Jason, Leland Arduino Uno Rv3 Arduino Original Motor Shield L298p 17 volt 3amp at power supply, 15.5 vac on track 96 degrees Idle no trains 130 degrees w 3 engines and 5 Passenger cars with incandescent lighting Idle. 110 degrees w Heatsink, 3 Engines 5 Passenger cars w incandescent lighting Idle. Kevin
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'm working on my interface board and running into some odd problems, which are very frustrating because this is a very simple design and ultimately a simplified copy of the Arduino branded motor board. I'm working it out, but it's just taking longer than I expected.
I posted a message last week about using a high power H-Bridge to supply a great deal of current from the DCC++ system. That installation connected directly to the DCC++ Arduino. This week I worked on a stand-alone booster that uses the same H-Bridge. It connects to the DCC output of any DCC controller (DCC++ and Digitrax have been tested) and puts out up to 10 amps of DCC power to the track (that can be increased but I don't think too many will need more than 10 amps!) There is a display on the booster that shows the maximum amps that it will supply and the percentage of that current that is being drawn. The maximum amount of amps that the booster supplies can be set with a potentiometer. I put a video on YouTube that shows how it works and notes on my web page that give more information. http://www.trainelectronics.com/DCC_Arduino/DCC_Booster/index.htm Please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions. thanks dave
Yes Dave I have to agree on your comment about current requirements. When researching the subject I came across this......https://sites.google.com/site/markg...scussions/boosters/choosing-the-right-booster Do see the photos down the page. I think a sensible approach would be up to 5Amps max, with larger layouts split into the usual power districts. Great work BTW, you've certainly been busy lately. Many Thanks. Steve.
Steve - The nice part of having a microcontroller driver connected to the booster is that you can edit its sketch and change the max from 10 to 5 amps in a moment. My goal in using a 43 amp (advertised) H-Bridge is to run it way under its rated capacity to keep it cool and running for a long, long time - at $12 it makes sense to go with the big one and just let it limp along. I also have an outdoor G-scale layout so I could use a higher amperage unit there. dave
Dave, It's looks like Christmas in February! Great Progress and video. A 2-10amp adjustable DCC Booster is a great solution for N, HO, O and G scale railroad at 1/5 the price. From what I can see it looks like the parts cost of the DCC Booster unit alone is abt $25, plus the cost of Circuit breakers for each block. Does that sound about right? A parts list would make a great Valentines day gift :^) Thanks again for all your efforts to make DCC++ add ons a real game changer. Kevin
Kevin - it is good to hear that you liked the project - as always, these things are great fun to pull together! Your price estimate is pretty accurate - I got the motor driver for about $12 and the other parts I had on hand. I put the start of a parts list on the web page but need to edit the schematic as there are some items there (various filter caps, for example, that are not really necessary) that I can remote. Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress and meant for those who like to experiment.... it is NOT meant to be a finished product! Hopefully some other folks will add to and revise it and make it better. dave
As you know I am smitten with this booster project. Further questions. Would a switching power supply like this one work? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/100W-18V-5-6...160269?hash=item3aa957174d:g:qnAAAOSwEeFVSauq What happens when you have a 5amp power supply, yet set the current higher? Say to 7 or even 10 amps? Is this booster compatible with an auto reverser unit?
Greg - that power supply should work well with the booster. If you set the amp limit to something above the actual power available it will not shut down as quickly (or at all) as it will if it is set correctly. Not sure about being compatible with an auto reverser - I don't have anything here to test it - if you (or someone) can give me specifics on what it needs to do perhaps I can set up a test. thanks dave
Greg - I spent some time this morning building up a second DCC Booster and taking some photos - they should help with the board that I sent you. See: http://www.trainelectronics.com/DCC_Arduino/DCC_Booster/ Good luck with the build! dave
Hi all - I'm a completely noob to all of this so I'm not sure where to even ask this question - but it's about a Motor Shield so I thought this might be the right place! I'm new to the Arduino and DCC, so I'm trying to figure out all this lingo. But it seems they aren't selling the motor shield discussed on the Github mappings page for DCC++ anymore. So I ordered the only one Arduino/Adafruit sells now, the Servo Motor Shield v2.3: http://store-usa.arduino.cc/products/e000003. It gets here tomorrow so maybe I'll be able to figure out how to connects pins, but in case any one else has used the new motor shield can you let me know what pins or wires connects to what? TIA!
