Hello all, I have been building unfinished layouts for the last 50 years - I might have finished one in all that time - , and I'm not sure I am going to finish my current one; it's been sitting there for about ten years now... I recently retired, started playing with Raspberry Pi's, and was wondering whether there was a way to use those little computers for model railroad control. Apparently there is! While searching for RPI and Arduino related docs I was led to this board. So, here i am. I have an unfinished single loop N scale setup in my office, sadly mostly used as a storage surface, and I'm hoping that maybe by tackling it from the electronics/computer angle I can reactivate my interest. My first project is to put together a DCC++ Arduino based DCC controller, and then use JMRI to talk to two Kato E8s that I bought years ago used with controllers already installed. Greetings from Chicago, Stefan
Thanks all for the welcome! I got my DCC++ system going with a few hiccups (first motor board didn't have current monitoring, and I had to read a bit deeper into DCC++ to realize it uses timer interrupts tied to specific pins), and I am still working on my E8 units (speaker and A unit LED sit too high), but at least I got the CV readback working with DCC++. I'm now motivated to rebuild my layout, since the 13" minimum radius is on the verge of causing E8 derailment, and 10" is just not sufficient clearance above my desk anyway. I already have a few ideas for DCC++ extensions I'd like to see (railcom integration, worker node version for smart boosters), and hope to have a look at the DCC++EX developments.
I finally figured out where trainboard had obtained my avatar from. It looked vaguely familiar; apparently in 2015 I got a 'gravatar' account...good thing i keep all my emails... Now it's changed.
