the three Hattons orders from the UK arrived with the Metcalfe kits and a few little other scenery items, but one bow still yet to arrive. Maybe this week.
No rush as I have no where to build them anyway.
On that note, I have decided to sort out that 73 Class once and for all when the hobby room is back to being used.
After a quick chat to Mr Mackie through the week, I investigated the switch that I had used on Lachlan's layout for the lighting. It looked OK and no apparent loose wire/s making a short circuit. So I did the time honoured act of tapping it on something hard in case there was something amiss inside, rewired it and bingo the light went on and the power controller behaved like it should. I must say the Gaugemaster controller is a little beauty for power output on the track. I cut down some timber strips to act as a holder as the controller didn't have any onboard screw holes unfortunately. Lachlan is quite excited about his layout at the moment. I might have to do more things like putting in a simple manual signal that he (or Matthew) can just turn on or off when they want to.
With respect to the motive power depot backscene, I did some further investigation and measurements throught the week and discovered I had sufficient room for some low relief buildings along the backboard as well as some full relief buildings to service the sidings, from the Metcalfe Model range of cardboard kits. So an order was placed with Hattons of Liverpool as the were the cheapest (including the postage from the UK). These should fill in the space nicely and allow me to keep the momentum up on modelling this side of the layout.
Not forgetting the Kensington Hill side of the layout, I glued up a Ratio line side hut kit that came with a Railway Modeller magazine and spray painted it over the weekend with car undercoat spray. I will then hand paint the features some time soon.
I have also dug out the Dapol pub that I want on this side as well for glueing up.
No closer to the 73 class' wiring up and I will have to pack this away again as I have tradies coming in next week to start two weeks of renos in the house. So it might be best to wait until all work in the hobby room/study/kids TV room is finished before getting stuck into finishing this off.
This week I am hoping to receive the Hornby controller I picked up on Ebay, maybe those IR transceivers might come in, and maybe the Hattons orders will get here as well. Time will tell.
Since the last post I have been a bit all over the place with things.
Re the Pi, I was able to autostart the IP addressing broadcasting which was a great relief. I have done a few tests on the Edimax mini dongle's wifi range when connected directly to the Pi and via a powered USB hub. Quick summary is that for any decent range, the wifi dongle of any type does need to be powered via a powered hub. Connecting directly to the Pi's onboard USB ports does not give it sufficient range apart from maybe a couple of meters at the most.
Lachlan and I installed the donated lights a weekend ago without burning ourselves with the soldering iron. I was able to accomplish this by jacking up the layout using Triton Multi-Stands to a height whereby we could sit under the layout. This worked great up to the point where I seem to have thrown my back out! Anyway we connected the grain of wheat bulb based lights in parallel using a 'accessory bus' of speaker wire. This seemed to do the trick momentarily but it looks like I had made a short and the little Hornby controller fritzed out! Stuff all voltage was coming out of either the 12VDC controlled terminals or the 16VAC accessory terminals. Damn! I connected up the lights to an old H&M controller I have and the same thing happened but the H&M has a auto fuse I think which cut out before any damage occurred. I found the short, fixed it, and reconnected the H&M 12VDC regulated directly to the lights to see if 12VDC worked ok. It did. Maybe it is the type of bulbs? Anyway I mentioned to Mr Mackie and PK the need for another controller and Mr Mackie kindly offered some of his old ones. At the Club Meeting on Saturday, we tested a couple, and found one that seemed to fit the bill. After the Club, I went home and connected it up. The 12VDC regulated control was a bit finicky and not very responsive but the more interesting thing was when I connected up the lights to the 16VAC terminals and turned the line slide switch on the test loco only moved when both the accessory switch was on. When I turned it off, the loco stopped. Very strange as the power sources should be separate inside the controller. The lights also went on momentarily then turned off for no apparent reason. Most troubling. As a back up I had been keeping an eye on an old Hornby PSR (P?) type controller on Ebay. This was similar to the controller I had when I was a boy. It had both 12VDC and 15VAC accessory terminals. Time would tell if I decided to put a bid in. So today I decided to buy a new controller. I went to Hobbyrama and bought a Gaugemaster 12VDC controller with 16VAC accessory terminals. I came home, wired it in, and once again the accessories played up, but the track control was ever so smooth. Could it be the lights need 12VDC?? Not sure. Anyway I was lucky to win the auction and hopefully this may answer the problems. If so great. If not, I have another spare controller!
