Wiring up multiple Model Railroad switch machines with Arduino!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ย. 2022
- Tortoise switch motor tutorial
• Controlling Model Rail...
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“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.
Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;
don’t be happy when they stumble.
For the Lord will be displeased with you
and will turn his anger away from them.
Don’t fret because of evildoers;
don’t envy the wicked.”
Proverbs 24: 16-19 NLT - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Got my layout almost done probably tonight need cork road bed just laying the track out but leaves room for a small town some industries and a whatever else I think of but just having fun with seeing it all come together
I'd be happy to do your wire management for you haha. I like the idea of using terminal blocks - I'd do the same thing for the H-bridge drivers and solder the wires onto the pins as opposed to relying on dupont connections. Thanks, Jimmy!
Aloha Jimmy Think tiny wire ties and lots of colored wires, set yourself a standard. I use Black as DC negative except for my Kato track feeds. Bundle all wires for a function and use the colors of the wire ties to show which function it goes to. I used to do this with temperature probe arrays to designate row and column in 100 probe units. Makes troubleshooting easier when a probe fails.
I do the same. Eventuality you will need to troubleshoot.
Yeah, a little wire management wouldn't hurt. I like it.
Another great video!
Great video, Jimmy! We are building similar systems but going about it in rather different ways, which is all down to the flexibility of Arduino.
Have you given any thought to switching (sorry) from delay() to using a millis() clock? It would require some adjustments due to the way your code works (switch throwing functions only execute once per input, but a millis() clock forms a feedback loop and needs to...loop), but the payoff would be worth it. As it stands I foresee two issues-
1. The delay(200) in void has the potential to cause inputs to be missed if the button press occurs during the 200ms in which the program is halted.
2. Even worse, the delay(2000) in the throwing functions means you will need to wait at least 2 seconds after pushing a button before you can push another one, otherwise it won't be detected.
Lastly, I think it would be helpful to briefly cover the what & why of your pull-down resistors (if you haven't already done so elsewhere).
Looking forward to the next vid :)
A really good one. I am so jealous that you can turn your layout on it's side to do all this work. I am working underneath mine! At age 70 it is not so much fun. 😪 I am hoping you will follow on with your comment about including signals with the turnouts. That is something I would really like to see. It is beyond my current capabilities with Arduino but I would gratefully follow any examples. 🇵🇹
This will be perfect for the North Pole Railroad as I'm going to be doing this in G scale, O and OO.
You know what I hate most about you and your videos. They end 😭. You're by far my favorite person to watch. But man when your videos are over I'm like "WHAT, THAT'S IT?!? I NEED MORE!!!" Keep up the excellent work! I really appreciate all you do! I'm actually getting back into model railroading thanks to you! My Grandpa gave me all his N scale stuff and it's been sitting in boxes for years! They're all DC locomotives, but I'm going to try and convert some of them to DCC if it's possible. They're old, I'm not even sure they're capable. Anyways thanks again for all you do!
Thank you for the kind words! about the DCC conversions, you may want to stay tuned as I may be having something that addresses the topic.
@@DIYDigitalRailroad I will thank you! Oh I'm drinking Pete's house blend, dark roast. Black, no sugar! Thanks again!
All that wiring reminds me of my father working on some type of pinball machine trying to repair it back in Cuba, more than 50 years ago!
If he was still alive he would eat this up and I wish he was so he could help me. I do have a nephew who’s an electrical engineer and I will recruit him for this stuff because that’s what it takes to do this.
I disagree! If you can solder and understand a logical system (or are willing to learn), you can do Arduino! I'm building my own system that does the same as Jimmy's + a bit more, in a slightly different way. Wanna know how I got started? I watched a video on THIS CHANNEL then I went and bought a $50 Arduino starter kit :)
Excellent video and information as always. I am still trying to determine if Arduino is the way to go, seems like its going to be a tough choice for me between Arduino-based DCC++ system... versus using Digikeijs and Digitrax equipment. Or perhaps run separate power grids to the layout and use each during different sessions? Maybe I think too much..
Great video. Could you do a video on using this on a yard with more than 5 tortoises. And programing routes.
Question. Would you use a arduino Mega to control 6 or more tortoises say for a yard. Love your channel.
Great video. I like how you mount the circuit card assemblies with hot glue. I generally use screws with some kind of improvised standoffs, which is a bit of a problem for me. Question: What do you do if you decide to relocate your circuit cards after you have hot glued them?
You would just gently pry it off. Hot glue is marvellous, particularly for this application as it's a great insulator, but you wouldn't use it for anything structural :) Failing the gentle application of elbow grease, you can apply heat to soften it up again.
@@milkymoocowmoo Thanks. I will give it a try.
youre a good father
Great tutorial as always. However I have a question you will probably be able to answer. Okay so say you have a fiddle yard/a humping yard. So in most cases to go from the thru mainline to the next section you would have the switch for the mainline and the switch for the next track, you have to have both switches opened to transfer from one track to the other, can you wire the signal to 2 tortoise switches in like a series so they both operate at the same exact time? I'm guessing yes, however the other thing I don't know is it going to be enough milliamps and or voltage to do it? From what I understand it's a yes. And thank you for any and all responses. You're the best.
can you interface this setup with a Loconet interface to run on Traincontroller? If so, what would the Arduino code look like?
