Reversing Circuit Miniatronics RU 2-1

[scott]

Just so I have this straight--the 5-stop unit sounds like it has five stops in addition to the two reversers at either end of the line--is that right?

 

How many stops and reversers does the cheaper unit have?

[Bernard]

Scott - I can answer for the RU1-1 Unit. It only has a autoreverse at each end. The tram slows down but really doesn't stop. If you check out my thread on the unit I believe I list where you can purchase it for about $37.00 plus shipping. Direct from the manufacturer, Miniatonics w/shipping it's about $60.00. The RU2-1 Unit from Miniatonics is about $110.00, that price includes shipping.

[cteno4]

Scott,

 

the RU 2-1 has two reversing circuits (one for each end) and up to 5 stop circuits (for pauses along the way).

 

you wire a sensor (photo resistor) into a circuit that you want active. when a sensor is activated that circuit trips and either causes stop - pause - reverse - start or stop - pause - start. if you are doing a reversing tram set up then you can use all, some, or none of the stop circuits.

 

you can double up sensors in the stop circuits by wiring two sensors in series into a circuit. this way either sensor will trip the circuit and thus you can push the unit up to 10 stops if you really want them. only caveat here is that if you wire two sensors in series you will need to have both of them in ok lighting (ie normal room light, not a dim hidden corner or something like that).

 

the stop also is not a hard stop, but a nice little deceleration and the start is a nice little acceleration, sort of like having a break and momentum feature on a throttle. you cant adjust the acc/decel rates though, but what is there seems good for slow tram speeds that you would run at and looks a lot better than most reversing units which are just power on / power off (can we see folks standing in your trams going from 0-40 mph in less than a second!).

 

i got the ru2-1 for $85 shipped from the engine tender. took a few weeks as he had to order it then ship it, but the only place i found with a discount under the $99 msrp. nice guy and didnt take cc info till he had the unit ready to ship.

 

http://www.enginetender.com/475m.htm

 

cheers

 

jeff

[David]

The topic is old but it's been linked to a couple of times recently so it caught my attention....

 

Any photos of the unit/sensors? I can't find any on the websites linked (unless I don't know where to look). Pictures would certainly help figuring out how one could go about mounting/placing the sensors and if they'd work with an existing diorama.

[Bernard]

Here is what the sensors look like and I have the RU1-1 and the link to the forum:

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,813.0.html

 

But I would spend the extra money and go with the RU2-1 that Jeff has because it can do multiple stops, the RU1-1 never stops just auto reverse.

[cteno4]

David,

 

yeah thats the problem with forums sometimes threads with good basic info can get buried! the ru21 is a nice little unit. gives you a lot of flexibiltiy for some simple automation in a pretty self contained unit. as Bernard showed the sensors are easy to pop into a layout, just small holes to put the leads and the sensor sits flat. you can even counter sink it a bit. the real beauty of this unit is it auto adjusts the sensor when you turn it on for the light level at each sensor location. all of the other units i have fiddled with required you to adjust the levels manually with a pot on the circuit board. bummer if the light in the room and or location changed!

 

the circuit board is simple. screw terminal sets for the input 12v wall wart and track power on one side. a screw terminal strip along the other side that has inputs for two reversing sensors and 5 pause sensors. in the picture i just have a few sensors wired straight onto the board here for testing. in the center there is a slide pot for your throttle. this is the only problem with the unit as its a bit akward from its location for mounting in some sort of project box. if you wire the terminal strips to some other sort of plug system it would ease this some.

 

all and all im really happy with the units. hope to have them all installed soon to the ttrak modules. also thinking about installing sensors in the kato unitram track sections as well. thats the beauty of this system, just get some extra sensors an you can plug it into any system. the unitram will be a bit more of a challenge as its thin, but think it shouldnt be too bad with some small gauge wire (dont need heavy wire for the sensors).

 

yell if you have questions!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[IST]

Hmm, interesting stuff.

I am wondering how could you hide the senzors in the Unitram baseboard. The idea is great, I can imagine that trams are running on the layout and the help with this unit stops and starts again. Would it be possible to make video about how it is working? Or could you mentioned any on Youtube or elsewhere. I haven't find any yet.

[cteno4]

dont have any sensors placed right now, just been testing with the sensors plugged into the unit (work on the new jrm layout sucked all my train time away lately). if i get some time this weekend ill shoot a little video of that. gives you the action of the brake and acceleration features in the unit. really is the best reversing/pausing system i have seen outside of really high end automation systems. simple and clean.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[underworld]

Looks very cool Jeff!!!    

