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"Chris Phillips" wrote:
> I just converted my first engine to DCC yesterday and started playing with • LDCC
> 1.01. LDCC is fantastic! Thank you, Mark!
>
> I installed an AD330 N-Scale decoder from Model Rectifier Corp according • to the
> directions on Tom Cook's site. At 0.8 Amps this decoder is just adequate • to
> provide the reported 750mA drawn by a stalled motor. One deviation for • this
> decoder is that there is no blue wire. Instead, the common for both light
> circuits is connected to the black wire. I was able to accomplish this by
> simply leaving the metal wiper for the black wire in contact with one side • of
> the light power outlet instead of bending the tab or insulating it with an • index
> card. The white and yellow leads get soldered directly to the other side. • I
> did not install the noise reduction circuit or any resistors or diodes on • the
> light circuit.
Great, Chris, I'm glad it's working for you - and with another brand of
decoder, yet!
> Things worked strangely until I figured out that my decoder was running in
> 14-step throttle mode, but once I configured Loco 3 correctly, everything • worked
> fine. Today I will read up on how to program the decoder into 28-step • mode and
> how to change locomotive ID numbers and acceleration/deceleration • parameters.
>
> One thing that would help quite a bit on the LDCC site would be a summary • of
> standard control variable numbers as well as a brief description of the • meanings
> of the different programming modes ("Phys", "Drct", etc.). By the time I • had
> re-wired the engine, built the acknowledge circuit and downloaded the • firmware,
> I was far too impatient to re-read the fine print, and a lot of • trial-and-error
> resulted. I will e-mail you a table of whatever quick-reference • information I
> come up with while I read up on how to program the decoder.
Yes, I definitely know about the impatient thing. :-) There's quite
a bit of new terminology when one gets introduced to DCC and
it can be a bit overwhelming if you want to get things going
quickly. I am planning to enhance the documentation on the
site to include more introductory material. Sometimes I think writing
the documentation is more difficult than writing the program! Thanks
for taking the time to send me your suggestions.
> In lugnet.robotics.rcx, Mark Riley wrote:
> > Yep, the input ports still work. I've had suggestions of
> > using them for tethered throttles, so you can have more than
> > one engineer running the trains. I'm also looking into the
> > possibility of using the Manas/Spybot remotes as additional
> > throttles.
>
> This would be cool if you supported Rotation Sensors as throttle controls.
Good idea. In the mean time, I've been working on tethered throttles
that use a potentiometer. Take a look at this folder for a peek:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=44713
This is a mostly Lego throttle with two function buttons. The buttons
can be assigned to control the lights on the loco. Fancier throttles
could have up to ten (possibly more) buttons to control things like
switches and decouplers on the layout. Each additional button just
requires one more resistor, so these throttles could be made
relatively inexpensively (my first version is Lego-ish, but the next
will probably be constructed out of a proto box with a lot of
buttons - cheaper than using Lego switches!)
These throttles work great and give you finer control of speed.
Plus, they allow you to have up to four people controlling trains
on the layout. This weekend, my kids and I were able to each
control a train of our own. Let me tell you, pandemonium quickly
set in with trains going every which direction! But, it was fun.
I can see certain rules coming into play next time, though.
> Another possibility would be to allow an input to be configured for a • train
> sensor (Touch Sensor or perhaps Light Sensor input type) which would stop • one of
> the trains for a short time when it reaches the sensor. This would enable
> people to easily simulate a passenger stop by placing a train sensor at • each
> station all wired in parallel to the same input on the RCX.
I remember reading a thread about determining what train just passed
a sensor, so that it could be conditionally routed off the main line.
I think something like that would be necessary so you could issue
commands to the correct loco to stop. Maybe a simple barcode on
the bottom of the train motor could be read by a light sensor as the train
goes by? I know something like this was tried in the real world and failed
because grime buildup prevented the codes from being read properly,
but (hopefully) that's not a problem with Lego trains!
> I am actually wondering now what it would take to write a program that • would
> send IR Remote commands to the RCX to automatically start and stop trains • under
> PC control. I am currently working on a train automation program that I • could
> definitely add LDCC support to. Hmmm...
Yes, hmmm... :-) While I was developing LDCC and there was no
user interface on the RCX, I would issue commands from the IR tower
using a command line program. I used this mostly to test the various
decoder programming methods. It would be nice to expand this so direct
control of each loco was possible. You could do it now, but it would
be a bit clumsy since you would need to simulate button presses
for specific periods of time to get the loco up to the proper speed.
Ideally,
you would just send one packet with loco #, speed and direction information.
Anyways, that would be great if you added support for LDCC in your
program! Can't wait to see what you come up with.
Mark
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: DCC for the RCX
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| (...) One way is to mount one or more magnets on the underside of the train with their N-S pole oriented across the width of the train (to differentiate it from the couplers of just any old train) and then sense these specially-marked train cars (...) (21 years ago, 9-Jun-03, to lugnet.robotics.rcx, lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | RE: DCC for the RCX
|
| Mark, would it be possible to share the code of your DCC controller, I am the author of pbForth and would love to add the driver to the pbForth library. I've also got a servo driver in pbForth already. Too bad Hitechnic is out of business. Their (...) (21 years ago, 9-Jun-03, to lugnet.robotics.rcx, lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: DCC for the RCX
|
| I just converted my first engine to DCC yesterday and started playing with LDCC 1.01. LDCC is fantastic! Thank you, Mark! I installed an AD330 N-Scale decoder from Model Rectifier Corp according to the directions on Tom Cook's site. At 0.8 Amps this (...) (21 years ago, 9-Jun-03, to lugnet.robotics.rcx, lugnet.trains)
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