Arduino - Home Cooked Board?

quote:

Originally posted by BillP:
Has anyone ever thought about creating a TMCC board out of an Arduino board?

http://www.arduino.cc/

I have, but never got back to it. I intended to make a receiver to install in the TMCC lockon box so that a Powerhouse 180 could be plugged into it, relay turned on with boost, and emergency off would turn it off. Pure sine wave. No sharks teeth . All the TMCC boxes are variable voltage to support conventional. I don't do any convential, so I thought why have those ugly sharks teeth?
I got thru a couple of tutorials, but got sidetracked. Need to get back at it.

I have an extensive layout control system built around an Arduino. The Arduino reads track sensors, controls track signals, and sends TMCC and DCS commands to trains and accessories for automated operation.

It's easy to have an Arduino read TMCC commands from a serial data wire, so you could definitely build a complex accessory that gets TMCC commands over a wire.

Receiving wireless commands would need a radio circuit of course... could you get serial data out of an R2LC or a Mini Commander?

I am wondering if it would be cost effective to add the parts needed to an arduino to do that.

I wonder what it would take to to simulate the R2LC in software on the arduino and just add the minimal radio components to the board.

Likewise could the arduino be programmed to monitor back emf with the analog inputs to to control the motor?

Lastly could the auduino have an analog output to drive a amplifier and speaker?

Clearly controlling lights, couplers etc should not be a big deal.

PS I like the idea of using it for controls around the layout.

The board looks a bit large for many locomotive applications, but it sure seems it would work for fixed accessories.

You can get pretty teeny versions:
Pro Mini

Even with a built-in 915 Mhz radio:
Jeenode

I wonder if the Jeenode could be convinced to listen to 440 kHz tmcc track signals?

Well, 915Mhz and 440Khz are kinda' far apart, that probably isn't going to be a practical conversion. OTOH, one might simply build a 440 Khz receiver for TMCC applications.

Is there any documentation for the serial message structure of TMCC? Has anyone "cracked the code"? That would be necessary to do TMCC things with this.

The code is actually documented in the Trainmaster manual. The serial data sequence as well as all the command codes are in there. No need to crack anything.
Ron

Didn't that come with the TMCC command set? I got it somewhere...it's a Lionel manual # 71-2911-250 and here it is...

http://www.lionel.com/media/se...ents/71-2911-250.pdf

I see that there is a motor controller shield (daughter board) for Arduino.

Also a shield for audio playback. But I don't think I see anything that can mix audio. Eg chuffing and then mix a whistle blow. Use two boards?

Interestingly many of the sound shields read micro ads which is convenient!

quote:

Originally posted by RailfanRon:
The code is actually documented in the Trainmaster manual. The serial data sequence as well as all the command codes are in there. No need to crack anything.
Ron

Right you are, I never stumbled across that before! That's one big hurdle cleared...

Now we just need the receiver...

My rough estimate is that this will quickly add up to more than a kit.

I think the biggest hurdle is mixing sounds...

Sounds will be somewhat ugly, programming the TMCC commands looks pretty straightforward with that reference.