John, Nice lighting job! I hope I can become as competent as you in the wiring and electricity department. Scott
Since I'm playing around with lighting apps and installation, I need more buildings to light. Finally back to this freight depot. Really disliked the open floors, so am making my own. Basswood cut to fit and will eventually add a third floor for the attic, and put in support posts so it can be removed as a unit for future work, both physical and electronic. Roofs will be removable on both sections. Floors will be scribed to simulate boards and stained.
Trying something new (for me) by drawing and scribing lines using a drafting pencil with fairly hard lead, sharpened to a fine point. Next step will be further texturing and staining. The first picture shows the setup using two drawing boards, though one could be replaced by a simple board, held in place with carpenter clamps, and an HO scale ruler held under the upper board. The next one shows the scale. This one shows part way thru scribing/drawing. I chose one foot wide boards. And the final one, after adding board ends with kinda random lengths.
All four floor sections done. Now texture and stain them, then add support pillars to 1/2/3 floors that will allow it to be removed.
John, Looking good! I like the idea of using the hard lead and ruler. I just completed scribing deck boards on the scow I'm making in Z. I used a compass extension arm and a block of plastic as the guide. Scott
Good news and not so good news. Color seemed to work well using: India Ink Pinata' Alcohol Ink, Havanna Brown 91% alcohol Put miscellaneous weights to keep floors from bending too much which in turn showed up as lighter areas on the floors. I'm not too worried as they will still get some weathering chalks applied and (maybe) some freight and equipment to hide the areas even more than being enclosed in walls with ceilings or roofs. Overall, I'm pleased with the progress. Pics follow:
For the large freight house, I modified some code that I developed a year ago as a test for building lighting and it compiled clean on first try and the breadboard test bed worked on its first try. Time to quit, I guess! lol Eventually hard coded "times" will be replaced with randomized start/stop within constraints. Also hoping to have a centralized Mega with RTC broadcasting the fast clock times to all Arduino Nanos on the layout. But in the meantime, this will work. There are seven locations within this building, each with two LEDs. A freight room, a priority freight/office (1st floor), an office (2nd floor), attic, external lights on the back, and two locations on the dock. Here is the breadboard. And here is the code. /* Large_Frt_House_Lighting Want to set up time spans for lights on by hour/minute format (24hr clock) Want fast clock capability both as testing function and normal running. Usually 4:1 or 5:1 Include start of sequence flash of all lights 5 times Watch push button to restart sequence Initial lights to include Freight Room (x2) 1st Floor (x2) 2nd Floor (x2) Attic Outside Back Door (x2) Outside Freight Dock Main (x2) Outside Freight Dock Office (x2) */ // Time Variables unsigned long currtime; unsigned long starttime; unsigned long elapsetime; float floatelapse; float hourconv; float hourmsecs = 3600000; float minmsecs = 60000; float daymsecs = hourmsecs * 24; float elapseoffset = 16.95 * hourmsecs; // On startup, start the clock at approx 16:47 float flmin; float fastratio = 12; int ihour; int imin; int iprevmin = 99; // integer dummy value of previous minute for proper start up // LED Info int frtroom = 9; //red int firstfloor = 3; //yellow int secondfloor = 5; //green int attic = 6; //blue int outbackdoor = 7; //yellow int outdockfreight = 2; //white int outdockoffice = 4; //white // Room Arrays int onhrArray[] = {17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17}; // Time on hour int onmiArray[] = {00, 05, 10, 25, 00, 12, 12}; // Time on minute int offhArray[] = {19, 19, 18, 17, 19, 19, 19}; // Time off hour int offmArray[] = {29, 28, 20, 40, 29, 28, 28}; // Time off minute int statArray[] = {false, false, false, false, false, false, false}; //Current on/off status of LED int