Block signalling on the GNRW phase II:
A fellow modeler is setting all this up for me. He let me do some of the 'programming' but I could not do this 'from scratch'. There really isn't any programming involved but more assigning parameters to blocks, switches, etc and the software sets up all the commands needed to execute the signals. We still have some more work to do but the bulk of this phase is complete.
I've got 23 blocks that have to be described into the 'tower LCC' by RR-cirkits via the PC.
The 'edited' of the track diagram indicating names of all turnouts, signal location (and types, ie, single,double head).
'Unedited' version of the track diagram. The 'X' is where signals will be and each block will be red/black indicating a train is in that block.
Current sensors are placed on each wire for each block.
The Tower LCC (horizontal circuit board) where the 'track schematic' info is loaded into. Each tower LCC can handle 16 blocks so I needed two tower LCC's.
The block occupancy detector (BOD-8) (vertical circuit board) can handle 8 blocks so two are in one tower LCC and the third will be in the 2nd tower LCC. This will be enough to handle my 23 blocks.
The last circuit board needed is the Signal LCC-S. Each of these can handle four, one 3 signal head mast (ie red/yellow/green). Since I have about 7 signals with two 3-light heads, I need about 8 of these circuit boards.
The connecting wire is 6 wire telephone cable to transfer all data.
We did an initial testing of 5 blocks to insure all is 'good'. It took 2-3 hours to get the 'bugs' out of my track and the wires going to the blocks. Running DCC for the last 1.5 yrs, the 8 districts created had 2-4 blocks in each district. Over time the individual blocks were affecting each other and needed to be isolated. I had some rail gaps between blocks that were touching each other and I had multiple wires going to some blocks (needed for the old PFM sound system to work properly) that needed some 'diagnostics'. Each BOD-8 has adjustable 'sensors' that needed 'adjusting', via a screwdriver, for each block to detect when a train was in that block.
