My Raspberry Pi Access Point and JMRI article updated

Go on over to 'Articles that I have written' and click on the Raspberry Pi and JMRI document. I have recently updated it to reflect some recent changes. However Raspbian OS recently updated in September 2014, but this isn't reflected in the documentation. Just be aware of the updated Raspberry Pi OS.

Tunnel update and other things this week

As mentioned last post here are some photos showing the progress of the tunnel on the Bray MPD side of the layout.

The 'story' of the 'truncated' tunnel is that originally the right side of the tunnel actually went right across the scene to the backboard. A railway from another company went across the top of the tunnel, while one went underneath. The former company went bust and the railway went into disrepair following abandonment. The latter company then decided to develop the area as a motive power depot (MPD) and subsequently excavated the right hand side of the tunnel to make way for the MPD yard and to service the new industries that started to make use of the facilities. Hence the siding running along side of the rock wall.



Here you can see the 'black rock walls' of the tunnel with various colours of paint to hopefully give the impression of a mossy rock face. On top of the tunnel is the abandoned railway with static grass and puff ball bushes in place. I will probably add a tree or two as well. The fence is there for planning purposes. I will probably paint it brown to give the impression of an unmaintained fence.












I also experimented through the week with the idea of a 'climber' going up the rock face. The outcome can be seen to the left of the masking tape in the photo. Basically a pipe cleaner with a small piece wired up at another angle, then spray painted black and left to dry. Then once dry, sprayed with hair spray and flock sprinkled/pressed on and let to set. Yet to install to see how it looks.

The only other thing during the week was I started on the NSWGR 'S' wagon kit and potted around with the Pi.

Too many things happening!

Mr Mackie keeps asking about a blog update so here it is!
Since the last posting my weekends have been crazy. However I have been able to sort out some things of late, usually during the weeknights once the kids have gone to bed.
So here goes:

• BR Class 108 decoders installed and tested. Yet to have a really good run on a layout. I intend to also put some seated figures in the carriages to populate them. These I obtained at a reasonable price from a guy in Oz
• NSWGR 73 Class - I spent a good week redoing my installation instructions that I intend to make available on the Web. The Zimo decoder is a bit of a masterpiece of electronic engineering but I want to make sure that I have the right wires in the right places beforehand, and know how to program it correctly before I actually raise a soldering iron to it. Hopefully in the next month it may be finished if I get the time
• I have been spending quite a bit of time redoing my Raspberry Pi and JMRI instructions since upgrading the Pi to the latest version and JMRI to 3.8. With 3.8 quite a bit of changes have occurred which forced me into amending the Howtos I had previously written and published. I am also taking the opportunity to do various 'images' versions to allow for future options. I will then look at how to integrate data coming in from the Pi and connected devices such as other microcontrollers or GPIO expansion boards to JMRI
• Mentoring Lachlan for his entry to the Club Xmas competition
• Working on my own layout around the new tunnel (photos below)

Through the week I decided what I was going to enter into the club Xmas competition. I have never put together a model railway kit, but in my youth plenty of military models like ships, planes, tanks, etc. So to start the plunge, I will put together a Silvermaz S wagon I purchased from Horizon Hobbies a number of years go. Mr Mackie generously donated some decals for the white lettering. It looks simple enough as a kit, but it will be the small details and painting that will be the key. I think some slight weathering will be on the cards for the model as well.

It was the club AGM on the weekend and congratulations to the new committee. However three cheers to my mate PK who was nominated and voted in as a life member of the club for his services to the club over the many years he has been a member. Well done me old china!

So here are some photos of the tunnel in development. I am quite happy with the clay however the painting needing improvement. 

DAS clay PVAed glued to the side of the polystyrene tunnel former

Close up of the 'drill' marks. My intention here was to replicate stone drill marks on the exposed rock to give the impression of stone that has been used to form the rock

Side view near the factory siding

The 'rock' surface looks shiny. Needed to tone it down.

Black and gray paints used for the stone

So in an upcoming blog post I will have some photos of the tunnel scenery, including old derelict tracks, the use of 'puff' balls for shrubbery, and static grass.

Until the next post, happy modelling.

Class 108 decodering started and other updates

Brisbane had a public holiday on Wednesday for the RNA Show Day. So naturally I went down to the Club in the morning to catch up with the guys and start a small project, namely the installation of the decoders into the Bachmann Class 108 DMU. 'Small' is now a relative term!

