I have just received my motor board, an Ebay Chinese board with Keyes_L298P and FunduMoto labels on it. I have it mounted on my Uno with the DCC++ software loaded. I do not own any DCC devices at this time. After jumpering the proper pins, attaching the board to a piece of track, is there any suggested way I might test the board while just hooked up to my laptop? Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
Hi, I am afraid you cannot test much without a DCC device. If you start Controller program in Processing, you can switch the traction power on and off (shield has 4 LEDs to indicate voltage at the H bridge). When applying 100Ohm resistor as a load simulation you should see some increase of current in Current Monitor window. And in case you would have an osciloscope you could observe DCC signal.
A couple of things you could do. Testing the Motor shield https://github.com/DccPlusPlus/BaseStation/wiki/Diagnostics---D---Command https://github.com/DccPlusPlus/BaseStation/wiki/Commands-for-DCCpp-BaseStation PC/Java Model Railroad Interface software on a PC. Connect DCC++ with a USB prt cable to a laptop running JMRI Decoder Pro http://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/hardware/dccpp/index.shtml#tools Install JMRI Software 4.6 release on a PC. http://www.jmri.org/download/index.shtml#prod-rel Once you have them connected and set up open a DCC++ Traffic monitor window and you will see commands from JMRI to DCC++ http://trainelectronics.com/DCC_Arduino/JMRI_DCC++_Setup/index.htm [Edit]: Be sure to cut the VIN Voltage-In Trace on the bottom of the l298P Motor Shield Before plugging More than +12vdc into the motor shield. Regards, Kevin
In addition to what Jirka suggests, you can try sending <D> to enter diagnostic mode. That should cause LEDs on the motor board (if there are any) to flash back and forth between A / B. You can also short A5 to GND and reset the UNO and it should spit out some diagnostic data during startup. After either of these options you will need to reset the UNO to return to normal operations.
I don't get it. I don't know what a Chinese board is or a uno. But, since you do plan to build a layout and have or will have at least one DCC loco, why not just wait til you do buy a loco, put in on the rails and make your tests ? But perhaps I'm ill informed about what your OP is all about.
Hi! For testing the DCC signal output in a visual way, I'm using a (very cheap) DSO138 oscilloscope which I find quite helpful. I'm also using a ESU decoder tester board (which simulates a digital loco in the electronic sense and is equipped with a motor and LEDs). That's quite practical to test the function of decoders but I use it to test my DCC++ system. However, to do so, You'll need a DCC decoder.
