Arduino Clinic

[railnerd]

The slides for my Arduino Clinic I gave at the NMRA PCR Iron Horse Express convention are online.

http://pcrnmra.org/pcr/clinics/ModelRailroadingWithArduinoRdr7up.pdf

-Dave Falkenburg
 [a.k.a railnerd]

[rswinnerton]

Ooooooooohhhhhhh... I just picked up the TI Launchpad and want to get started with that. I think these could really be useful in model railroading for so many applications and with their low cost, ..... Makes me
Russ

[seusscaboose]

so
in  nutshell... i can drive JMRI and Decoder Pro off this...

if i get the Whiz Bang crew together...

vs.
buying a laptop for the basement.

[rswinnerton]

There's so much more that can be done with them. Automation of items, random lights on an off in buildings, adding relays can make them control all sorts of other stuff including lift bridges and turntables. Fire truck light sequences, blue flag protection for industries, working I/R defect detectors, and on and on and on... RFID would also be cool. Imagine an induction loop under the end of the yard. As they come in, switch lists are generated automatically. So much can be done.

[conrail98]

There's so much more that can be done with them. Automation of items, random lights on an off in buildings, adding relays can make them control all sorts of other stuff including lift bridges and turntables. Fire truck light sequences, blue flag protection for industries, working I/R defect detectors, and on and on and on... RFID would also be cool. Imagine an induction loop under the end of the yard. As they come in, switch lists are generated automatically. So much can be done.

Seth Neuman has given, and will be again at Atlanta 2013, on using the Arduino with RFID to print real-time manifests of trains. I've been looking at this and the TI Launchpad (http://www.launchpad4mrr.blogspot.com/). I've started doing some spec'ing on using this for some operational-type things with a few web-based technologies/platforms. Hopefully, after my conference in May that I'm presenting at (on another subject), I can get back to doing it. What I really need to do is go to a Hackathon where they're using the Arduino and/or the Raspberry Pi to control things like RC aircraft to get a firmer understanding of the mechanisms needed to do what I want to do,

Phil

[seusscaboose]

cool
I will be in Atlanta
I will be sire to sign up for the clinic
thanks!

[sizemore]

And we complain about the $20 price tags on freight cars...now we're talking "smart cars"

Pretty cool idea.

The S.

[railnerd]

so
in  nutshell... i can drive JMRI and Decoder Pro off this...

if i get the Whiz Bang crew together...

vs.
buying a laptop for the basement.

Not exactly, as some other folks responded, you can use these things to control things independently of another computer (or in concert with it).

Supposedly there is also another Arduino-based article coming to Model Railroader in their June issue.

(I'm planning on using Arduinos in concert with the Free-mo Modular Signal System)

-Dave

[seusscaboose]

gotcha thanks

[VonRyan]

I've always wondered about those magical blue boards.
I have an idea kicking around inside my head for an unconventional absolute-block-detection system that is specifically for DCC.
If I had more insight as to how DCC sends its signals, and what type of signals the Back EMF feature sends (if that is required for some form of return signal), I would have a more solid foundation for the idea, but I can already tell that these little guys are certainly something that will be beneficial to not only the concept, but hopefully the execution as well.


-Cody F.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Great writeup Dave! Thank you for sharing it here (I wouldn't have seen it otherwise).
I'm interested in the Free Mo signal system you mention. Do you have a link to a discussion or document on that topic?

[ryan_wilkerson]

I forgot to mention, I visited John Signor's HO scale layout and saw his newest addition: Arduino-powered crossing gates. Here are a couple videos of it in action:

/>
All the talking in the background of this next one is from my boys as they ran trains on the layout. (Dave, you KNOW how much they love running trains!).

[John]

so
in  nutshell... i can drive JMRI and Decoder Pro off this...

if i get the Whiz Bang crew together...

vs.
buying a laptop for the basement.

No ...

[railnerd]

Great writeup Dave! Thank you for sharing it here (I wouldn't have seen it otherwise).
I'm interested in the Free Mo signal system you mention. Do you have a link to a discussion or document on that topic?

Here are some links about Free-mo MSS.  It is an ABS system right now.

http://www.free-mo.org/node/94
http://www.garymgreen.com/Free-mo%20signal%20article.pdf
http://www.x2011west.org/handouts/Free-mo-MSS.pdf

[ryan_wilkerson]

Thanks Dave...excellent reading material. Have you started using signals on your FreeMo-N module?