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Subject: 
Re: Versions 2 and 3 of micromotorized crossing gates.
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.trains
Date: 
Fri, 5 Sep 2003 16:23:00 GMT
Viewed: 
1006 times
  
In lugnet.org.us.indylug, James Powell wrote:
Awesome looking crossing.  I like the small size of the motors.  What do you
use to control this?  I was in a hobby store last week looking at DCC stuff
and they had crossing sensors for this sort of thing.


That's what a RCX with a extra light sensor is for (or homemade light sensors).

Either option beats the pants off how I did my first automatic crossing system-

*snip*

You mean RCX w/light sensor as one option and DCC as another option?  How would
you tie in the logic for it, if not using manual controls via DCC?  Just
curious.

Also, what happens with the gate is down?  Do you have to manually stop the
motor so it doesn't burn out?  I've been thinking about how to fit a
microswitch in to a 1x2 brick with a 1x2 tile on top as the sensor for when
one of these type of gate is up or down.  Has anyone done any work with
this??


I'm assuming here that the crossing uses the normal style of micromotor driving
crossing gates via a rubber band- you don't need to be fancy, just use the dwell
time.  Drive the gates down slightly longer than the reverse time, so they come
to a complete stop against the lower stops.  Simple, and it works.  Be warned,
that doing so with the micro motors direct coupled to the crossing arms is not
recommended, since it tends to lock the micromotor solid, requiring human
assistance to get it to turn again.


Excellent point - take James' advice on this!

Ed



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Versions 2 and 3 of micromotorized crossing gates.
 
(...) I've been thinking about this one. In the current state of LDCC, a fully automated and LDCC-integrated (and pure LEGO) crossing gate could look something like this (ASCII art follows): Train presence sensor------+-------+ + RCX 1 | (...) (21 years ago, 7-Sep-03, to lugnet.trains)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Versions 2 and 3 of micromotorized crossing gates.
 
(...) That's what a RCX with a extra light sensor is for (or homemade light sensors). Either option beats the pants off how I did my first automatic crossing system- it was a electrical kludge (and I still can't think of a better way to do it- in (...) (21 years ago, 2-Sep-03, to lugnet.org.us.indylug, lugnet.trains)

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