November Update

This month for the first two weeks I was away from home travelling around 4,000 km. I visited Peter in Traralgon and got to see his Brownsville layout again and we visited Murray Scholz to look at his Bogong & Geehi Railway. There was some further work on the proof of concept Ambient Light Detector PCB's, some more on the design for the Standard Signal Module and Flintston Yard Changes.  To top off the month's activities we visited Wayne's layout.

Brownsville

Due to family issues Peter has not been able to progress very far with the layout but we did get to run a few trains and it was good to see him back in his shed again.

Visit to Bogong & Geehi Railway

Well Murray Scholz issued an invite, on a recent Model Rail Radio Podcast, to anyone passing close to his place to "call in" to see his model railway.  He lives near Culcairn NSW.

See his Blog here.

Watch a teaser video below

Some photos I took can be found here.

Ambient Light Detector PCB

Wayne has tweaked the design and a second pilot board  has been ordered to ensure we have nailed it prior to ordering the production run.

Standard Signaling Module

More thinking on optimising the design for integrating the various module components has led me to decide how to deploy and interconnect them.   Below is the proposed circuit and a breadboard concept layout for a standard signal module

Proposed circuit

Breadboard concept layout

The principles agreed after discussion between Wayne & I are that the Detection & Control modules will be centrally located with wires running to detection devices and signal masts rather than locating the modules locally.

Centralising the modules allows for control wiring between modules to be at 3.3v and direct connection between control inputs.  This means that the number of components can be reduced through removal of optocouplers used to isolate module inputs and outputs for simple logic interconnections. The associated number of module connection points can also be reduced.  Another spin off will be the reduction in power consumption from regulated power supplies to.

Flintston Yard Changes

In the August update I detailed the need to replace a crossover with a double slip. I have commencing wiring the track and control panel.

Control Panel Changes

Holes marked and drilled for two toggles, a push button and four LED's.

Wayne's Layout

On 27 November Chris, Barry, Rossco & I visited Wayne's layout.  The purpose of the visit was to get an appreciation of his layout and proposed operating regime and then have a chat and get to know each other a bit better over a BBQ & a few glasses of red wine. We the day was a great success and we all had fun and stayed way longer than we imagined.

He is some introductory stuff..

I also put some photos into a slideshow.

Thanks Wayne!


That's it for this month.


Thanks again to those that continue to help me achieve my ambitions and hello once again to all my followers!


Till the end of December.

-ooOOOoo-