Banbury_in_00 (Posts about control_panels)

Control Panel Shelf

Tim Pearson — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Having finally completed the fiddle yard control panel I have built a shelf to mount it and a controller socket fascia on.

The control panel is easily moved elsewhere - requiring only the three cables (one power two signal) to be unplugged and moved elsewhere.

Having mounted the control panel I have found the 9000 mcd leds I have used to be blindingly bright....ah I think I am going to have to open up the panel box again and fit some resistors - easier than changing the LEDs. Still thats for another time.

For the next panels I will use perhasp 300 or 400mcd LEDs.

Panel Testing

Tim Pearson — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT

The panel works (mostly) but there are some gremlins to get out, not all of which I think are my making...

The green LEDs show position of points, the blue LEDs show section occupancy.

There are also red and yellow leds to show if computer or human has control of a track - but these are not lit in this test.

Control Panel Continued

Tim Pearson — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:00:00 GMT

I am sure there must be a better way to do this...

I have ended up drilling more than 120 holes in the aluminium and the paper - and they have to line up!!

Here is the 1.5mm Aluminium and the paper with their holes in place...

In the unlikely event that you are a materials scientist looking for a material that will resist all attempts to glue it, then I strongly suggest the combination of waterproof paper and aluminium, they have resisted every attempt to glue them together - including, copydex, superglue, pva (all presumably fail because od the lack of air getting to the glue) - more surprising is that araldite failed as well - as this shouldn't need air having its own chemical fixer.

Anyway I have decided that the large number of switches and leds can be used to hold the paper in place. This does mean that I will need to use LED holders rather than just glue the LEDs into the bare holes - LED holders are a bit fiddly and are hard to get just right in terms of hole diameter - either too sloppy or require an industrial press to get the things in.

Anyway here is a test fit with some switches...

The final piece of the jigsaw is the box, which has two DTM30 boards from CML electronics. To make the connections easier - I have mounted a passive LocoHub4 board that I made up from a blank PCB provided by Huib Maaskant in the Nethernlands. This then connects to each DTM leaving two external facing ports.

I have made the box out of thin ply, a mistake I think and I am not happy with it for various reasons. I have used two M5 rivnuts mounted in aluminium offcuts and glued onto wooden holders to give me something to screw two roundhead M5 bolts into to secure the front panel.

Control Panel

Tim Pearson — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT

The layout is going to need three control panels. I have decided to make a start on one (the one for the fiddleyard and junction) before I progress with the next bout of woodwork.

The electronics are the easy part (remind me I said that later) I am going to use two CML DTM30 boards in a single box. The box will have approx 25 point/route setting push to make switches and around 70 LEDs to show occupancy and point / route setting.

My main concern being a messy sort who has little design skill or flair for such things is how to make the panel look acceptable.

I have started by drawing up the panel I want on Excel and the printing that to pdf for an A3 size sheet. Then I have sent the pdf off to a printer to print onto some tough waterproof paper (£2.50 per sheet). Here is a picture of the diagram...

I had considered sandwiching that between an aluminium base and a perspex top but I found that the perspex was too tricky to drill without it cracking. I could perhaps do ten successfully but here I will need to do a lot more than that. So I have just gone for waterproof paper on a 1.5mm aluminium base -

Here is how the paper arrives through the post...

And here it is after I have cut it to size and drilled some holes in it. I found that using a wood drill the 7mm holes for the switches came out neatly - but the smaller ones for the 3mm leds tended not to cut so neatly so I will drill those after I have stuck the paper to the aluminium.

Drilling the switch holes in paper and metal separately means I have to try and be fairly precise I expect this will need some adjustment as even with the pillar drill I can see I am slightly out in places. Anyone got a handy CNC machine?

Power distribution Panel

Tim Pearson — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

I have spent far too long working on a power distribution panel to tidy up the mess of plugs and sockets that currently feed the layout -

I have worked out that I need the following power supplies -

12V DC for DTM30 and SIGM20 boards as well as for Led building lighting circuits 15V DC for BDL168 and DAC20 boards 16V DC for Kadee electromagnetic uncouplers

Then I need the power supply for the DCC system.

As time goes by I will probably need at least one other supply - so a spare would be useful.

I decided to build a little control panel - inspired by the front panels used by "expat" aka Trevor of the MRF board.

Here is the wooden box that I used to contain the wiring:-

I mounted five mains sockets on the back:-

The front panel is made of a 3mm acrylic sheet on which the switches are mounted and then this is screwed onto an MDF sheet which was painted black.

Here is the internal wiring:-

I used a pile of heatshrink to cover up the terminals - what I had ignored was that when I got the wife's hairdryer to shrink the heat shrink - then it also bent the acrylic a bit - bother!

The whole unit is designed to slide into the front of the Lgirder benchwork I am using. so the width is largely dictated by the width of the studs in the wall! as these dictate the width of some of the cross pieces. Here is the rear view of the unit in situ:-

I used illuminated rocker switches - as I am forgetful and it is a good way to see if I have left anything switched on.

The front labels are made by using heavy photo paper in the printer and then after it was printing giving it a coat of clear spray on varnish every day for five days. - it took several attempts and I am not completely happy with it even now.

Here is the front view - of the unit - but it is only resting in the bench as it is not in the final position - when it is finally positioned then the cables will be routed neatly out of the way.

Signalling Panel

Tim Pearson — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:00:00 GMT

I have been extravagent and bought three new boards from CML electronics. The first to be implemented is a DTM30 board, which allows traditional style control of points and (reporting of signal and occupancy states) but using very modern techniques.

In a "traditional" panel you push a switch and it activates a point motor, this is OK, but it has several drawbacks -

Firstly, it means you have lots of wires flowing from the panel to the various motors.

Secondly, it means if, like me, you want to be able to control routes both by computer and from the panel then that is not possible without conflict.

Using this CML board, then there are no direct wires to the point motors instead the board outputs and inputs packets to the Digitrax loconet bus. These instruct the point motors to change state this is then "seen" by the computer and so it is aware, it is also seen by the static decoder on the point which actually activates the point. Similarly if the computer or "throttle" gives a command to change state of a point that will be picked up on the bus by the DTM30 which can track the change and change the indicator light.

This all means that you only need three connections from the board to the outside world - two loconet connections and a power supply.

I used a maplin £4.99 ABS box, combined with some Hexaganol plastic spacers (12mm) to mount the board on off the floor of the box and a power supply left over from a BT broken home hub that gives up to 2A at 9V DC. I then connected that to a Chassis mount 2.1mm DC socket (FT96E) so that the whole box could be unplugged.

On the top of the box, I have used some 5mm green HB LEDs (CK39) mounted on 5mm LED Clips (YY40) and a sub miniature push switch (JM01B).

Like everything else this is just for test at the moment so I have not made the box too pretty.

I purely want to test out the concepts for the main layout. As so much wiring is involved I want to be sure what I am doing before I start.

Banbury_in_00 (Posts about control_panels)

Control Panel Shelf

﻿Panel Testing

﻿Control Panel Continued

﻿Control Panel

﻿Power distribution Panel

Signalling Panel

Panel Testing

Control Panel Continued

Control Panel

Power distribution Panel