Servo module works!

Not much this week. I was able to solder up the MERG CANACC8 module and do the necessary conversions to make it a CANSERVO8 server driver. After confirmation of a suspicion I had by a fellow MERG member here in Brisbane I had to make up the servo plug board from a piece of veroboard / stripboard. I did this today. I then connected it up to my experimental CBUS network and reprogrammed the PIC with a new driver file for the first time. I connected up a servo to the plugboard and was able to set the servo travel points. Yes I did every thing correctly and it works!

The other thing I did was raise a problem within the MERG Forum about the ability to broadcast the DCC stopping/braking bit in order to protect points/turnouts, similar to the commercial products available from www.dccbitswitch.com. It was a discussion point a number of years ago but didn't really get resolved with any standalone circuits at the time, however I have stirred up the hornets' nest! Lets see where this goes. The other option is to use JMRI to do the approriate monitoring of sensors and issue the relevant commands. Further research into this.

While I am typing this blog we here in the south east of Queensland are experiencing cyclonic winds and driving rain from ex Cyclone Oswald. Apparently going to get much worse tonight. I've spent the afternoon clearing yard drains and watching one of my trees slowly split down the middle of its trunk and have a very large branch perched precariously over my little garden shed. Hopefully it gradually gets closer to the ground and may just need a little encouragement to go the rest of the way.

STOP PRESS
As I was compiling the above blog late this afternoon (around 5:30pm) there was an ungodly crack from the back yard. I thought there goes the rest of the split trunk, but upon saying that to the missus she looked out the kitchen window and said "The whole tree has come down and hit the garden shed!" Out I went to survey the damage. What an impressive sight! Basically the centre of the tree trunk has exploded. Fortunately it fell into our yard and not into one of the neighbours' and caused damage. Unfortunately the 3x3m garden shed which I put up in 2011 will need to be replaced. Fortunately though it looks like the big shed survived without damage. Tomorrow will tell when I get out there with the bow saw and make start on the branch reduction in order to get to the door of the garden shed so as to clean it out! Hopefully the winds will have died down during the night and I can get on with it.

Earlier in the afternoon Lachlan and I put polytarps over our layouts in the big shed just in case the rain got up under the eaves.

So this week Lord knows now! Maybe I'll put together the servo mounting bracket and investigate further JMRI (semi) automation. Also the Raspberry Pi beckons but I am pretty sure I won't have time this week.

Kensington Hill Stockyard platform done!

This week I spent modelling the stock yard platform for the Kensington Hill yard. Basically the same method as the goods platform with a plywood support covered in Scalescene's brick and bitumen paper. This was followed by two coats of Dullcote to hopefully set the paper's ink. Not sure if this works or whether I should have used a Matt Finish spray, but I am pretty sure that is what Dullcote is anyway!

While this was drying one night, I then took a Ratio Concrete Fence Posts kit and painted up 20 of the concrete fence posts, along with the gates, hinges, and some signs, ready for placement towards the weekend.

Friday night I drilled the holes in the platform to accept the fence posts. These were then glued in.

Saturday I woke up feeling RS as I had been progressively coming down with something from about Wednesday. Probably the virus that was going through the family and I was the last one to accept the baton! So while waiting for the doctor's appointment to come at 2pm I was fortunate to spend the morning on the model. While the children were conveniently watching a movie I spent an hour or so threading fine copper wire through the fence posts. These looked good but could be better as the copper colour wasn't right. I then remembered I had purchased a metallic silver paint pen ages ago. I painted this over the copper and it now looks right (like barbed wire). I then went around and touched up the gray of the fence posts. The gates were superglued to their posts. One set looks a bit skew if but I am putting that down to wear and tear on them! I then used a couple of paper staples bent to the desired form to use as the gate hasps. These were superglued on and then painted gray. Looking really good now.

Sheep were superglued in and the appropriate droppings painted on the bitumen floor. There was also a few plastic poos in the Ratio kit so these were added to give a 3D effect ;-)

Nothing else was done other than a casual glance at the Raspberry Pi forum and reading the MERG Journal.

I read over at Mr Mackie's blog that the Auscision 73 Class is due sometime in February but isn't DCC Ready. A bit of a disappointment and I may have to wait to see if he can hardwire a DCC decoder in or whether there is no room. If the later is the case, then I will probably not be buying one of these for the future Narromine layout.

Not sure what the upcoming week will be devoted to. Maybe solder up that MERG kit for something different.

Here are some photos of the stockyard (the Blogger problem with upload looks to be still there!).

Stockyard in position on the layout

Side view

Corner view

Close up of 'dodgy' gate with detail of hasp, hinges and 'barbed' wire

Aerial view

Position with respect to sidings

Another view

Reverse view

Side view with truck

Aerial view with truck

Kensington Hills Goods Platform Done!

I was able to get the Goods Platform at the Kensington Hills Yard done this week. Basically a piece of 16mm thick ply covered with Scalescenes brick and bitumen paper hit with Dullcote. Came up pretty good. I've included some photos below.

Other than that this week saw the arrival of the MERG kit that I will be converting to a servo controller, as well as the 10 servos from China. These are of the SG90 micro servo type. Today I went to Hobbyrama to get a length of 1/32 dia spring steel (piano) wire that I will use to actuate the Ratio semaphore from the MERG/servo unit. While I was there I couldn't go past purchasing a bottle of Tamiya Clear Red (for painting over LEDs for red lighting) and two Dapol kits. One was the Platelayers and Coal Offices which will hopefully complete the Kensington Hills Yard buildings, and a set of Shops which should place well in the space to the left of the Terraces at Kensington Hills.