ledArray[] = {frtroom, firstfloor, secondfloor, attic, outbackdoor, outdockfreight, outdockoffice}; //Pin numbers of corresponding rooms int allarraysize = sizeof(ledArray)/sizeof(ledArray[0]); int outdockfreightIdx = 5; int justRoomLEDs[] = {frtroom, firstfloor, secondfloor, attic, outbackdoor, outdockfreight, outdockoffice}; int justroomLEDsize = sizeof(justRoomLEDs)/sizeof(justRoomLEDs[0]); // Misc Variables int i = 0; int j = 0; int longdelay = 300; int shortdelay = 200; // Start of Code void setup() { starttime = millis(); Serial.begin(9600); pinMode(frtroom, OUTPUT); pinMode(firstfloor, OUTPUT); pinMode(secondfloor, OUTPUT); pinMode(attic, OUTPUT); pinMode(outbackdoor, OUTPUT); pinMode(outdockfreight, OUTPUT); pinMode(outdockoffice, OUTPUT); for (i=0; i<5; i = i + 1) { // Flash all LEDs 5 times for (j=0; j<justroomLEDsize; j = j + 1) { digitalWrite(justRoomLEDs[j], HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level) } delay(longdelay); // wait for long delay for (j=0; j<justroomLEDsize; j = j + 1) { digitalWrite(justRoomLEDs[j], LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW } delay(shortdelay); // wait for short delay } } void print2digits(int number) { // Print with leading zero if (number >=0 && number < 10) { Serial.print('0'); } Serial.print(number); } void loop() { // Main Loop currtime = millis(); elapsetime = currtime - starttime; elapsetime = (elapsetime * fastratio) + elapseoffset; floatelapse = float (elapsetime); hourconv = floatelapse / hourmsecs; ihour = int(hourconv); flmin = hourconv - ihour; imin = 60 * flmin; if (imin != iprevmin) { Serial.print(" Time: "); if (ihour > 23) { ihour = 0; starttime = currtime; elapseoffset = 0; } print2digits(ihour); Serial.print (":"); print2digits(imin); Serial.println(); iprevmin = imin; for (j=0; j<allarraysize; j = j + 1) { if (statArray[j] == false && ihour == onhrArray[j] && imin == onmiArray[j]) { statArray[j] = true; digitalWrite (ledArray[j], HIGH); } else if (statArray[j] == true && ihour == offhArray[j] && imin == offmArray[j]) { statArray[j] = false; digitalWrite (ledArray[j], LOW); } } } delay (75); }
Back to building modifications (floor installing, etc.). Needed to add bracing to all floors to minimize bowing, though all surfaces will eventually be covered with flat acrylic spray to seal and protect. The office/freight area will consist of three floors, connected together with support beams to create a single module, that can be removed as a unit for detailing and/or repairs. Support beams are deliberately not full width to allow trimming of edges for fit, if necessary. The freight room area has extended plastic areas for its "floor" and notches have been cut to allow almost full length bracing. This shows the first notch cut in office area, and it can be seen how much area there is in the freight room. Here is the underside of the freight room and it can be seen how much bowing has occurred. Here are the second floor and attic floors, ready to be glued. First floor and freight room are under the cordless drill batteries being glued. Here can be seen overall work area and the notches in the freight room area can be seen. Here is bottom of attic floor with beam cut and small portion moved over to accommodate a hole for the straw shown next to it. The straw will have openings to allow LED wires to come out where necessary and allow the wires to be relatively unseen. And similarly for the 2nd floor.
Second floor pillars attached. And first try at attic floor pillars. Nice and neat, but blocked some windows! And attic floor, fixed. And three shots of the interior.
Thanks for the kind comments @BNSF FAN and @rray ! Here are three pictures of how the removable unit is coming along. Still not glued together as more coloring of floor to do, Holes for soda straw wire guide to be made, and light blocking undersides of floors.
Using the original tints, India Ink, Pinata' Alcohol Ink - Havanna Brown, and 91% alcohol, darkened things up a bit. Will still need some weathering chalks, but also decided to stain pillars and ceilings, though I had originally thought painting them weathered white would be better. The walls will be weathered white, though. Here are the obligatory pictures.
