JNSF DIY Lighting with in-built DCC function decoder project

[Keith]

Hi,

just wanted to say the conversation is fascinating. I had no idea things had progressed so much over my 20 year hiatus from the hobby. Thank you for discussing it openly, I am learning a lot.

 

keith

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

That would definitely make it a lot easier, and you won't need to add a header and traces on the board for programming it. That does mean that everyone who wants these boards and program/upgrade them will need one of these, but since they're only around $10, that seems like a good investment.

 

I remember when I first worked with programming PICs, you had like only a handful of (really expensive) hardware to program the PICs, but these days it's really hard to find what you need just for some simple programming. I do think the Microchip Technologies PicKit 3 (or one of its cheaper clones) is a good option for an all purpose programmer at least. There's also a newer version, but apparently it doesn't support some of the older, but still often used PICs.

 

 

I am thinking of ordering a few chips of each sort in the schematic you posted and seeing if i can tie it in to the light circuit.   I have the V2 light circuit set up on a breadboard so will set up a decoder in a breadboard as well.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by chadbag

[Martijn Meerts]

Been thinking of ordering some bits and pieces as well, including a PicKit .. However, I've spent a bit much on train related stuff the past month, and there's a few coach sets coming out the upcoming months, so I need to be a bit careful..

 

And I just paid for my new roof, which was 10k euro ...

 

[chadbag]

7 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

Been thinking of ordering some bits and pieces as well, including a PicKit .. However, I've spent a bit much on train related stuff the past month, and there's a few coach sets coming out the upcoming months, so I need to be a bit careful..

 

I'll take one for the team.  I am under a moratorium on new trains stuff (Except the ICE4 pre-order) but can order a few chips and a $20 programmer so that we make progress.  I'd like to get it tested and laid out as this is the version of the light board I'd most like to build for myself if it works out easily 🙂   Luckily the chips needed are only a few $ for a few of each and the programmers are inexpensive.

 

7 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

 

And I just paid for my new roof, which was 10k euro ...

 

Ouch.  Yeah, that is a lot.  We are planning on building a house next year and are starting work on designs, arranging things, etc.  Roofs are one thing I was looking at recently.  Looking at Zinc.

[Martijn Meerts]

Yeah, fairly cheap to get started with programming your own PICs these days really, can just be a bit confusing at times 🙂

 

My roof is just simple roof tiles, nothing special. But that 10k also included removing the old ones, placing the new ones, fixing a window and cleaning up. And it was necessary since the old ones were disintegrating and had started leaking a little. No fun having your train collection wasted due to a leaky roof. 

[chadbag]

I ordered a Pickit 3 clone programmer, and a SOP8 to DIP8 adapter and a cheap clip, and a small number of the SOP8 format PIC chips as well as a small number of all the other components necessary for the raw DCC decoder.  Once I have everything I will try to breadboard the decoder and get it working.  Then I will breadboard it together with the lights and get that working.

[chadbag]

On 4/8/2019 at 10:08 AM, Martijn Meerts said:

My roof is just simple roof tiles, nothing special. But that 10k also included removing the old ones, placing the new ones, fixing a window and cleaning up. And it was necessary since the old ones were disintegrating and had started leaking a little. No fun having your train collection wasted due to a leaky roof. 

 

We are looking at building a house next year and I've been looking at roofs.  They are not cheap.  I am looking at Zinc as a roof material.  As my train room will be in the "bonus room" above the garage, I agree with you, no fun having it leak on the train collection!

[Martijn Meerts]

Will be interested to see if the custom decoder will work, I'd definitely be needing a whole lot of lighting boards if it all works and remains at a reasonable price. I also received those brass cups that you can install in coaches for power pickup. I haven't tried installing them yet though. They're actually really small, and will be fun to solder wires on. I ordered 4 with wires pre-soldered just to see how they do it, and another 20 without wires, as well as the set of drills to create the holes for the cups.

 

Might give it a go this weekend, depending a bit on whether or not I feel up to trying to fix my GS4 (again), and I'll likely work a little more on my H0j locomotive kit.