The End of the Greenly Northern

Today marks the end of the Greenly Northern, my office switching layout. Two of the turnouts used on this N-scale layout became more and more problematic, not throwing all the way, leading to derailments when switching. In addition, the baseboard had warped badly enough that cars started rolling on their own when leaving them on certain tracks.
This layout had a good run. I learned quite a few things with it.

I'm considering building another switching puzzle in N-scale, so I kept various parts and of course the electronics. The rest went into the trash.

NCE bus connector for the PowerCab case

To connect the AUI board on the Greenly Northern, my office layout, I want to fork the NCE cab bus from the command station in a box to the layout without much effort. The easiest way to do that is to add a UTP panel to the setup.

Mark the cut-out on the side. Use a cut-off disk to cut through the outer layer and a keyhole saw for the hardboard and foam padding on the inside.

Install the UTP panel.

I used wood strips on the side, so that the screws have a little bit more depth to hold on to.

And done. The RCA connector on the right is for connecting layout power. The NCE PowerCab delivers only 2 amps layout power, so I didn't feel like I really need a hard-core modular connector for this setup. For test setups I can always make an adapter cable if the need arises.

Test run

I've set up the portable command station in the office. Works as intended.
However, I'm having trouble connecting the NCE AIU to the NCE cab bus so that train detection works properly. JMRI sees the feedback from the AIU, but sensors don't change state when the board LEDs indicate a train. More debugging needed.

Update:
Now that I had some time to think about this ... I believe I merely used the wrong sensor numbers. It's not NS0 - NS13, but rather NS48 - NS61. I have the AIU on cab ID=4, and the sensor IDs are calculatd as (cab ID - 1) * 16 + input - 1. I'll check this out when I'm back in the office after the long weekend.

As a side-note, NCE AIU is supported with the NCE USB interface version 7 when used with PowerCab version 1.65 or higher.

Portable PowerCab and JMRI Programming station

The Greenly Northern, my office layout, so far had a Raspberry Pi3 hardwired to the layout along with my NCE PowerCab. I described how I set that up in a post last fall. I wanted the layout control to be more portable and more flexible. E.g. take home the layout box, Pi with JMRI, and PowerCab over the weekend for comfortable programming at the work bench. Or maybe in the future take it to a show easily.

I decided that the occupancy sensors and the detector board are part of the layout. However, the NCE PowerCab track connection and the USB interface, as well as the Raspberry Pi need to be easy to transport. While at it, I also wanted a portable screen for the Pi.

At first I planned to pack everything into the same small tool case I use for the Mobile Station, and quickly realized that screen and electronics would fit, but the power supplies would not, so I decided to go for a larger aluminum case. The build quality of the case I chose doesn't come close to the black aluminum case at Harbor Freight, so I recommend getting that one instead. By the way, the only aluminum on these cases is the edge decoration.

The screen is a 10.1" TFT security monitor with 1280x800 resolution found on Amazon. I wanted a small and light-weight screen with high resolution and HDMI input. I added a compact, slim keyboard and a mouse, too.
Placement of the components was pretty straightforward. The screen is installed into the case lid using the standard VESA mounting holes. You can see the screw heads in the photo at the top of this post. The Raspberry Pi3 case clips behind one of the two metal brackets that normally keep the tool mat in place. I used a 1.5ft slim HDMI cable between Pi and screen, and a 3ft USB A/B cable for the NCE USB interface. All cables are secured with cable wraps or cable ties so that they are not caught in the gap at the case lid hinge.
The power supplies are plugged into a switched low-profile power strip with a short 3ft cord, so that I don't waste much space on cord storage when the case is closed. I used double-sided tape to hold the power strip into the case.

The NCE track interface for the PowerCab and the USB interface are mounted on some scrap hardboard away from other components so that the naked PC boards don't touch anything. I'm using a RCA socket mounted into the case side for the layout connection. This works just fine for low-amperage applications like the one I have here. The Raspberry Pi3 is plenty fast for decoder programming with JMRI, or controlling some automatically running trains.

With all parts in the case there's still enough space for a few N-scale cars and locomotives, some track, or other supplies.

Greenly Northern In the office

The Greenly Northern has moved back to the office and for now occupies an empty desk next to me.