So this week I aim to complete (or partially depending on time!) the Kensington Hills Yard livestock platform. If I get a chance also some research into Staging/Fiddle Yards designs that we could possible use on the Club's HO layout.

Goods Platform placed at intended position

Not too shabby!

Close up of brickwork

The square area behind the left buffer is the location for the stock platform

Terraces in position

Birds-eye view of Terraces. Shop will hopefully go to the left. Bus stop to the right.

Last day of holidays and I finally get Shed Time!

Yes my two weeks leave is at an end. Back to the asylum, oops meant grindstone tomorrow. It has been a busy two weeks sorting out a few of the items off the Things To Do List, as well as one or two unexpected problems to be sorted out. Most of the days were right royal stinkers with the summer heat and humidity as only Brissie can do at this time of year. The times I ventured into the shed to get tools it was like an oven! As a result not much train time, except for this afternoon when the weather was OK and I spent a few hours on Illavearf, which had been neglected of late. I measured and cut down some timber for the goods yard platform and livestock platform. I then scraped out the scatter that had been glued in sometime during 2012. I positioned the terrace houses and drilled the holes for the LED wires. Yet to connect these up as I am looking at connecting these to a PCB with PIC to provide some lighting effects.

Yesterday I had to repair the set of shelves I use for my hobby materials storage as the read panel warped in the heat and buckled out. Fortunately I had some thicker MDF offcuts that I glued into position. Much better.

Three of my purchases from two weeks ago were delivered during the week. The yard lamps, the street lamps and the SMD LEDs. All tested OK and feedback provided back through Ebay. Unfortunately at least two of the four yard lamps suffered some damage thanks to Australia Post and their infernal use of rubber bands around mail! A pox on them! Nothing serious that some glue won't fix.

I was all ready to get to the Club on Wednesday when Murphy raised his ugle mug! Tuesday night the missus comes to me and says "We have a water leak in the bathroom". Oh joy. On looking it was more like a high pressure spray coming from the flexi-pipe going to the vanity cold water tap. Gaffer tape was no good, so the water mains was turned off, and a plumber summoned Wednesday. He was prompt and decided to sort my problem out first so was at my home mid morning. After this the vacuum cleaner decides to play up so a potential shop for a new one to replace the twelve year old one was on the cards, but after researching a couple of the better ones, the missus was no nearer a decision on which one to buy, so she decided to park the decision for later. So by the time all of this was done, there was no time to venture to the Club. Typical!

No further progress with the Raspberry Pi this week as it was too hot in the downstairs part of the house where my study/hobby room is located (even with A/C upstairs, not much was coming down the internal staircase).

So this week with things back to normal, I might be able to start sorting things out. At least two model structures to knock up (mentioned above), investigate the SMD LEDs installation into the semaphore signal, and maybe back to the RPi.

On holidays but not much play time happening!

Murphy is doing his best to prevent me from doing anything model train related this week. After surviving last weekend's family pre Christmas catchup, Tuesday arrived and brought with it Christmas. The kids scored well and I picked up an entry level Android 7" tablet. My intent is to mainly see if I can interface it with the Raspberry Pi. I survived Christmas at the In-Laws.

On the subject of the RPi, nothing happened this week except for researching persistent device naming in the Linux world. Hopefully I might do something about it in the upcoming week.

Thursday a snap working bee was called at the Club to cut down MDF sheeting into storage trays. I brought my trusty Triton saw bench along but forgot the cutting fence which without would be a serious safety issue. Fortunately two other member brought their Tritons along, so the cutting was going well. I decided to hoon around on the ride-on mower and knock down the Christmas grass growth about the Club yards.

Saturday arrived and with it the much anticipated running arvo over at Mr Mackie's. A crowd of 10 operators plus Craig was there. General pandemonium prevailed but it was fun nonetheless!

Today I thought I might have got out to the shed to run a train or two after I had helped my Dad with some wood routing he wanted done. However the first thing the missus said to me this morning was "While your Dad is down, maybe he could help you line the staircase cupboard to protect the asbestos sheeting [old Hardiflex]?". This translated as an item low down on the Things To Do List had been elevated up to No 1 job to do today! I could see where she was coming from (the boys safety etc as they tend to throw certain heavy things into the cupboard and one day it might go through the sheeting. So the trains became another memory! Monday will hopefully see me finish this job off and scratch it from The List!

Tuesday this week is New Years Day, and with it a trip to the Railway Workshops Museum in Ipswich.

Wednesday I have tentatively said I might head down to the Club but that is three days away and Lord knows what will happen to my plans by then!

So on reflection 2012 was not a bad year from a modelling perspective. New knowledge acquired about electronics (MERG, PIC programming, RPi, etc). Some modelling completed on the layout. A couple of running sessions at Mr Mackie's. And a Club modelling trophy!

I wonder what 2013 will bring? Maybe the much anticipated Auscision NSWGR Class 73 diesel "Dubbo" to add to the Narromine roster. Possibly finally integrating the Rpi with JMRI, MERG and the wifi? A bit more progress on Illavearf as I have been neglecting it with all the electronics stuff of 2012! And maybe, just maybe, running a train or two on Illavearf in between The List items! ;-)

Happy New Year to all my Followers and Friends.

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.