Hey Jimmy. Your arduinos and points control are impressive, so much so i am thi king of using your tdchnique in my own build. You talk about using 2 terminal block connectors - one with an input of 9V while the other is 12V. In your state is the supply voltage 120V? In the UK it is 240V. Can you tell me how or by what method do you use to step down from 120V to 9V and 12V respectively? Thank you for the response. Mike
I am still trying to wrap my head around Tortoises. It pretty awesome that there is so much more customization potential for the system in the video, but can Tortoises be switched without Arduinos or accessory decoders? (i.e. just solder a switch onto it?)
Yes. Jimmy is driving the Tortoises for 2sec with each throw, but they're actually designed to be constantly driven and stalled at the end of their travel (~15mA @ stall). 12v and a DPDT is all you need, and the Tortoise even has an internal switch mechanism (actuated by its movement) that can be used to switch frog polarity and operate signals or panel lights if desired. There's a good reason they've been around for 30 odd years :)
I got lost rather quickly.
Use hot glue to attach wires to board instead of staples
How many amps are you sending to the 12V terminal power distributor and also to the 9V power distributor ?
Currently (pun intended). I have 1 amp power supply connected to the 12V as well as the 9V, but obviously the way I have it setup I can swap them out easily.
@@DIYDigitalRailroad If I run two amps through either or both will it cause any issues with the Arduinos (or any of the rest of these components)?
@@scentgrasslakerailway Nope, the components will only draw as many amps as they need :) Voltage is important to get right though, too much (or too little) will cause issues. You can run an Arduino on anywhere from 5-12V, but somewhere in the middle is preferred because it will generate less heat, that's why Jimmy is using a second 9V supply instead of just using 12V for everything.
@@milkymoocowmoo That is excellent info, thank you!
I’m going to start a layout and you like to subscribe to your donor pages. What platform do you use, I think you said Pateron?
Yes I do have a patreon!
Why Tortoise switch machines, why not servos?
I think you just scared me right back to hand thrown switches with ground throws, very impressive just not for me
Me too!
Damn scared me right out of doing this
Hear what you say. The word arduino makes my eyes glaze over and my mind start to see rotating pin wheels. However Jimmy makes it as simple as it can be made.
What about us that don’t have or use tortoise switch motors.
hmmmm....this sounds like I need to do a video on it.
Jimmy, I think you could have saved yourself some resistor wiring by using the Arduino's input_pullup feature. Then with all the pins internally pulled high you'd need to convert the 5v rail to your buttons into a ground rail and remove the resistors. Here is a good video on input wiring
th-cam.com/video/TTqoKcpIWkQ/w-d-xo.html
Walt her is a better system IMHO. No aruduinos.
Jimmy go a little bit of a headache. I got a migraine.
I kinda thought you needed jumper wires with resistors but I didn’t want to be a know-it-all😂😂😂.
Way to over complicated for me. Think I’ll stay with my old school electric turnouts.
can u talk english english and not nerd english (jk)
What a nightmare. Now tell me why an Arduino is advantageous? It seems that there so many wires that I would lose my mind, certainly my love of the hobby. It is just too much. To make it even worse is that after all of that wiring you now have to program these nightmares. Now tell me how this makes life easier? I do not want to have a degrees in electrical engineering and computer science just to run a layout.
The main advantages of an arduino is customization and now it is easy to change my turnout setup. All I have to do is some minor adjustments to the code and I can make custom sequences for turnouts. No additional wiring required. It’s kind of like building a house. Building a house is complicated, but once it’s built, you don’t have to tear it down and rebuild it every time you want to change something about it.
It's advantageous because it introduces a helpful software level into an otherwise entirely physical system. On a traditional layout for example, you might have a control panel of switches with wires running to your turnouts, and probably some indicator lights somewhere in there too. Each [turnout]-[switch]-[light] grouping is its own circuit, independent of other grouping aside from a shared power supply. If you later decided you wanted to interlock some turnouts, you'd need to run more wires. Maybe have a particular turnout route also throw some related turnouts? That's more wires, and potential *re*wiring of existing circuits, assuming your setup would even let you achieve it without causing shorts.
Think of Arduino as a middleman. Instead of individual circuits as above, you have inputs and outputs all connected up together via an Arduino "brain". Your switches, buttons, sensors, etc are your inputs, and your code tells the Arduino what to make your outputs (turnouts, signals, lights, etc) do when those inputs are received. To go back to the interlock example above, I could make that change quicker than I can type this sentence because all it would take is adjusting a line of code from "Arduino, when I push this button, throw turnout x" to "when I push this button, throw turnout x *and* turnout y". It also enables the use of logic, which is incredibly powerful. Conditionals, timers, reacting to situations....things that would be incredibly difficult if not impossible without that little brain sitting behind the scenes.
I'd also like to point out that Arduino is quite simple to learn! It's not a computer, it's a microcontroller board, so no electrical engineering or computer science degrees required. I have neither and picked it up by watching videos on this very channel, buying a $50 starter kit and following some tutorials.