I got as far as the power car and the install of the Digitrax decoder when I ran out of time. However later in the day I put the non power cars of the DMU on my test track to check the operation of the lights under DC. I worked out that the interior lights come on when the headlights are on, so no separate circuit for them. This made working out the wiring for the decoder a lot easier. I continued on Friday night when I got around to wiring the TCS FL4 function only decoders to their respective 8 pin connectors. Saturday in Brisbane was miserable weather-wise (cold and wet), so I spent the afternoon in the study/hobby room 'supervising' the boys watching a movie so they wouldn't bother their Mum who was coming down with a cold. I programmed the FL4s as directed in an article I got off the Internet, but for some reason the rear car is turning its headlights on in the same direction as the front car when it should be reversed. As instructed the rear car's CV29 is +1 compared to the front car's CV29 number. I also tried remapping the FL4's lighting wires in the reverse direction as to what they should be, but no joy there. I might have to physically re-wire them in reverse order to see if that fixes the problem, else I will be onto the Forums to see if anyone can help.

At the Club on Wednesday one of the other members showed me his NSWGR 73 class which he had sent away to be sound chipped. It sounded really nice, but he had to sacrifice some lighting control in order to have this done. So it has encouraged me to get my finger out and finish my 73's sound install.

On the layout front, I wasn't happy with the darkness of the tunnel rock project, so I lightened it up with a bit of gray paint rubbed over with a cloth. It has improved it a bit, but I think it needs more colour tones. So I am thinking some 'dirt' colours around some of the ridges and maybe some 'mossy' green. Then put some vegetation on some of the ridges where plant life might have taken hold. I am progressively taking photos of this project and will share once done.

The RMCQ Show is on this weekend at  the Strathpine Community Centre so I might see you there on Saturday (hopefully!).

Blame the TDF for no blogs of late

As the title says, blame the Tour De France (2014) for the lack of blogs over the last month. I finally caught up on all the recorded episodes last week so no excuse now for getting on with the various things I have on my plate at the moment.

My friend PK was able to document his experience and howtos for the Raspberry Pi and using JMRI v3.8, so I now have some reference material to possibly add to my original instructions. On the subject of the Pi, the latest incarnation the B+ was released recently and PK went and bought himself one. He showed me the little beasty and I was impressed. I was also very impressed with the case that came with it from Element 14. It was very well designed, and about the size of a cigarette pack. Very slim! So I went and bought myself one as well seeing I had one of the earlier release Bs from a couple of years ago. So something else to get on with!

In the month just gone very little modelling has happened. However I have bought the three decoders needed for my Class 108 DMU (1 x motive/lights and 2 x function only for light control). Yet to install. I did however run the motor unit in on DC.

A couple of weekends ago Lachlan helped me with the DAS modelling clay placement on the vertical surfaces of the tunnel coming into the Bray MPD side of the layout. PVA painted on the polystyrene, then placement of the rolled thin clay onto the PVA. Then a little water on a finger to rub the edges of the pieces of clay together. While the clay was still damp, I also scratched in some fine lines with a pin to give the impression of the drill holes where the rock had been excavated. The intent is to hopefully produce a dark gray stone tunnel and excavated wall once painted. I did the painting yesterday so I will have a look at how it has dried overnight to see if the colour is correct. Else I can always paint over it again. I am using acrylic artist paint.

So now I have the Pi/JMRI side of things to sort out, the Bray tunnel painting, Metcalfe buildings to put together, plastic building and track side structures kits to put together, train detection sensors to install so that JMRI can 'see' things, decoder installs for the Class 108, as well as getting back to the NSWGR 73 Class decoder install!

So many things to do. Glad I don't have a huge layout to worry about at the moment!

JMRI and other things

Since the last post I haven't had much to talk about as I have been pottering around with JMRI on the Pi. I had been getting some interesting errors which I have been engaging with the JMRI developers on. By the weekend just gone it looks like we might have sorted on one of the problems, namely my SB3a being recognised by JMRI. Looks like it came down to possibly some old info, an incorrect baud setting and some jumper pin settings on the NCE USB. By Saturday I was able to acquire a loco and do a fwd/rev test via JMRI no the Pi. Brilliant!