 

 

 

[glow=lime,200,300000]underworld[/glow]

[katoftw]

bump - just a few questions.

 

has 2 reverse and 5 stops.  are the reverse sensors stop as well? ie get to end of line, stops for X amount of time and then reverses back?  to 7 stops really.

 

or do you need to put a stopper and reverser together?

 

also do all the sensors need to be in place?  or if you dont wire them in, then the board just ignores them?

 

thanks!

[cteno4]

Yep that's it, 2 reversing stops and five pause stops. If you don't wire one in its just ignored. Photo resistors are cheap on ebay as well or like a buck each from miniatonics.

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

Thanks Jeff.  Now just to find one to purchase.  It's good for us oz boys as the tranformer supports up to 240V.  Ebay has none, and all USA sellers/site dont ship to oz.

[cteno4]

did you try from minatronics site directly? they seem to allow foreign addresses in there! bit more expensive than from dealers but they might ship down under. unfortunately even a small packet with global priority (what you are stuck with except little stuff) will probably run $25-40 shipping. only way to get shipping reasonable down under is to bundle a bunch of stuff into one larger box.  

 

looks like internettrains.com has it for about 10% off and ships global priority plus $3 fee and insurance.

 

http://www.internettrains.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=IT&Product_Code=MNT-RU2-1

 

see if these guys will ship international, cheaper

 

http://www.modelrailcraft.com/product_p/475-ru21.htm

 

many shops are not doing it now as the customs form for merchandize is not fun to fill in. no longer the simple little one for most stuff now. the post also really looks over them now like you are up to something, use to be it was just slap on the little sticker form and go!

 

the ru 2-1 is a nice little controller, better than the three other ones ive installed for friends. has the most options and seems to behave the best and has its own power supply to boot.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[katoftw]

Yeah internet trains allows international orders.  i found them about 30 mintues ago when resercing circuitron AR1 and DT4.

 

Thanks again.

 

edit// Although their shipping is a little crazy 30% + $3.00USD

Edited May 8, 2014 by katoftw

[cteno4]

Sorry to say its looking like the RU2-1 is out of production... bummer...

 

it is something that could be done with adrino and is on the list of projects when i get time to begin fiddling in that arena. There really is nothing else I've seen as nice as it with its simplicity and robustness. Tomix controller is the next thing but bit more complicated in some respects. ru21 was so nice as just using very inexpensive sensors you could plug anywhere and then just replug wires to where you wanted stops or reverses.

 

i guess sort of end of thread...

 

jeff

Edited April 14, 2015 by cteno4

[katoftw]

I gave up on it as it was too expensive to acquire when other options were available.

[cteno4]

Other options are more expensive once you get it up to doing what the ru21 did and most others did not do the acceleration/deceleration that it does! Really unfortunate it's oop.

 

Jeff

[kvp]

It seems to me that now i should really get the time to do my arduino automatic train control tutorials. Or at least open a topic for it...

[cteno4]

KVP that would be nice! I keep putting off arduino until i have more time on my hands to really focus on it. i looked at the basic train control like the ru21 and it looked like it would not be a huge challenge. my first one though will be for the nano to just do random on and off of leds for buildings so they will change a little. also some marques and such. really is great that the arduino has come along to make pic programming and such much more approachable by the hobbyist!

 

jeff

[velotrain]

News of this being OOP sent me on a hunt to see if I could find one still in stock at a dealer.  Many of them were unaware that it was no longer available, and were still showing it on their sites.

 

I ordered one from Tony's Train Exchange, a large DCC-oriented shop in Vermont.  Yesterday afternoon the President of TTX sent me a message saying that it was discontinued.  I was later startled to receive a shipping notice and invoice.  It turns out they did have one in stock after all - perhaps the last one in captivity.  Score  ;-)

[velotrain]

Jeff - this might be a possible replacement:

 

http://rr-concepts.com/StationMaster/

 

Note that they mention block control, so this opens up the possibility of two trams running with tight radius return loops at the ends.

 

 

I also found this circuit, that may be of interest to Viktor.  

 

http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/AutoStop.html

 

 

[kvp]

Yes, the StationMaster module can be used for the same task. It's rather simple, but should work, but you'll need at least 2 of them to get the same functionality. (one for the middle stops, one for reversing) The designers decided to do less but do it better.

 

The auto stop system on the link is an analog solution. Interesting, but very hard to get right and the optical sensors are way too sensitive to be reliable. I hope to put together something more simple and reliable with much more functionality.