Simple DIY DCC command station with throttle

[Dani]

I wanted to have a simple DCC Command station that allows me just to read and write CV, and had a throttle to drive one locomotive. I have a test track next to the desk where I work in my DCC conversions and I don't want to be connecting and disconnecting my command station from the main layout. Also in the Club we miss an extra independent command station when we are in a train fair. It is a common thing that someone doesn't remember the address of a locomotive, or it needs to be adjusted to reduce the top speed or breaks so it can be managed in an automatic way.

 

But a new command station with a simple throttle is above our budget, so we decided to do it by our own using as basis the DCC++ project. Finally, the total cost was under 20€. Now we have a module that we connect in the operators side and allows us to read and write CV and adjust locomotive before putting them in automatic mode in the main layout.

 

We added a 4x20 characters display, a 4x5 matrix keypad, and a linear potentiometer to the existing DCC++ project. The basis of this project is an Arduino Mega and a motor shield. This is how it finally looks like:

 

 

Software can be downloaded from https://github.com/ClubNCaldes/DCCppProgrammer

 

And detailed instructions about how to connect the whole thing here: 

http://www.clubncaldes.com/2019/08/diy-simple-dcc-command-station-for-less.html

 

 

If you want, you can also manage it through Rocrail or JMRI connecting it via the USB connection with the standard DCC++ interface.

I hope you find it useful.

 

Cheers,

Dani

[stevenh]

This is so very nice 🙂 I hadn't even thought of using an Arduino as the brain.

I wish they'd been around when I was working with DCC 10+ years ago!

[Madsing]

Nice project. I need that! Thanks for sharing.

I tried to download the code but the link to the Github repository does not seem to work...

[Dani]

Ups, I didn't realize that the repository was set as private. Now you should be able to download it! 

 

Thanks, 

Dani