To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.trainsOpen lugnet.trains in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Trains / 23917
23916  |  23918
Subject: 
Re: Grade Crossing Signal Thingy...
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.trains
Date: 
Tue, 28 Dec 2004 13:41:37 GMT
Reply-To: 
CJMASI@*NOGARBAGEPLEASE*RCNstopspam.COM
Viewed: 
2293 times
  
Stefan Garcia wrote:
need more than a program, you'll need to make sensors of some sort, as
sensors that detect magnets are not on offer from LEGO. Chris Phillips made some
(reedswitch based, I think) sensors, and documented what he did. it requires
some surgery.

Here's a post to get you started searching on how to construct magnetic sensors:
http://news.lugnet.com/org/ca/rtltoronto/?n=7337 (Chris's writeup)


I know Lego doesn't make those sensors.  The first post in that thread though is
exactly what I was looking for!  Thanks!  I'm not too crazy about modding Lego
so I'll go with the pure version.

Yeah, I am not too crazy about modding LEGO either, but there are some
mods that are fine by me. Chris's read switches are just such a mod. His
crossing gates are awesome, and the read switches that control them work
very well.

I just I created my first bit of automation for a train layout. I made
an automated trolley and you can see a test of my setup at
http://users.rcn.com/cjmasi/trolley.mov . I have some ideas for making
the trolley better, and one idea involves me buying some sensors from
Chris. I thought of making some for myself, but Chris does such a nice
job that I thought I should just get them from him.

By the way, Chris is a fellow NELUG memeber and a friend.

Chris

Once you have the sensors though, the program that you would need to create is
similar to that used to detect touch sensors as I understand it. you probably
will need debounce logic for best results, although maybe not. What you really
want is for the gate to stay up some seconds after the last time you saw a touch
(or magnet reed switch closure), and then go down, till the next time you see a
touch sensor.

For bidirectional operation, you will need two sensors, one for each direction
of travel (so the gate has time to go down BEFORE the train hits the crossing!)


Right, I'd think you'd need a lead time of around two baseplates or more, lest
those poor minifigs wander across the tracks...  :^)


Xposted to lugnet.robotics as there are a lot of resources there as well.

Hope that helps.


Thanks again!

-Stefan-



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Grade Crossing Signal Thingy...
 
(...) I know Lego doesn't make those sensors. The first post in that thread though is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks! I'm not too crazy about modding Lego so I'll go with the pure version. (...) Right, I'd think you'd need a lead time of (...) (20 years ago, 16-Dec-04, to lugnet.trains)

17 Messages in This Thread:







Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR