The Arduino Store and every other reseller I have checked is sold out of the Motor Shield. It has been that way for at least a week or more and there is no indication of when it'll come back in stock. Is there an alternative motor controller that would work for DCC++?
Hello. DCC++ can handle two types of shield : Arduino Motor shield V3 and Pololu MC33926 Motor shield. This last one seems to be still available. In my version DCCpp of the Gregg's sources, I have add the support of any other motor circuit. The LMD18200 is a good alternative for that, more powerful than the shields. Its current detection is not enough sensible, so you have to add a small Max471 for that. This couple works for one track. If you want to handle both main and programmation tracks, you have to use two of each.
Hi, Full description & specs of what Trusty has said is here (with diagrams), http://www.locoduino.org/spip.php?article187. Nothing that Google/ Bing translate can't handle.
You are right Pieter. I always hesitate to give links to French web pages, even if Google translator can now do good things...
After reading this topic (and a whole lot more ) I found exactly ONE (That is right, ONE) "Arduino Motor Shield R3" in my country and bit the bullet and ordered it. Unfortunately I have been bitten by this Railway Bug (I am 55 and my oldest is 3, then 1, then one-in-the-oven) to give something to my kids to play with. Hopefully the loft where I am going to build the site will be finished in about 4 years and it will be in time the keep the boys from killing one another I also over-ordered on some parts (I spent about $1500 on eBay that my wife does not know about), but think the DCC++ is the better way to go - I also did get a Bachman E-Z DCC Controller... So, over the next 4 years I will be asking a lot of questions because a lot of this stuff will have to be built by hand! kind regards Aubrey Kloppers (aka cyber7) Cape Town South Africa