Now I am working on the process to synchronise files between the Pi and a Cloud provider so that changes made on the laptop can be replicated on the Pi. I'd spent about two weeks looking into Dropbox integration and there are a lot of ways of doing it, but none were working for me. I even logged a fault with Dropbox support when there own process failed, but I got no joy from them, just a 'form' email reply with no help at all. So stuff them! On Friday I stumbled on a howto that actually uses another mob called Box (www.box.com), a UK based mob very similar to Dropbox (US). The beauty of this provider is that it does support a Linux protocol that allows remote server mounting to a local machine. I registered and got 10GB free (default allocation whereas I think Dropbox was 2GB). I followed the instructions and was able to connect remotely. Now I just have to sort out a way to sync the files on the remote site to the Pi. At present I have a lead on scripting using the command rsync, but some experimenting to be done.

Apart from that, on Saturday I purchased my birthday present from Hobbyrama. A Bachmann 3 car BR early green DMU. Looks nice. Just have to run it in and pop in the decoders. I would like to put sound in it, but looking at the pricing, it is just about the same price as the unit itself so probably not.

Sunday I pottered around in the shed to keep out of the cold wind. I tidied up the Bray side of the layout and Matthew helped me paint the tunnel / derelict overpass brown in preparedness for trialling some scenic techniques using modelling clay (Das) I have been reading about.

Road Trip 2014 - NSW

Not much has happened on the modelling front since the last post as I have just returned from a week on the road with the family, travelling through NSW. Started the trip travelling down the Pacific Hwy. First day's arvo tea was at Grafton under the rail bridge near the Golden Arches. Whilst under there we heard a loco going over, so quickly ducked out and saw what I think was maybe a 48 class but it was running light and quickly and I didn't get to see the cab too well, and the loco number was heavily weathered to be incomprehensible!
A couple of days later we were in the Hunter Valley on our way to Dubbo. While in the Hunter, we saw one of the many coal trains coming out from one of the mines.

Whilst in Dubbo, we did the obligatory visit to the Western Plains Zoo, which was pretty good this time round. Another day we went off to the Parkes Radio Observatory, which was also good, and the boys were fascinated with it. Back in Dubbo, I noticed a new walking track near the old Dubbo to Molong  line Dundullimal Bridge, which wasn't there the last time I visited Dubbo. Here are some photos. I reckon it might be a good bridge to model sometime in the future!

According to my sister, apparently the mentioned zirconia mine is still going ahead but there is talk about the transport of the ore options. Going rail would require a big investment in renewing the the rail from Toongi to Dubbo. Going road would require upgrading the roads to and from Toongi to either Dubbo or elsewhere. I would like to see rail go ahead.

Some info on the mine:

http://www.alkane.com.au/index.php/projects/current-projects/dubbo

Further info enter "Toongi mine" into Google

After a few days in Dubbo it was time to start heading home. We went via the Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran. Boy was it cold up on the mountain. However the surrounding national park was still pretty barren after the massive bushfire that went through the area in January 2013 destroying over 80% of the park. From there we headed towards Tamworth via Gunnedah. While there we saw a few locos. One consist pulling wheat wagons to the flour mill. Saw a 73 class (Manildra Mills) waiting to do some shunting. A tamper coming back into town. And a container train being pulled towards the coast, probably Newcastle or south towards Sydney and maybe Botany Bay. Here is a video I took while waiting at a crossing.

After Gunnedah, we travelled through Tamworth and onto Armidale for the night. Next day was the big trip home to Brissie. The New England Hwy follows the old Armidale to Wallangarra line which has been 'mothballed' for quite some time now. As a result, many of the timber trestle bridges or viaducts are rotting and collapsing. Probably even more so from the stretch from Tenterfield to Wallangarra. Saw the following brick and timber bridge at the side of the highway and had to stop to take a photo before it collapsed. Brick work still looks fine but the timbers have had it.

However after crossing the border into Qld I was very happy to see how the narrow gauge line from Wallangarra to Warwick, via Stanthorpe has been restored to its former glory by the preservation society based at Warwick. Here is there web site:

http://www.southerndownssteamrailway.com.au/index.php

Finally arrived home Tuesday evening. Long day in the saddle!

I have started looking into the JMRI start of day mentioned in the previous post. I am having some success with this so far. Just got to get the logic correct, but nearly there I think. Also have to sort out a new decoder for the BR Class 08 mentioned in the previous post as the one I purchased from the Club shop was stuffed. I am getting a refund towards a new one once more have come into stock.

Hopefully this blog was of interest. Something different at least.