Great advances in Arduino and Loconet !!!

I'm excited to be finally writing this post! I've been for a long time working to find a way to connect Arduino to Loconet network and be able to develop my own modules to create special automations in  the layout. Now this is a reality and with great examples.

If you read the first posts about this, I started using a GCA50 board (from Giling Applications) with just the minimum components needed to act as a Loconet interface for Arduino. I was using on that time the first version of the MRRWA libraries for Arduino. Thanks to the examples included in that library programming your own module and interacting with all the components of the layout is a mere child's play. Beginning of this year a new update for the Loconet libraries was released, and now the MRRWA libraries come with even more examples.

Peter Giling took this idea of creating a Loconet shield and developed a prototype board that I tested, and from two months ago the professional boards are available. Its official name is GCA185:

In my opinion this shield and the use of an Arduino is not to replace neither the basic sensor modules nor the outputs module to manage switches (coil or servo motors). The current boards from Peter Giling for those tasks (GCA50, GCA93, GCA77, GCA136, GCA137) work perfect, are smaller, specialized in the function they develop, and not more expensive than trying to reinvent the wheel with an Arduino.

But once you cover the basic needs of a digital layout which are detecting trains and changing switches and you want to go to a "show level" and add sounds to stations and factories, manage the illumination of the layout independently from the PC software, create ambient light and storms, or whatever automation you think, an Arduino with this Loconet shield is able to do all the above and more.

Connecting your Arduino to the Loconet network, it will receive in real time the information of what is happening in the entire layout: detections from the sensors, loco functions, all instructions sent from the command station, software or throttles... But even more, it will be able also to "talk" and not just "listen" to the other components of the layout, including moving or stopping trains, changing switches, activating lights or locomotive functions... And if you add the capabilities of Arduino to use an infinite catalogue of sensors (temperature, infrared, RFID, proximity,...) and devices (wifi, bluetooth, speech engines, mp3 players, displays, keyboards,...) the possibilities of  what you can do in your layout grow in an exponential way.

If that's not yet enough, the shield includes two MOLEX connectors to make use of all "interface boards" developed by Peter Giling with the perfect hardware to detect train consumptions, reed sensors, wheel counters, relays,...

And the last but maybe the most useful feature of the shield is the possibility to feed the current for Arduino from the Loconet conectors, and you have both type of them: the standard RJ12 used by Uhlenbrock or Digitrax, and DB9. That last used by Giling boards and much more reliable and with an extra power line of 12V and 3Amp if you use a Loconet booster like GCA101. The shield also has a voltage regulator and can feed all the shields through its own voltage regulator.

I finished this week a stable version of a software for Arduino and the Loconet shield that turns it into a Sound Module (able to play stereo MP3 files assigned to standard output directions each one) plus 16 outputs for illumination or other devices. In the PWM pins is possible to adjust also the intensity and fade effect. And all is configured via LNCV mechanism like any other Uhlenbrock module, so you can configure it from the Intellibox command station or Rocrail software without requiring to upload a new program in the board or access fiscally to the module.

MP3 shield piled on the top 

MP3 and Sensor shield piled, to drive outputs for servo or leds easily

In next posts I'll be sharing my finished Arduino programs and ongoing projects, which include crazy things like using a Densha-de-Go! Playstation controller to drive trains in a digital layout, or manage ambient lights to create weather conditions.

Thanks for reading!!!

Tokyo Monorail Diorama

This year I went to Japan and stayed one week in Tokyo. I took the Monorail every day because my hotel was in Tennozu Isle. I used to take the monorail to Hamamatsuchô, next station from Tennozu Isle and end of the line, and there change to Yamanote Line, the circular train line in Tokyo that takes you to almost any place. It is also the best connection between Tokyo and Haneda airport, much better than Narita with the N'ex or the Limousine Bus. Also last year stayed in the same hotel (Dai-Ichi Hotel Seafort) and took the monorail daily. I really recommend you that hotel in Tokyo, it has incredible views, HUGE rooms and beds (in comparison to the rest of Japanese hotels...), the monorail station is inside the same building with lots of restaurants, convenience stores, pharmacy, and the monorail is free to catch with a Japan Rail Pass exactly as the rest of JR lines.

I was in Popondetta, a railway shop in Akihabara, and sow the display model of the monorail in N scale. I had to buy it, as I like to collect all the trains I get on during my trips to Japan. It's just a static plastic model, there is no commercial model with motor, but anyway I'm in love with it and every time I see it all my memories from Tokyo come to my mind.

My first idea was to motorize it and put it in my layout, but I realized that I would loose the interior details of one of the cars as the motor is impossible to completely hide. Other options like a hidden motor with wires to pull from it also seemed too much difficult for me. Apart from that, I didn't find a suitable place for it my layout, it would have been too anachronistic and out of its environment .

So I took my own photos, searched some more on Internet and decided to make a diorama recreating the views I had from my room of it, with a certain level of freedom.

