What's on your workbench?

It looks like he has any style you need. Nice find!



I just got back from a cabin stay at Mundo Hot Springs. Snow was piled high, and it got into the 20's, but the water was 102 in the pool and 106 in the tub.


The cabin had home made geothermal heating that was plenty cozy:


But now that I'm back, I am continuing wiring up a dozen TTZ modules. Here is module #3, a 440mm x 200mm staging yard module with 2 Rokuhan turnouts. I installed a Digitrax DS52 decoder to throw the turnouts, and added a connector so I can unplug the decoder when running DC, else the decoder gets power from the track buss. Again, 4 output accessory terminals were included:

 

This IS especially true in Z Scale, where fully HALF of the available items in Z Scale are from mom and pop manufacturers who roll up shop on a whim, or produce small quantities and find themselves quickly overwhelmed with demand that they give up when the fun of contributing your creation the the Z community all of a sudden is NOT SO FUN ANYMORE. I have lived this form of burnout so speak from experience. Standing in line at the post office for hours, and filling out all kinds of customs forms to ship to different countries, having to stock all kinds of shipping cartons and pouches, weighing and looking up shipping costs, and then stuff gets lost in shipping and you have to do it all over on your own dime. That's part of the sellers side.

SO, if you see it, get it, for tomorrow it will be gone!

 

This time something different. A joint project. I'll do the first half, then send it to Clyde to do the second half.

My half is to build the interior core, and wire it up. It will have 2 microcontrollers, 2 stepper motor ceiling fans, a bridge rectifier, a 12v to 5 v buck converter, a butt-ton of LED's, and some Arduino code. I also am laser pre-cutting masking tape for all the windows so there are crisp paint lines.

Clyde's got the hard part, painting and detailing. He will prime the structure white, apply masking tape, spray a clear coat so the clear paint acts as the sacrificial bleed paint, then paint the brick oxide red. By painting over the masking tape with clear coat, all the paint that would have bled underneath the masking tape due to capillary action, will be clear, assuring very crisp paint lines around all the window and door trim.

This is the U.P. Hotel in Salt Lake City, built in the 1890's, and available in Z Scale from Z & US Models:





So I have the interior floors stacked up and ready for primer before I wire in the electronics. There are the typical supermagnet hold downs and a bridge rectifier is built in so there will never be an accidental backwards wiring. I made a power buss tower to simplify wiring, being made of brass strip stock and terminating at the top floor with a pair of 1K ohm resistor packs, so lights that will always stay on can easily be wired:





The center is cut out all the way to the first floor, providing plenty of space for the microcontrollers and wiring to fit. The stepper motors will sit in 2 rooms on the second floor, and their motor shafts protrude into the hotel lobby and the cafe, with no fan in the corner beer store, so the effect should be nice having 2 separated fans to create the animation:

 

So today I spent writing some code to turn on and off lights in rooms, and 2 of the 3 green emergency exit signs will have neon light flicker, and there will be 2 ceiling fans running. I was able to get all this on just one MH Tiny, so I won't use the Digispark to drive the stepper motors, as I sacrificed 4 of 22 outputs on the MY Tiny, and just wired all the first floor lights to be always on.

Here is the code I wrote for the MY Tiny, I know, I'm not a coder, so my code is very basic and longer than necessary:

______________________________________________________________________________________________
/*
UP Hotel Lighting with Ceiling Fans using an MH Tiny
You can wire in two micro stepper motors in series to run 2 fans on one driver and the MH Tiny can drive them

without seperate drivers
Digital pins 3 and 4 flicker to represent a flourescent or neon tube sign flicker

*/

#include <Stepper.h>

const int stepsPerRevolution = 20; // change this to fit the number of steps per revolution for your motor
//

// initialize the stepper library and connect steppers on digital pins 25, 24, 23, 22:
Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, 25, 24, 23, 22);

void setup() {
// set the speed at 80 rpm:
myStepper.setSpeed(80);
// initialize the serial port:
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(2, OUTPUT); //Digital outputs 2 thru 21 defined, 10 and 11 not used.
pinMode(3, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(4, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(5, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(6, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(7, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(8, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(12, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(13, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(14, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(15, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(16, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(17, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(18, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(19, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(20, OUTPUT); //
pinMode(21, OUTPUT); //
}

void loop() {
// step one one direction:
Serial.println("clockwise");
myStepper.step(stepsPerRevolution);
digitalWrite(2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(700);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(80);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(700);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(150);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
digitalWrite(14, HIGH);
digitalWrite(12, HIGH);
digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(16, HIGH);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(20, HIGH);
delay(14000);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(15, HIGH);
digitalWrite(21, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(12, LOW);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(16, LOW);
delay(700);
digitalWrite(17, HIGH);
delay(12000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(6000);
digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(18000);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(17, LOW);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(16, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(18, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(6, LOW);
delay(8000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(8000);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
digitalWrite(20, LOW);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(21, LOW);
delay(1500);
delay(6000);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(80);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
delay(9000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(16, LOW);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(17, HIGH);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(19, HIGH);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(7, LOW);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(15, LOW);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(18, LOW);
delay(22000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(5, LOW);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(1500);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(80);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(17, LOW);
digitalWrite(15, HIGH);
delay(3000);
digitalWrite(21, HIGH);
delay(12000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(8, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(15, LOW);
delay(400);
digitalWrite(18, LOW);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(19, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(12, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
delay(300);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
digitalWrite(16, HIGH);
delay(18000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(30);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(60);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(20);
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(21, LOW);
delay(15000);
digitalWrite(16, LOW);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(17, HIGH);
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(20, HIGH);
delay(11000);
}

______________________________________________________________________________________________



Here is how I will wire the 2 stepper motors in series. They are 40 ohms per coil so in series they are 80 ohms. That means the max current is 68 milliamps per stepper motor pulse and the current limit is 40 milliamps per output, (Each coil is connected to 2 outputs, so that's 80mA per coil leaving 12mA headroom before they are maxed out) but since I am only spinning the fans at 80 RPM's, the device don't seem to get warm at all:






So far I have all the first floor LED's wired into the resistor pack, for always on operation, and I have the stepper motors mounted, with one over the hotel main lobby and one in the Cafe around the corner. I have all the floors painted white too:

 

This one is under $2 each when you buy 10 or more, has a total maximum combined current output of 200 mA and 40 mA per output. The ATTiny88 is designed for automotive CANBUS uses, and has been used by all the major auto manufacturers, so is suitable for model railroad uses too.

The MH Tiny board Specs:

Support for the Arduino IDE 1.0+ (OSX/Win/Linux)
1. Power via USB or External Source - 5v or 7-35v (12v or less recommended, automatic selection)
2. On-board 500ma 5V Regulator
3. Built-in USB
4. 26 I/O Pins (2 are used for USB only if your program actively communicates over USB, otherwise you can use all 6 even if you are programming via USB)
5. 8k Flash Memory (about 6k after bootloader)
6. I2C and SPI
7. 26-PWM (26 pins with Software PWM, only two (D9,D10) with hardware PWM )
8. ADC on 8 pins
9. Power LED and Test/Status LED

 

So I ran into a snag, and might have to go back to using the Digispark for the stepper motors. The problem is whenever there is a "Delay" in the "Void Loop", what happens is the stepper motors stop running. Delay stops the whole script. It leaves all outputs in their current state, which is a stepper hold or brake, and waits till the loop cycled through before starting up again. I have to learn some new code tricks to avoid using a delay in the void loop.