Standalone Timesaver puzzle using Raspberry Pi3 + JMRI + Engine Driver

The Timesaver module forms the heart of the Greenly Northern, my office layout. Today I pulled it from storage where it had been since a desk move left me with no space to set up the trains to much sadness in the team. My current desk location has sufficient space along the window sill to do something with trains again. I cleaned the tracks, rearranged electrical hook-ups a bit, and a short while later the little GE 70-toner was up and running again.

For the puzzle web page to work, I need a computer nearby. Everyone has a smart phone, but I can't guarantee Internet connectivity to my server at home. Also, many switching moves take time, so the screen saver turns on while we run the train and having to unlock the phone all the time to plan the next move is annoying.

What if I used the phone to operate the train? Been there, done that. JMRI  and Engine Driver are well-known solutions for that. I already have the NCE USB adapter for use with my NCE PowerCab. Connect that to a computer and Wifi, and we're done. However, I can't just connect anything I want to the office network at work.

So, the whole thing needs to be stand-alone. The Raspberry Pi 3 with built-in Wifi came out last year and fills that gap nicely.

Here's a quick overview of what I did. If you are unsure how to do any of the steps: I generally followed instructions I found on the Web as needed.

I started with the Raspberry Pi 3, installed Raspian and ran through the usual system upgrades. Next I installed the hostapd and dnsmasq packages. I switched wlan0 to static configuration, and configured hostapd to use wlan0 for the Access Point and serve up the SSID "GreenlyNorthern". I configured dnsmasq to serve DHCP on wlan0. It's a good idea to use a private IP range, e.g. 192.168.0.0/24 for wlan0. After a reboot I had my own private Wifi network hosted on the Raspberry Pi 3.

Moving on to JMRI. I downloaded the lastest production version of JMRI, ran PanelPro and configured it to use the NCE USB interface, as well as start both the Web Server and WiThrottle Server automatically. I added the switcher engine to the JMRI engine roster, taking care to make the function button assignments reflect reality. I added JMRI/PanelPro to the program list in /home/pi/.config/lxsession/autostart, so that JMRI starts as soon as the user pi logs in after boot, which is the default behavior for a Raspberry Pi setup.

On the next reboot I could take my smart phone, connect to the GreenlyNorthern wifi network, start Engine Driver, select the Greenly Northern layout, select the switcher engine from the roster, and control the switcher from the smart phone.

The last piece of the puzzle was adding the Timesaver puzzle web page to the Engine Driver Web pane. I installed lighttpd on the Raspberry Pi 3 and configured it to run the little Python script that produces the puzzle Web page. That required adding a scriptalias entry to map /cgi-bin/ to /usr/lib/cgi-bin where I copied my script, and assign /usr/bin/python to run .py scripts. You can enable the debian documentation config snippet in lighttpd to get the settings, or just add them to the cgi config snippet under /etc/lighttpd/.

Finally, I added a link to the puzzle script (e.g. http://192.168.0.1/cgi-bin/puzzle.py , there's no DNS in this wifi network) to the main web page served up by the JMRI Web Server.

Next I changed the preferences for Engine Driver on my phone to show the Web pane on the throttle window and only use one throttle. Engine Driver loads the JMRI web page by default, so a tap on the puzzle link is all that's needed to get the puzzle shown on the lower half of the Engine Driver screen. The upper half has the throttle.

I'm using an old Android phone as throttle in this picture. I don't know whether a similar trick can be done with the WiThrottle app on the iPhone.
The general approach works just as well with JMRI's web throttle from any Web-capable device, by embedding the puzzle on a web throttle page. Use e.g. an iframe, but pretty much anything goes, including creating the puzzle generator in Javascript.

Model Railroading at work

I wrote about the Greenly Northern, my railroad in the office, before. Here is a short video of train #198 traversing the layout.

Since this is set primarily on office furniture, I'm using Kato Unitrack for most of the trackage for easy removal and leaving no trace when I need to move desks the next time. Most of the structures, tunnels, and bridges are also made from office material, like manila folders, Stick-It notes, etc.

