Electronics SIG Zoom meeting 29 Feb 2024
Six members attended the Zoom meeting: Graeme Dunbar, Stephen Elliott, David Jones, Hugh Norwood, Stephen Rainsbury, Mike Wakefield.
Stephen Hulme sent his apologies.
Hugh has been breadboarding again in his ceaseless quest to build different controllers.
Mike is new-ish to 009 – he has bought a small 009 layout and is running Railmaster on his PC and is looking at applying DCC using an arduino and servos to control the points. We had a discussion on methods to detect the presence of locos and stock on parts of the track.
Stephen R is investigating using a Pi Pico running Python. He showed us the IDE on his PC and it could show the program running either on the PC or on the Pi.
Stephen E has a home layout, which has no "electronics" and is DC, and a module (Beds & Bucks type) – "Dizzyworld" which shows a theme park and he is looking into adding automata. We discussed such things and mentioned the witch on her broomstick on Angst-Lesspork, and a series of articles from Railway Modeller way back in 1967 by a Jack Dugdale, which are available if you subscribe to RM's digital archive.
Graeme reported on a fellow ScOONS member who is working on uncouplers for BEMO type couplings and had several ideas. Graeme has found a servo controller based on a tiny (possibly arduino look-alike) – he showed us this; it is very small, the circuit board has a trimmer pot for swing angle and a push button which causes the servo to go from one end to the other and back, a servo connector and a USB socket for power. He also showed us a linear servo, which could be useful for some applications, some photos of the recent Model Rail Scotland show, and a servo tester, which he recommended as a necessary addition to anyone's toolbox if they are going to be using servos.
The next meeting will be on 18th April starting at 8pm
If you wish to join in, but are not yet on the notification list, please contact Graeme.
HN 11 March 2024
Sounds like an interesting discussion group. I will try to listen in on the 18th. I am building a couple of modules for the Dartmoor 009 group and have been working on bits for automation including level crossing gates that use track detection to open/close. Enjoying learning about the electronics side of the hobby and all the possibilities.
Quote from: Chris Odell on March 13, 2024, 20:06Sounds like an interesting discussion group. I will try to listen in on the 18th. I am building a couple of modules for the Dartmoor 009 group and have been working on bits for automation including level crossing gates that use track detection to open/close. Enjoying learning about the electronics side of the hobby and all the possibilities.
We'll look forward to seeing you!