Has anyone else built Gregg's Valley Line layout and gotten the automation routines to run successfully? As a way to help myself with understanding how his system works i built his layout with only minor variations and for the most part it works great. Everything in the controller software operates and runs as it should, all the turnouts, routes and sensors are fully operational and all the buttons do what they are designed to do. The problem i'm having is mainly with the AUTO button and routines. Problem 1. In the programming i see 4 routines, ALL CABS RUN, ALL CABS PARK, SINGLE CAB RUN and SINGLE CAB PARK but I'm only able to access the 2 All cab routines from the controller software. If i hold the SHIFT key while clicking the AUTO button i can switch between ALL RUN and ALL PARK but that's it. is there another key combination to access the single cab functions??? Problem 2. When i run the ALL CABS RUN routine i'm running into problems with some turnouts not being in the proper position and i'm getting derailments or worse, head-on collisions. I can manually switch the turnouts to continue the routine and when it first starts its pretty obvious which turnout should be in which position but after you get 3 trains all running at the same time its a little confusing figuring out which turnout was missed and which train should be going where and that's when the collisions happen if you're not paying attention. I have to tell you though.... when its running, its pretty cool seeing the trains start and stop to let another train pass, or if you can get this far to see a train complete the routine and go back to its parked staging area. Programming is far from my area of expertise so if anyone has any tips or tricks i can use to figure this out I'd be grateful. I know Gregg hasn't been around for a while so I'm hoping someone else can help me out with this. Thanks Mike
I think i may have just figured out part of my own question. Gregg used Kato unitrack for his layout and the kato #4 switches which from what i gather allow a train to run through them backwards without throwing the turnout or derailing the train. i'm using servo controlled Peco turnouts that hold the points in place and they don't allow you to run through them backwards without derailing. So i either have to modify my turnouts or modify the code so the turnouts are thrown in the proper direction when needed.
Hi Michael Its good to hear that you got Gregg's code working. Just a question - where do you find his automation code? Regards Shelton
You will find the code he was working on in the development branch. You can find it here: https://github.com/DCC-EX/BaseStation-Classic/tree/development. He also used is Controller written using the "Processing" IDE to add more automation. The next generation of DCC++ EX will have a train programming language that uses a very easy to write script.
wow - thanks for the information espically about the DCC++EX having a script to do train automation. Regards Shelton