Welcome to the fray! Unfortunately, I do not believe that this shield will work for DCC++. If I understand correctly, DCC++ needs to be able to feed the PWM signals directly to the H-Bridge. This shield has its own PWM and the Uno/Mega communicates with it via the 2-wire I2C interface. That makes it really easy to use as a motor controller but makes it impossible to use for this project. There are plenty of L298P arduino motor shield r3 boards available on ebay. Another option is the Pololu board documented on the Github site. Dave Bodnar has a bit more info on his site about tests he has run on some other shields.
Thanks for the help! Wow, that's really unfortunate, as that's the only motor shield Arduino/Adafruit sells any more! The old motor shield that is used in the DCC++ videos has been discontinued - you can't buy it from either Arduino USA or Adafruit, and only 1 Amazon seller has an old one left in stock for $50, and when that's gone that's it. There are some used ones left on eBay and it looks like a lot of cheap no-name knock offs for under $10 - none of which are the same as the one used in the videos. I would imagine this is going to be a big problem for new users going forward, since they simply aren't making that old version of the motor shield any more, and none of the knock-offs match the same pinouts in the DCC++ guide. I'll look for the Pololu board, maybe there are more of those still available. This doesn't seem like good news for the future of DCC++
Of course I'm going to try and make it work anyway! The pinouts do seem similar. I asked Gregg on the DCC++ Youtube a week ago if this shield was compatible but no one replied, and just yesterday I found this site and the documentation wiki - I wish I saw them a week ago!! It is SO hard to find info on DCC++, it looks like it's spread out on a bunch of different sites. So anyway, I waited a week and finally took the plunge to get this shield since I couldn't get any help, so even if I blow it up it's worth the risk lol
I wouldn't hesitate to get one or two of the eBay clones (not really knock-offs since the design is open source) - I just set up and tested 6 of them for members of our club who want to use DCC++ to do programming with JMRI. Here is the link I used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/310787745501?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT BTW. the reason I suggest getting two is that the quality control is not 100% - I had one failure out of 10 that I have purchased - I manged to repair the bad one but it still could be an issue. There are some details and test results on the eBay motor shield on my web page, here: http://trainelectronics.com/DCC_Arduino/DCC++/ it is about 1/4 of the way down titled eBay Motor Shield Good luck! dave
Thanks Dave! I already spent $20 on this one, and it's the only one being officially supported or sold by Arduino and Adafruit, so I think it might behoove the entire community if I could get this one working. Of course, I know nothing about the arduino or electronics, but I've been programming computers for 20 years and I've already got a couple test projects running so I am hopeful. I've also got the base station simulator running with JMRI, so if I could just figure out how to use the current version of the motor shield I'd be all set.
Also - I read your site in great detail, and I like the idea of the higher powered shields, but again it wasn't until yesterday when I found all this info so I had already ordered the motor shield v2. I found DCC++ via videos on another site, so I didn't find this discussion until too late.
OK so the first bit of good news is that you don't have to scratch off that VIN trace like you did with the old motor shield. The new v2 motor shield offers a jumper for VIN. It offers the same 2 outputs for programming and main track, and it has the same exact pinout configuration as the old motor shield. It does require some soldering to set up as I received it in the box, because it doesn't come fully assembled. This is so that you can configure it with or without stacking headers. So I'll set up the stacking headers and hook it up to the Arduino and let you know how it goes!
I use the pololu motor shield for HO Scale....I only use it to run a demo...I have not used the program track functions as I have a different track setup to do that.
I hooked up everything with the same pinouts (10 to 12 and 5 to 13) with USB to the Arduino and a 12V DC supply on the v2.3 motor shield - the only one I had handy. When I run the example motor test with just a regular DC engine on the track he powered right up and drove off - that's a good sign, right? Because when I use JMRI I'm getting some kind of information back from packets, but I've never used DCC before lol, so I don't even know if the engines I have with decoders in them ever even worked. I have a long way to go to even understand how to use DCC, let alone DCC++ - but if it powers a regular DC motor and sends back a bunch of "CV info" in the packet window is the shield working?