I began with the bogies, thinking it would be an easy start. But I couldn't be more wrong. Each bogie has 24 pieces and most of them have to be glued. Some of them are so tiny that it is mandatory to use thin tweezers. There are 6 cars, 2 bogies per car... 288 pieces!!!!

But bogies are functional and slide in a very smooth way though the beam.

I made my best to paint bogies also realistic: primmer, black wheels, metallized chassis, ... but you can save all this work, because it will never be seen!!!!!!! Bogies stay hidden inside the skirts....

Then I continued with the seats, hopping not to to have more than one piece and having just to paint it.... error again!!!! The almost invisible seats come with no armrests which have to be glued and are even smaller than the smallest part of the bogies... AND THERE ARE A LOT OF SEATS!!!!!

Instructions are not very prolific... enough to mount it but not for the painting schema. But taking a look to my own photos I painted them red, steel for the armrest supports and handles, and beige simulating the textile cases they have nowadays (the red you see in the photos is mistaken due to the tone the camera took).

Next step was the skirts. I wanted a metallized look, but weathered with the mud they actually have.

Illumination was a bit difficult for me. The standard led strips, those you can cut in groups of 3 led, don't fit the length of the cars, so I built my own strip, just one with the length of all the cars with all the led soldered on it. It's also a good way to keep all cars attached to each other. I attached the led strip to the interior roof with double sided tape before closing them with the floor and seats. I preferred to use sunny white led, like old lights. Wires run through a hole in the pillar.

Also inside the car I glued some people, just cheap figures bought in ebay. May be 100 N scale people costs something like 10€ or less. Quality is awful, but inside the cars you can't see the details and it isn't worth to waste more money in good figures to put there.

This warm light also adds contrast with the planned cold light of the street lamps. The diorama will have a road in the back, a wide side walk done with Evergreen textured sheet and small angles, and the water of the the canal as I was able to see every day in Tokyo from my room window.

It was the first time for me simulating water, so following some tutorials, I painted the base in blue tones and added Vallejo Water Efects product. I thought it was possible to recreate calm water with it, but it's specially intended for brave waters and for calm waters there is another special product. Anyway, now I'm happy of the result and I would do it again in the same way, despite Tokyo bay water is normally calm.

Vallejo Water Effect just applied

Two hours later starts to dry and become transparent

Completely dry

And finally, added some details like a hot potatoes stand, guard rails and road fences from a Kato kit, people, cars, painted in white the water scum... Here there are some final photos, even though in the future I will probably add some more people and scenic details because I see it too empty of life. Also a methacrylate case and a backdrop would be cool...

DE10 DCC conversion

Today I tried for secod time to digitalize my Kato DE10 Cold Region version. Firs attempt ended up in a burned decoder, and I put again all the pieces inside of the box and forgot it for a while. I also tried to find a compatible replacement board to easily convert it to DCC, but the ones I found need to sand down a little bit the big lead blocks, and it means you have to unmount them. Too much work....

This time, the attempt was successful. Remove the top frame un-clipping it and pulling upwards. Take care, because the small black footbridge around the engine and the white handrails are not part of this piece. You also have to un-clip and pull up to take out that part after shell is removed.

Then you have to pull out the clips that connect the board with the motor, and finally the board can be removed. This board takes the current from the lead blocks and feeds the motor and the lights. The SMD component in the middle is a 500Ohm resistor, and the one in a lateral a condenser that you don't need to remove. It will not interfere with the motor current, is just to avoid lights to tilt. 

Cut the board as it is shown in the photo, the middle part will be discarded and in its place I will fit the decoder. I selected a D&H DH10, it's the exact size as the removed board section.

Here you can see how the parts of the board containing the led will be installed again in the same place:

Now you have to isolate the current pick up cooper strips of the motor. In the side of the following photo (where the cooper strip appears from the bottom) I inserted a little piece of styrene to keep the strip separated from the lead chassis. In the other side, you just need to cut the strip so it doesn't arrive to touch the frame.

Now time to prepare one of the side parts of the board (the one containing the SMD condenser). It will end in three parallel tracks.Scratch a little fit the surface of each of the three tracks enough to see the cooper and tin it. The two exterior tracks will be the current pick up for the decoder, and on the centre track solder a 500Ohm SMD resistor and the wire to feed the lamp. In this way, the led will take the positive directly from the current pick up plates and you will feed the negative from the decoder output:

I recommend you to test each single step you do. Don't wait to finish all the work, put the locomotive on the tracks and burn it as I did the first time.... So I connected just the motor wires to my ESU decoder tester, and feed the previos board directly from the track with a crocodile clamps.

Engine was working ok, light ok, ..... let's go for the other board! Just a little bit more difficult. Left current pick up plate must be isolated (I use Kapton tape). The other, must be linked to the contiguous track to feed the positive part of the led. You can see in the photo also where to solder the function output wire from the decoder. Add a 500Ohm resistor also in between.

 

Finally, solder the motor wires to the motor cooper strips, and it's ready to test on track.

And the job is done!!!!! Close the shell, and run it!!!

Final test run video!!!!