Subject:
|
Re: DCC Madness - One Step Beyond
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
|
Date:
|
Sun, 29 Jul 2001 00:52:27 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
449 times
|
| |
| |
In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Derek Raycraft writes:
> This thread in trains got me thinking:
>
> http://news.lugnet.com/org/ca/vlc/?n=1218
>
> DCC is really cool for manual control of multiple trains on the same track.
> However it doesn't provide any positional feedback so you can't easily have
> automatic control of the trains.
>
> In the above thread they where talking about using reed relays to detect
> that a train is passing by and to take appropriate action . The problem is,
> you don't know which train is passing. You may want to do something
> different if its a passenger train or a freight train.
You *can* use magnets and reed relays to tell which train that passed. A
college job I had was at a materials handling company and each vehicle had a
different pattern of magnets. Several reed switches were embedded, and as
vehicles passed over, which switches activated (and how many times and in
what order) told the controller which vehicle it was that just passed over.
This was late 1970s era technology but avoided needing to go with
transponders (which were used in more complex systems where the number of
vehicles were too large...). It served more as a check than as the primary
identification mechanism because the computer usually knew where all
vehicles were as it gave them commands to move around the system
The downside is that this consumes a lot of ports on an RCX if you're going
that way..
Just an idea to think about.
|
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | DCC Madness - One Step Beyond
|
| This thread in trains got me thinking: (URL) is really cool for manual control of multiple trains on the same track. However it doesn't provide any positional feedback so you can't easily have automatic control of the trains. In the above thread (...) (23 years ago, 28-Jul-01, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
|
6 Messages in This Thread:
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|