The IR transceivers have yet to arrive from China. Must be on that slow boat! So no PIC programming started yet.
I was able to put together a Dapol war memorial kit through the week. OK it only had three parts but it is a start! I've moved back most of my equipment to the study from the shed where it has been since the carpet was laid and I had to clean out the study of furniture. I have a couple of weeks before the painters come so maybe I will concentrate on that 73 Class?
I was able to do some work on my layout with trying different concepts on the motive depot side's backscene. I looked for some photo-realistic images on Google and only came up with a Mill. All the town high street scenes were modern image, not 1950's or 60s. Many of the photo-realistic backscenes you can buy just didn't fit properly. So I will have to make a compromise and use model realistic type scenes similar to the Scalescenes buildings I am using. I stumbled on a site http://www.wordsworthmodelrailway.co.uk/ which has free scene and kit downloads which might fit the bill. I printed off some backscenes and brick wall arches and have temporarily blu-tacked them up to visually check them out. As expected the image is not photo-realistic but I guess the end result I want is in the depot itself and not the backscene, which is just there to fill in the blue sky! So I might progress with this just so that it is out of the way.
The other thing that happened at the Club was a father and son had started up their own home based laser cutting business. They had some initial models made up ready for gluing to show the other members and as Lachlan and I were leaving Tristan (the son) offered Lachlan one of the laser cut wood buildings for free for his layout. Lachlan was over the moon and now I have to glue it up and we will then place it on Lachlan's layout. It is very Australian in prototype and probably not something you would find in Alaska, but you could do it up like a boat house and place it near a river or lake, which Lachlan does have.
That's all for now. My time will probably be devoted to either the 73 Class &/or trying to work out the problem with the lighting on Lachlan's layout.
This week I was able to start looking into this by starting with a fresh Pi install and going from there. I was able to get the wifi dongle to broadcast in Master Mode which allows it to become an Access Point, but this wasn't without pain and a few manual interventions, when it should be autostarted upon a boot up of the Pi and be fairly seemless as you want it to be running in 'headless mode' (no monitor). So some further investigation into this. Secondly I need to check the range of the broadcast for use with both the JMRI smartphone apps and the Wifi Walkie Talkie apps.
I didn't get around to starting any kit modelling unfortunately, however after much pestering from Lachlan, I decided to donate my old 12V incandescent street lamps for use on his layout. So he did some hole drilling and gluing in of the lamps. Matthew also helped with one or two of them where he could reach them. I installed an old slide switch near the Transformer. So now I guess I will have to get underneath the layout and wire them all up without burning myself on the soldering iron!
I also ordered 10 IR transceiver combo modules from China for the princely sum of A$1.61 for the lot to use on some experiments and the rail crossing detection project Mr Mackie has suggested I investigate with PIC programming.
So this week probably more on the Pi, maybe start a kit, more than likely burn myself soldering Lachlan's street lamps, and maybe, just maybe look at the PIC programming OR some time on my layout.
On Sunday morning just gone, I and thirty other guys had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by Davy Dick. Davy is a very prolific electronics designer, forum contributor, and presenter from MERG (Model Electronics Railway Group) in the UK. Davy is from the West of Scotland Area Group and was out here on holidays at the Sunshine Coast. One of the Brisbane MERG members was able to coax him down to Brisbane for a few hours to meet other MERG members and present a talk on train detection methods.
He then stayed around to give advice to the meeting on how best to setup a MERG Area Group in South East Queensland (SEQ). He was a very nice guy to talk to, his accent was not that bad. I even offered him a Scotch Finger biscuit at morning tea, but with a confused look on his face, he politely declined. I had to smirk!
This week I am concentrating on trying to get the Edimax wifi dongle (micro type) working on the Pi, and if I have time perhaps put together one of the many building kits I have stored away, just for something different to do.
So what has been happening since my last post?
