My daughter the computer engineering major is entering hobby, for DCC++! I have some basic questions

I'm very excited. The topic says it all! The thing is, she will be 500 miles away, doing a co-op this summer, so we will do this long distance, together, in the evenings. I have until May 19 to get her "starter pack" together.
The easy part. It will be N scale.
1) a double loop of Kato track, with. A double turnout. And 2 locos, with decoders.
2)A DC throttle. Troubleshooting.
3) NCE powerCab with USB port and programming track board. Unless there is a less expensive starter kit, you would recommend?
4) a soldering iron station.
5) fill in the blank.... what hardware should I send, so she can set up the system and be ready to control?
Raspberry pi
Motor shield
Wire (gauge sought)

And if anyone has a guesstimate of the actual costs? Does it run to the high hundreds (just for the DCC++) assume she will go anywhere the hobby goes. Turnout control. Occupancy sensors. Who knows.
th
I downloaded and set up cygwin. She has a mac and visual studio

Thanks
Marty.

 

Marty,

You can get all the info on DCC++ here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmvQx-fe0OMAIH-_g-_rZw

Gregg also has all information at GetHub.com. You can find a link from the video.

 

sounds fun. why the nce system? dcc++ seems mature and robust enough to me to just start there. I just did it for the first time myself and looked over at my $700 nce system and laughed

I used the $10 inland uno clone from micro center, and the polulu motor shield, and had no trouble at all.

calvin.

 

Since she is a computer engineer DCC++ will be perfect for her. The beauty of that is you can ditch the NCE system which is the expensive part.

Here is what she'll need for sure.

1 uno or mega arduino board. can be found on ebay for under $5 (make sure to get one with the cable include so you don't have to buy that.
1 motor shield given the small layout one of the original motor shields (as seen in video above) is fine and can be found on ebay for under $10

She'll also need a power supply to run the track. I would suggest just a replacement PC regulated power supply that can do 15 or 16 volts and you won't need a huge one so 100W or so would be more then enough.

You can chose to also power the arduino base station with a 5V power supply as well if you want to run it without a computer always hooked up.

She'll also need to download some free software.

The Arduino IDE is available at the arduino site for free - she'll need this for loading the software onto the UNo or Mega
JMRI which is incredible java based software is also free - she'll need this to give the DCC commands, program locos, etc.

Honestly I would ditch the DC throttle as well unless you just want to get her DC locos so she can upgrade them to DCC. Much easier just to buy DCC equipped locos and not mess with DC. If she gets into it she'll want to play more and install some decoders,etc and then it would be helpful to have but that can wait.

Be sure to printout the pinouts from thew github link above as they have changed slightly from the original videos linked.

Get a basic system up and running first then there is tons to explore! Should be able to do it for under $50

Another potential option is to look in this forum for the DCC++ Hat thread for the PI. It should be a standalone system for around $50. A pi can run JMRI and Arduino IDE and you have a dedicated train minicomputer

Also check out Dave bodnars great site (trainelectronics.com) and the other threads here especially the DCC++ throttles as those would likely be her next foray after she gets the initial up and running.

 

Folks
Thanks.
I will send her off, without a DCC setup. I will send the DC throttle. Simply because I have a pile of them and she can be sure the locos run ( sanity check)!
The goal is to go from there to wherever she does, but to also build 4 for me

1 for my layout. With turnout control, Circuit breakers that allow me to also kill power to the yard (cheap passenger lighting control). Autothrow switches, etc. and3 for my shelf/piano top layouts. On those, is where I'll be looking to do something unique. I want DCC++ to have 2 paths to the loop. One through a decoder and one straight DCC. If we can figure out sensors, woo hoo! If not, the boot up default will be through the decoder, allowing me to send DC to the track, for small decoderless steam. Then switch to DCC for decodered locos. DCC++ and a raspberry pi on all of them so I can run WiThrottle, or engine driver for control. I'll just have a programming track on the main layout, so the shelf units won't even need that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Don't forget a train.

For the raspberry pi, a fast micro SD card, case, heat sinks, power cord with on/off button. 12-ish volt power supply for the motor shield power. Arduino mega.
Does she have a soldering iron? A good wire stripper? SD card reader?

Throw in a ibuffalo classic USB gaming pad and an extra micro SD card. She can also use the pi as a retro gaming system. (Retro pie)

Matt

 

Folks
If I go with a real Arduino Mega and a Polulu Motor shield, will I still be able to connect to a Pi and make this a Wireless setup?

 

Also, I have trains, in 2 rooms. will I be able to set up 2 pi/Uno, setups, to a network and control things, from 1 computer/1 tablet?

I'm not asking how, I'm just making sure I'm asking for something that I can reasonably ask my daughter to work through.