I started the original cell phone vs mfg system thread in the hopes of finding out if a "diy" wireless system would operate as smoothly and efficiently as a mfg system would. Using items that were on hand here at the house, none of which, were purchased for the railroad use, I built a "diy" system. An old laptop, a wireless adapter, Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and a Kindle HD were/are the components of this system. My brother and I operated the approx 16ft x 16ft L shaped layout for several hours with no issues related to the system. Absolutely amazing! Control was smooth and quick, switching was every bit as easy as using tethered throttles and the signal remained strong through the session. It would be difficult for me to believe that a manufactured system would have performed better. Total cost of stuff purchased JUST for this application was less than $40.00. I want to thank all those that read my original post and responded for your time and effort.
Well, DIYing it is always cheaper. I'd say go for it, especially if all you need are throttle control with lighting, etc.
Adding in turnout and route control, consisting, decoder programming, etc and the picture becomes more complex, of course.
I'm curious about what decoders you used, was the software yours, JMRI, or a hack of something else, etc?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Pretty sure he means just the throttle part of the system, not a whole DCC system.
Though an Arduino is more powerful than the micro in most DCC systems, and they are cheap, and it doesn't take a whole lot of external parts to get a 5 amp drive capacity.... There's already an NMRA DCC library for it, it's coming up with the command station part, to keep track of what throttle is controlling what loco, etc. that would be the hard part. Really all software though, the hardware is simple. Plus I'd use Ethernet and/or wifi as the control bus. Both easily added to Arduino
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
Sure. I was considering taking a shot at it. There are some nice small 2.4GHz radio modules that would make for a nice handheld throttle. Figuring out the software so it can handle 10-12 throttles and do things like build consists would be the hard part. Not sure I'd even need it to do programming at all, though POM would be useful for adjusting motor and sound, as well as building consists, though with sufficient memory to work in it would be possible to do a command station consisting that also keeps track of which loco is the lead one like NCE does. No need to program CV19, the command station could track this and allow a quick flip of the lead and trailing loco.
Had another idea last night. The main complaint about using smartphones as throttles i that people don;t like the touch screen throttle and prefer a physical knob. Well, there are wifi modules for Arduino, and it can act liek a web client or server. So how about a home made throttle with a proper knob and all that acts like a WiThrottle client instead of being specific to one vendor's DCC system? I can imagine a basic engineer throttle would not be particularly expensive, certainly far less than vendor specific radio throttles. The Arduino and the wifi board are cheap, just need to add a pot or encoder and some buttons to select a loco and operate functions. And a display - the 16x2 displays that are commonly used with Arduino are also pretty cheap. You still need a computer with JMRI for the WiThrottle base (can run that on a Raspberry Pi) but then this would work on any DCC system supported by JMRI.
You can also use a bluetooth module to interface knobs and joysticks to a tablet or phone.
http://controlwidgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/bt.png
Have you guys seen the thread over at Trainboard about the DCC++ system that some guy named Gregg came up with? It uses an Arduino Uno (or Mega) and a motor shield. I recently bought an Uno clone for $6, and you can get motor shields for $20. Throw in a $10 power supply and you've got a DCC system for under $40.
http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/introducing-dcc-a-complete-open-source-dcc-station-and-interface.84800/
Dave Bodner over at the MRH forum came up with a simple base station that uses a TV remote as a throttle.
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/19397
Steve S
Martan - indeed, that would be another way to do it. Just leave the phone in your pocket and drive with the handheld knob.
Steve - yeah, I've seen those. Interesting stuff.
Well, I would use the phone too- just stick the knob on the side and use them together as a unit. You get the touch screen and it's wifi, plus the tactile feedback of the knob.
rrinker Sure. I was considering taking a shot at it.
Sure. I was considering taking a shot at it.
As promised, I've started my write-up of my Arduino throttle: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/253905.aspx