I want to create a couple of mimic panels for my layout, but am struggling to find out how to draw one, as my drawing skills are hopeless. I read somewhere that you could do this with Anyrail. I have this but cannot see how to produce a mimic diagram. Has anyone done this, and if so, could you please tell me how you did it and which tools you use? As I have gone to quite a lot of expense to get Anyrail, (I use a mac so had to get Parallels to run Windows, and then Anyrail. I have also tried Railmodeller which is a Mac application, but this did not work either.
Any advice gratefully received!
I've used AnyRail a fair a bit. I've not done an actual mimic panel but have produced a schematic 'underground map' like representation of a layout
There is nothing specific regarding producing mimic panels so it is a matter of tinkering with the layout drawing settings to give something suitable. The proportions can be adjusted, perhaps using a fixed geometry track library with small radius curves, set the display to show the track-bed rather than sleepers or centreline and minimise the control points and other track identification points.
Edit:
If you would like a more angular, geometric look to the mimic panel, another possibility in AnyRail is to use the line and shape drawing facility. Set Snap to Grid and Line Thickness to suitable values and away you go. Other options include rounded line ends and corners and the line colour can be changed. It could be white if you draw on a background rectangle of another colour.
I am at the moment making a mimic panel for my new 009 layout, using a Grange and Hodder laser cut base board of 900 by 400mm, the layout has nine points, which are going to be operated by servo's, it has a working coalmine headgear, and working level crossing gate, which require eleven double pole toggle switches in all to operate them.
One pole of the switches will operate the points etc. the second pole will switch a LED to show the direction of the point, and working headgear wheel direction, up or down.
I have bought a plastic lidded box of a suitable size, to draw the compete track plan on, I removed the lid and on the underside of the lid, I have drawn the track plan.
I have drilled a 4mm hole at the point of the drawn divergence from the straight of each point to fit the DPCO switches, the route set by each point will be indicated by two 3mm LED's, red for a diverging route, and a green for straight ahead. These LED's will be lit by the second pole of the DPCO switch, thus showing the route set by the point.
The track plan of the layout will be indicated, by using the drawn track plan on the underside of the lid as a guide, and drilling a 2mm hole through the lid, showing the track plan on the face of the lid as a series of holes, interspersed by a toggle switches and two directional 3mm LED's.
All the wiring for this maze of wires and various functional relays and timers will of course be concealed when the box lid is in place.
The screw fixed lid being light tight, will also conceal the blue LED's used to light up the inside of the box, and the pre drilled track plan holes will let the blue light show the track plan when it's all buttoned up.
The wires for all his electrickery will be via a multicore computer cable from the box to the layout, none of the components are power hungry, and the multicore cable cable will allow me to move around the double sided layout at will carrying the controls, and as the loco's are all radio controlled there is no track feed required.
If anyone can see a problem with this, I would be delighted to hear via the pages of the forum.
Hi GraemeD, please could you give me some more details about how to draw the lines, as I have been unable to find any of the tools that work. I am using AnyRail 7 with Windows 11. I also have an old version 4, but I could not find anything useful with that either. I know some people have used this because I have see examples, but sadly, no precise instructions on how to achieve these results. I only need to draw a simple trackplan, there are only 6 points, 2 on one board and four on the other, so I was goig to do a mimic panel for each board.
Thanks for your help. Rgds Jose.
An interesting idea. Illuminating the track plan by a series of holes is not something I have ever considered or seen before. How many blue LEDs will you be using to provide the illumination?
A view of the control box on Angst
orange LEDs show the points settings
green LEDs show which tracks are live...
(https://i.imgur.com/OaOLKt8.jpg)
{NB I drilled too many holes for LEDs - hence the blanks!}
I like your mimic panel display Hugh - does it double as a Pac Man arcade game? :)
Seriously - can you remember where you got the orange LEDs? I don't seem to fare too well with green and orange LEDs. The colours of the ones I've bought are peely-wally.
Quote from: GraemeD on January 17, 2022, 11:26
I like your mimic panel display Hugh - does it double as a Pac Man arcade game? :)
Seriously - can you remember where you got the orange LEDs? I don't seem to fare too well with green and orange LEDs. The colours of the ones I've bought are peely-wally.
Rapid.
probably part No 55-0097 (it was quite a time ago...)
Hope this helps
I'm not sure I would use a computer for this task - perhaps it depends on layout complexity...
You can buy 'school notice board' type hardboard with pre-drilled holes in a fixed grid pattern. I would then take some insulating tape and map out a diagram by hand arranging any point, signal or other indicator to align with one of the holes.
When you have everything in place, gradually remove the tape and paint in a coloured line to represent the track. Cut the board to size and wire it up fitting LEDs, switches etc. as you go.
From memory, I think the hole spacing on these boards is about 1cm (I could be wrong there), but, if you left a bit of free space at the top and bottom of the board, this could be used for future changes. The holes will probably need to be enlarged in places for the various mounted items eg point switches.
I suppose I just like simple solutions !
Dave
ps if you really want to use a computer, Microsoft "Paint" can draw both straight and wiggly lines /circles etc. from the standard palette. It is a bit fiddly, but, it comes free with Windows...
My track plan was drawn on a grey, light tight plastic box lid, and one mm holes were drilled through the the track layout drawn on the outside of the box lid, and 1mm holes drilled through the drawn diagram lines at a close spacing. All the point positions had a DPCO switch fitted at the junction point on the diagram with green and red LED's positioned, green showing the straight, route red showing the diverging route wired to one terminal off the DPCO switch as appropriate.
The inside of the light tight box was illuminated with a strip of blue LEDs thus showing the track plan as a series of blue pinholes with the green and red LEDs showing which way the points are switched.
A capacitor discharge unit was mounted within the box feeding each point switch via two 12v in series burglar alarm batteries (24v total). One 12v battery serving to feed the illuminating LEDs via appropriate resistors.
Thus i have a control panel with an illuminated circuit diagram, point switches showing the route set, all in one box.
As my layout has radio controlled loco's, that's about all i need.
i am typing all this one handed as i currently have a very badly broken right arm, which is not helped as i am right handed. ::)
Regards, Brian. (6072)