Decided the LEDs are too bright and I need to dim them. Rather than try to set proper brightness level through resistors, I decided to try something new (for me) and use PWM to set brightness. This way I can tailor each set to "proper" brightness programmatically and leave it open for possible changes for night versus day according to time of day, should I decide to do it that way. Major change was analogWrite instead of digitalWrite and adding a new array, ledDim to hold the PWM values. However, since the Nano does not support PWM on three of the pins, had to change two of them and drop the number of lights on the dock to two, rather than four. /* Large_Frt_House_Lighting Want to set up time spans for lights on by hour/minute format (24hr clock) Want fast clock capability both as testing function and normal running. Usually 4:1 or 5:1 Include start of sequence flash of all lights 5 times Watch push button to restart sequence Initial lights to include Freight Room (x2) 1st Floor (x2) 2nd Floor (x2) Attic Outside Back Door (x2) Outside Freight Dock (x2) */ // Time Variables unsigned long currtime; unsigned long starttime; unsigned long elapsetime; float floatelapse; float hourconv; float hourmsecs = 3600000; float minmsecs = 60000; float daymsecs = hourmsecs * 24; float elapseoffset = 16.95 * hourmsecs; // On startup, start the clock at approx 16:47 float flmin; float fastratio = 48; int ihour; int imin; int iprevmin = 99; // integer dummy value of previous minute for proper start up // LED Info int frtroom = 9; //orange int firstfloor = 3; //yellow int secondfloor = 5; //green int attic = 6; //blue int outbackdoor = 10; //yellow // int outdockfreight = 10; //brown int outdock = 11; //red // Room Arrays int onhrArray[] = {17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17}; // Time on hour int onmiArray[] = {00, 05, 10, 25, 03, 12}; // Time on minute int offhArray[] = {19, 19, 18, 17, 19, 19}; // Time off hour int offmArray[] = {30, 28, 20, 40, 31, 29}; // Time off minute int statArray[] = {false, false, false, false, false, false}; //Current on/off status of LED int ledArray[] = {frtroom, firstfloor, secondfloor, attic, outbackdoor, outdock}; //Pin numbers of corresponding rooms int ledDim[] = {64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64}; // PWM values - initial 25% for all int allarraysize = sizeof(ledArray)/sizeof(ledArray[0]); int outdockfreightIdx = 5; int justRoomLEDs[] = {frtroom, firstfloor, secondfloor, attic, outbackdoor, outdock}; int justroomLEDsize = sizeof(justRoomLEDs)/sizeof(justRoomLEDs[0]); // Misc Variables int i = 0; int j = 0; int longdelay = 300; int shortdelay = 200; // Start of Code void setup() { starttime = millis(); Serial.begin(9600); pinMode(frtroom, OUTPUT); pinMode(firstfloor, OUTPUT); pinMode(secondfloor, OUTPUT); pinMode(attic, OUTPUT); pinMode(outbackdoor, OUTPUT); pinMode(outdock, OUTPUT); // pinMode(outdockoffice, OUTPUT); for (i=0; i<5; i = i + 1) { // Flash all LEDs 5 times for (j=0; j<justroomLEDsize; j = j + 1) { digitalWrite(justRoomLEDs[j], HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level) } delay(longdelay); // wait for long delay for (j=0; j<justroomLEDsize; j = j + 1) { digitalWrite(justRoomLEDs[j], LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW } delay(shortdelay); // wait for short delay } } void print2digits(int number) { // Print with leading zero if (number >=0 && number < 10) { Serial.print('0'); } Serial.print(number); } void loop() { // Main Loop currtime = millis(); elapsetime = currtime - starttime; elapsetime = (elapsetime * fastratio) + elapseoffset; floatelapse = float (elapsetime); hourconv = floatelapse / hourmsecs; ihour = int(hourconv); flmin = hourconv - ihour; imin = 60 * flmin; if (imin != iprevmin) { Serial.print(" Time: "); if (ihour > 23) { ihour = 0; starttime = currtime; elapseoffset = 0; } print2digits(ihour); Serial.print (":"); print2digits(imin); Serial.println(); iprevmin = imin; for (j=0; j<allarraysize; j = j + 1) { if (statArray[j] == false && ihour == onhrArray[j] && imin == onmiArray[j]) { statArray[j] = true; analogWrite (ledArray[j], ledDim[j]); } else if (statArray[j] == true && ihour == offhArray[j] && imin == offmArray[j]) { statArray[j] = false; analogWrite (ledArray[j], LOW); } } } delay (75); }
