How to build a control panel for your model railroad
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- Опубліковано 18 лис 2023
- In this video I’m going to build a control panel for a section of my n scale model railroad to throw servos for my turnouts. I’m using LEDs to show how the turnouts are set and stomp switches to activate the servos. Everything is controlled by an Arduino Nano on an expansion board.
More info coming soon on how I programmed the Nano including a downloadable sketch.
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Here are some of the products I used in this project:
Green LEDs: amzn.to/3LsP2R5
Servo extension cables: amzn.to/3LqDRsa
Heat Shrink Tubing: amzn.to/3r8LhcV
LED panel holders: amzn.to/3RHn1cL
3PDT stomp switches: amzn.to/3PDdAtb
Elegoo Nano boards (3 pack): amzn.to/3RoYade
9G Micro servos (16 pack): amzn.to/44Wqozn
Nano I/O Expansion Sensor Shield: amzn.to/3sSzMqd
K&S 0.025 Music Wire (4 pieces): amzn.to/3t60QCo
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This was a really helpful video
Glad it was helpful! I aim to inspire and help.
Nice, what switch motors did you go with for your turnouts?
Thanks! I use micro servos. Check out the whole video playlist here: ua-cam.com/play/PLxmwlwEWL2sLXtGyc606L72Tz4oL-cI7d.html
One thing i would suggest is instead of a microcontroller, use 555 timers that feed the outputs into an input. Effectively it makes a flip-flop. The nice thing is, you can drive a tortoise switch machine with it, and drive the LED indicators as well. It removes the nead for the expensive switches, as you only need momentry contct switches.
Thanks for watching and your suggestion. Hope that helps someone else considering what to do with turnout control.
Keep in mind I'm using servos so not sure if your solution would work for them. I did not go with Tortoise switch machines as they are much more expensive and larger - I have some tight spaces under my turnouts where only micro servos will probably fit. As for the stomp switches they were really not that expensive. They are three-pole so I have one set of poles I can use in future for signals or powering frogs, etc.
I might also at some point want to use the Nanos for other animations. For that I need the flexibility of writing a custom sketch that I can upload to the board.
@@pacificcoastminiaturesI don’t know enough about electronics to know, but can you use signal LED’s in series with the panel LED’s leaving the 3rd pole for frog powering?
Is the 3 volt terminal of the adequate for powering all the servo’s? Or is that expansion board a separate power?
Yes, you could simply connect signal LEDs up in series with the panel ones. I might do exactly that. I probably will wire directly to the terminals on the switches so the LEDs will run in parallel rather than serial, simply because I would want to have both green and red or yellow signals so I can use the unused poles on the switches.
As for power to the servos, the expansion shields I am using for the Nanos have a 12v power jack. I have a 12v adapter plugged in right now that powers the servos and the control panel LEDs, but hope to run a 12v power bus to the panel from my main power supply for the layout since I don't want to plug in multiple adapters (and some won't reach an outlet without using an extension cord or lengthening the cable). Plus having all my Nanos being able to be switched off at one power source also is better as I don't like to have my layout powered on all the time when I'm not using it.
What software was used to draw the layout scheme?
I used KeyNote on my Mac - but any drawing app that lets you draw lines and circles will work such as Word or PowerPoint.