I was looking into Mr Mackie's layout comms to determine whether a wireless solution could be found. As most people have access to a smartphone of some description and these have wifi connectivity, I thought what better place to start than with something that is not going to cost you anything.
I set myself some loose parameters in determining what to rule in or out.
1) Is there an app either on Android or iPhone that could be used (sorry I have no idea about Microsoft smartphones)?
2) The app needed to be reasonably priced or free
3) The app had to be able to work in a private wifi LAN (i.e. not connected to the Internet)
4) It had to be easy to setup
5) Smallish storage footprint
The basic intention was to utilise a private wifi LAN to connect the smartphones to so that communication between operators of a layout could occur. For instance at exhibitions, at a large layout operating session, at a club, or anywhere that such 'private' communications would be required.
For my wifi LAN I utilised my Raspberry Pi as a wifi access point (see article elsewhere on how to set this up). Other people could set up there own private wifi LANs by using other devices. The range is purely dependent on your wifi access point's coverage.
After a number of weeks of part-time research I have come to the final recommendation of Android apps to use. Unfortunately I have no iThingy experience in this. There were some apps that could be used for both types of OS, but these needed Internet connectivity as the 'server' was online.
Apps researched
Zello - no good as logon requires access to the 'Zello' server via the Internet
Voxer - same Internet requirements as Zello
Tikl - needs access to Internet server. Needs access to phone or Facebook Contacts
WiFi Walkie Talkie - can unicast or broadcast but you need to know the IP address of each connected device. No 'Contact' or 'Connected/Visible' address book. Difficult to use
Wifi Intercom - needs a 'Contact' list for network but doesn't tell you how to do it. May not broadcast, only point to point.
WiFi Talkie - user interface not visually nice. Difficult to use
Wi-Fi Talkie Lite - immature user interface. No apparent 'Talk' feature
Virtual Walkie Talkie - this was one of the final two contenders.
- This app can be used both on public and private networks.
- For private networks it has the ability of either setting one of the connected devices as the master with an inbuilt server or set up a PC or Linux machine as the server. I tried setting up the Linux server on the Raspberry Pi but I was having problems. Might just be me so I can't comment on this aspect but it wouldn't be a show stopper.
- The user interface resembles a walkie talkie and you can select different channels to converse on. Might be handy for group defined channels i.e. central controller, yard controller, specific loco chat, or at exhibitions for different locations or people?
- It has a small storage footprint of 778k
- It requires Android 1.5 or above to use, so a good chance you could get an older Android device second hand if you do not have one readily available, or you want to carry a small amount for group usage
Android Intercom - this is the other final contender
- Can work in both private and public networks
- Easy to setup, no need to identify a master inbuilt server as it discovers who is on the network
- Requires storage footprint of 1.4M
- requires Android 2.1 and above
- sometime experienced an echo during testing but I wasn't sure what the cause of this was. Could be feedback between devices if to close together or the speed of the network wasn't fast enough, or there where to many concurrent conversations happening which delayed transmissions or repeated transmissions.
- it might just come down to setting some basic rules around correct radio etiquette!
So my recommendations at this point in time would be either Android Intercom or Virtual Walkie Talkie, in no particular order. Just give them a rty and see what works best.
I haven't had a chance to test in an operating session and also with JMRI Engine Driver running on the same device to see if this is an easy thing to switch between or if it becomes a pain in the @rse!
One good thing in my opinion is that it allows walking around without constantly plugging in. If you are using PC headsets you can get an adapter cable that brings the two ends together into one so that this can be plugged into a smartphone if the usual smartphone ear buds/microphone are not available. The other possible thing you could do would be to utilise a bluetooth earpiece (with microphone) that is paired with the smartphone in question. Thus no cable dangling around your person, just pure wireless connectivity.
So I think I will leave this for now and maybe test at the next running session at Mr Mackie's to see if it is a valid solution or not.
The other things I actually did on the weekend were I ran the VR Walker railmotor on the club layout and it went very smoothly. I also started to do some work on the Bray MPD side of the layout as this has not started apart from the track being laid. I have yet to finish the Kensington Hill side of the layout but I need a change for the moment.
I haven't got anywhere near the 73 Class!
Well hopefully that has filled in the gap since the last post?
