Notes from the Electronics SIG meeting 22 January 2026

[Hugh Norwood]

Notes from the Electronics SIG meeting 22 January 2026

Five of us attended, Tom, Graeme, Joe, Jeffrey and Hugh

Tom showed us the PCBs for the ScOONS superloop controller that some of them have been working on, to allow the reversing loops at either end of their extensible module system to work more or less automatically. The idea being that you send a train into the loop; the controller takes it in and places another train ready to be brought out in the other direction.

Hugh gave a work-in-progress update on reworking his scale model Popham semaphore tower to use an Arduino in a similar way to the Clacks tower for Angst-Lesspork. It uses two servos to move the semaphore arms.

Joe has been building boxes (for a PSU and controller) and he showed us a shield(?) for an Arduino Mega that has screw terminals for all pins – and leaves the pin sockets still available for other shields. (In Arduino-speak, a "Shield" is a circuit board that sits on top of the Arduino circuit board and connects to it using the rows of sockets available.)


Jeffrey had found that various projects for Christmas prevented him from working on model railway-related projects. (We've all been there! ~ HN)

Graeme has been getting acquainted with KiCAD for circuit and PCB design and showed us his work on a controller.

Date of next meeting was pencilled in as 12 March; subject to availability.

(H.N.)