Yes - at least that is what it says - tested it and really puts out 13 volts on my meter. Thank you for your reply!
A voltage drop is quite normal, as you're converting to an alternating PWM signal. If you mean that its only 13vdc to start, then you might have problems above N gauge. Do be careful with a 5A supply, in a short circuit condition, you could damage your shield if the protection circuitry doesn't catch it quick enough. Max recommended is 4A @2A per channel. Steve.
Thank you to both. It is for N scale. I have HO and O as well but my initial test is with the N scale. Is there a circuit I could build to knock down the amperage? Not sure how accurate my meter is as I got it out of a Cracker Jack box (kidding, but its cheap).
Thank you, Gregg for developing this concept, and thanks to all the others who have built on the idea! I have a Mega clone and a motor shield (and a spare of each...) on the way from eBay and am eager to start hands-on learning. I've read the PDF in the Sketch zip and see that the control scheme is sending text strings to the Controller. If I understand correctly, anything that can send the appropriate text strings can be used to control the locos/layout. This sounds like an analogy to the gcode that controls CNC machines. Somewhat coincidentally, my desktop Nomad 883 milling machine uses an Arduino with what I now understand is a custom motor shield that addresses 3 stepper motors and a brushless servomotor for the spindle and reads microswitches for the limit switches. So for a handheld throttle I would just need something that can read the state of physical switches and an A-to-D for the throttle pot, and interpret and send commands through to the controller? There is an arcade videogame emulator called MAME. Some years ago I hacked a USB physical mouse guts and put in a Tempest control panel to provide the spinner and fire button inputs to the emulator. Would it be possible to similarly hack a cordless mouse/keyboard interface to do the same thing as a wireless handheld throttle for DCC++? Sorry for the newbie questions but it's exciting to be at the base of a new learning curve... Randy
Maltux - if you are concerned about too much current getting through the DCC++ system, say during a derailment, you can change a variable in the CurrentMonitor.h tab of the Arduino sketch - the line is here: #define CURRENT_SAMPLE_MAX 300 You can decrease the 300 a bit to set the point where DCC++ will shut down - dave
Randy - you are correct about anything that can send a serial string of commands being able to control the DCC++ controller - That is exactly what I do with the IR Throttle that I made up - I use an Arduino on the throttle to generate and send commands but I could just as easily use a PIC, Raspberry Pi, or a serial terminal on a PC. That makes it very understandable, easy to debug and easy to utilize - A winning combination! dave
Hello All, I've been following this thread and Greg's videos while I was waiting for my Arduino Motor shield as suggested. I'm using a Arduino Mega + Arduino Motor Shield and 16.5VDC (Laptop power supply), tested using Greg's Diagnostics way as post #455. Both the Mega and Motor shield work, but I can't move my HO Train and I can not detect any voltage coming out for the Main Track. Do I miss something? Here I attached a picture from my set. Thank you in advance Regards Andi
Desiro, the lights on channel A of the motor shield do not seem to be lit in your diagram above. These should turn on when you issue a <1> command. -Gregg
All, I shall be releasing an updated version of DCC++ Mobile Controller in the near future. New features include an on-screen clock, a 3 line real-time serial monitor, stylized vertical sliders and 2 banks of function switches F0 through F28. Throughout the development I've wanted to try and keep a single version usable on even the smallest displays. However as the 'page' has got busier, it's not really a practical solution on very low resolution devices that don't scale down properly. So I'm thinking of doing an ultra small version to run alongside the standard version. Sorry if you are in need of such a version right now, hopefully I'll be getting to it shortly. Here's a screen shot of the new standard version. Thoughts? Steve.
Looks good, Steve - it will be nice to have two throttles available. Will the program remember any settings from session to session, with cookies, perhaps? thanks dave
Hi Dave, That's not something I'd thought about. How much info would you like to recover? If it's just recently used Loco addresses, IP address etc. I guess that would be easy to do, sort of like the auto-fill you get in chrome (and other browsers no-doubt) . Steve.
Hi Dave, Turns out that drop downs are easy to do. You start by populating a list into the HTML, perhaps of your whole Loco list. One caveat, the drop down selection arrow that is then available in the field will partly obscure its content unless the field is somewhat longer than the content. And persists after selection is made. A bug? I don't know. Hmm. I was kinda hoping to keep those neat and tidy with just enough room for a 4 figure address. Handy for the websocket address though. Steve.
Steve - that is certainly a viable option - I gather that you could do the same thing with the IP address or at least with the first part (ie 192.168.1.) so that you could add the last value. nice! dave
Hello, Sorry to insist, but I didn't see any answer to my previous post. When a train looses contact with the track it restores its speed and direction, but this is not happening with the functions. If the train had the head lights on, they turn off. Looks like the refreshing slot is sending only speed and direction data, not functions. Is any fix ongoing about that? Is it happening to everybody? Thanks in advance, Dani
