RrrDuino for model railroads
So, what can an Arduino do for my railroad? (items below in green marked by an x might be demo’d in the September, 2015, LSR Division 3 clinic, we will also add pictures as we build the demos)
Since we can turn things on and off:
Lighting:
x - Turn LEDs on and off at specified or random times
x - Welding, cutting, torching
x - Cycle lights in a building, house or church
Street lights
Signals for the railroad
x - Flickering lamps, like an Arc Welder and Bathroom light on another pin.
Candles, campfires, fire in a building, or just a stove...
Police car lights, Fire Trucks, Ambulances...
Servos and steppers:
x -A wigwag
An animated scene, windmill, gate, logs, manufacturing plant
x - Moving an uncoupling magnet in and out of position
A belt driven saw mill
A helicopter, or just a windsock
An overhead crane
Like the kind in an inter-modal yard picking containers off cars, or loading them
A forklift lifting
A water tank lowering its spout
A car or engine washing station
Building doors opening or sliding
Controlling your turntable or transfer table
Moving blocks of ice at an ice house
The guy popping out of a tower!
x - A grade crossing with ding, ding, ding...
After the waterspout is down...water!
A coal loading facility
clickity clack wheel sounds, anywhere
All Aboard?
"64 wheels counted"
Data:
How 'bout an LCD or LEDs to show train departure time, or expected arrival
Or the weather
Relays or FETs (transistors):
x - Want to turn something big on and off? How 'bout the lights in the room?
A smoke generator
A lift bridge
A pump
A motor
Your whole DC or DCC system!
Your dishwasher, garage door, TV or electric car (just kidding)
Since we can sense things:
Light:
x - Train occupancy
x - WigWag
x - Grade crossing
Street lights at dusk
x - Counting Axles: "86 Axles, zero defects!"
Speed:
x - Train speed, how fast were you going?
Touch:
Temperature:
Time to turn the fan on
Boiler is hot, lets go!
Humidity, water, pressure, you name it, if it has an optical, digital or analog output, we can measure it!
Acceleration:
If we speed up, the tires might scream
When we brake, we might want screeching tires
Tilt:
Oops, here comes that water
Or the crane is down, active that electromagnet to pick the metal up
(and for the somewhat advanced)
DCC:
An accessory decoder, so your DCC throttle (or JMRI for that matter) could tell accessory #1042 to move a turnout, or turn something on, all over the DCC bus. (And another site)
(and for the even little more advance)
LCC or OpenLCB:
Since we could talk to things (Infrared, BLE (Bluetooth), WiFi, Morse code):
We could send data, this train left
Next train should be arriving at...
Block occupancy, tell the next or opposing signal of such
Controlling the lights and speed of your Faller self driving car?
We might talk to our home automation system to turn the A/C on, or heat
We could email a friend
We could update a website, or post on Facebook
So, lets sort them by model railroad functions:
...
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The Nano - recommended to avoid the need for a programmer. The Nano has a USB connector on board and if you later decide to buy the cheaper, sorry, less expensive, Pro Mini, you can use the Nano to be your programmer. Some now uses a CH340 USB chip which might need a driver to be installed Windows.
Follow along on this page as we prepare for the Clinic and show some tricks!
Updates to TxCar!!!
Boot-loading your first ATMEGA328P-PU