Greenly Northern: Cubicle-top model railroading

Wall Junction currently is a siding at the end of the line from Greenly on the Greenly Northern. Nevertheless, one can do switching moves out there. Due to regular passenger service and appropriate running speed, the whole exercise can take 15 minutes or more.

Engine No. 3 switches the siding at Wall Junction

Engine No. 3 returns to Greenly with the cars it picked up at Wall Jct.

Note the "bridge" in the back made from flextrack on top of Post-It note "pillars".

Introducing the Greenly Northern

Railroaders have a tendency to name everything. This is not only pretty and neat, but simplifies life dramatically. It's much easier to refer to a given siding or station by name, rather than saying "that siding on the east side at milepost 10.4".

So far I have referred to the office layout as "the office layout". As of today, that is the "Greenly Northern" which runs from it's terminus at Greenly on my modified Timesaver module, to it's current endpoint at Wall Junction. You guessed it, Wall Jct is where the tracks meet the cubicle wall.

 Why Greenly? The grass is green on the Timesaver. That's why.

The Greenly Northern uses lots of second-hand and leased rolling stock. Thus, it's not unusual to see a wild mix of cars and locomotives with different road names.

Challenge Accepted

 It's quite amazing what you can build with basic office supplies.

Some manila folders, push pins, and scotch tape ...

... in a stable arrangement ...

... gets us around the big round pole. To make this a bit more interesting, I also added a tunnel.

View from the side to show the supports carrying the track.

Possibilities

Now that my desk move in the office is complete, I get to toy with ideas to use features of the nearby furniture and building elements.

The curve could attach to the Timesaver module and run around the pole.

... and connect with track on the cubicle partition wall to go somewhere.

There are some tricky bits with this. I can't make holes into the walls or furniture, and shouldn't intrude into work space of co-workers. Of course, I don't have anything else to do while at work, so should avoid making this too distracting for myself as well :-)

First project:
Find a way to build a sufficiently stable support for the curve around the pole.

cab car

The office railroad has obtained push-pull equipment.

Western Maryland power with Chicago Metra cars... The engine was there first.

Timesaver rework done for now

I'm itching to get back to working on the town of Emsingen, so I'm leaving the Timesaver in the stable, operational state it is in right now.

Things I did over the last couple days:

• Added more feeders
• Reworked half of the tracks to allow more flexibility for automated running
• Added two more detection sections
• Ballasted all tracks
• Minor scenery work
• Tested tracks and engines

Here's what the Timesaver looks like at this time.

The one track on the switch side ballasted in brown has been this way since my last attempt at ballasting. At the time I had only HO size ballast, and it did look appropriately silly on N-scale track...

Electronics and ballast done ... almost

Up until now I kept the electronics (USB interface, AIU, BD20) loosely connected in a cardboard box near the Timesaver. Now everything is neatly tucked away under the layout. I'm also using a longer multi-cable for 16V AC and track power, so the NCE faceplate doesn't need to sit in a somewhat awkward corner under the layout board.
The Switchpilot is intended for computer control of the lone turnout in the corner. We'll see how well that works out. I had so much trouble with these units on my home layout that I don't quite trust it yet.

The underside of the layout looks a bit more complicated than it really needs to be. I went a little bit overboard when I wired the turnout switches a couple years ago.

I added extra feeders, including the drops for the new detection zones. Left to do is wire up the second BD20 and test the Switchpilot.

I started ballasting track yesterday, and finished up that mess today. Ballasting can be a meditative experience, but today I just wasn't in the mood, and messed up the half-glued, carefully shaped ballast more than once. It didn't help that the glue didn't want to cooperate today, ... or maybe I was just too impatient.

End of the day

The unmodified half of the Timesaver is ballasted, and the other half has the new track installed.
Now the glue gets to dry until tomorrow.

What's the point of the turnout in the far corner of the segment you ask? - In the office it connects to track that runs across and around my desk. Take a look at the video.

Modifying the Timesaver

The office layout supports automated running. I want to be able to have two trains take turns on the single track section. That requires slight changes to the Timesaver side of the track. While at it, I'm fixing up minor issues with the existing tracks.

Tracks removed

Most replacement tracks are cut and the extra roadbed is glued down.

Waiting for the glue to dry. Time to bring the kids to bed...

Fun at work