Managing a KATO Switch Control System

[Abushoni]

Greetings,

 

A scaling newbie alert. 

 

As I moved from the build & destroy oval of the living room table to my new train room , my model scaled to 7 different lines with intersections and connections as well as a switching yard. this naturally entails lots of switch controls (I use DC only with KATO Unitrack). As I run several trains on the same loop, moving trains from line to line, having more than 4 trains run in parallel and other "live on the edge" train activities, I find it cumbersome and slow to handle the switches in real time. 

 

I had a thought to create a pattern based management system in which I will be able to input (with an iPad or web app) the line I want open and then the system will provide a pattern of switches I need to keep open. Something reminiscent of binary words in computer science. You can see an abstract image below of the concept. 

 

My questions to the knowledgable forum are:

1) Is there a known software kit\open system I can use to build such a thing ? I guess I am not the first or 100th person to think about this idea. 

2) Is there any other technique I can use to control 15 switches without messing with electronics, diods, dismantling the switches etc (I am not there yet in the hobby maturity) ?

 

Any help will be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Abushoni

[cteno4]

Abushoni,

 

on the first thing, I’ve not seen anything on a programming system out there for this sort of switching patterns. On our first club show layout we had about 15 points wired and we did create some switch pattern diagrams like that to do the dozen or so main running paths we had if folks wanted to use them instead of looking up point numbers on the track diagram. Seemed to work for some. We just made them by had and it was in an excel spreadsheet with filled or blank cells. I’ve not seen any sort of systems to create track diagrams for control panels and such. I messed with some ideas for our big layouts but in the end wasn’t worth the trouble as much as just simple printouts of the layout lines from xtrakcad with no labels except big numbered dots on points.

 

On the second using DCC switch control systems would allow this sort of point control thru software like JMRI. There you can do track plans and do stuff on an iPad by just touching points in a diagram. There is also the BCD capacitor discharge system to throw points with the ultimate power pop. These are controlled by a simple spdt switches and uses the back feed pulse when power is routed to a reverse of a cap polarity. Ingenious and simple and works well and is very cheap for a simple put micro spdt switches in the usual track plan control board. BCD definitely throw Kato points better than Kato controller boxes do as they are a mechanical swipe for the pulse that can vary a lot and sometimes not fire hard enough or at times fire to hard and you can get bounce back of the point. You can control the bcd discharge with relays which you could control from DCC or arduino shields as well. These originator had some old mechanical relay systems to trip the correct path on a yard latter or to reset points and LEDs on a system with power up as well. Give it a look. I’ve never tried to use bcd past straight switch control myself.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[inobu]

What your are wanting to do is called Routes. Routes are paths dictating which and how switches should be positioned. 

Like Jeff said you will need a computer based software to handle the switching.

 

Trying to control 15 switches without "messing" with electronics isn't likely. 

 

Here's what you are basically looking at.

 

The DS74 will throw the switches based on the Routes you setup.

The Loconet (Blue wire) is the communication link to the Computer

The PR4 is the Interface to the Computer via USB

JMRI is the Software that runs everything.

 

 

 

[Little-Kinder]

Not exactly what you are looking for, but a place where i go to run my trains has some schematics with the path and which switches you need to set up to get this path, really convenient imo

All switches being numbered it's no that hard

Edited February 4 by Little-Kinder

[Anvalo]

Hi Abushoni,

 

What ever way you like to go, just keep in mind that you can't throw multiple turnouts at the same time unless you have a beefy power supply.

 

You could keep things very simple and work with routes.

Each route has its own colour.

By using some small coloured stickers on top of bottom the switches you can mark the right position for each switch for every route.

Let's say you choose the red route you only have to flick the switches marked with red stickers up or down.

 

I know this is not what you asked for but i like to share this anyway.

Personally i would use an Arduino Mega and a 8 or 16 channel relay bord (these are dirt cheap) and a CDU (capacitor discharge unit) like Jeff mentioned.

Then use DCC-EX / EX-RAIL to "program" the Arduino and then you can throw multiple turnouts by pressing a single switch or by using the Engine Driver app.

This looks complicated to build but it's really not that difficult.

 

André

[Abushoni]

Thank you all. 

 

I guess I'll start with the simple solutions and will see how it goes.

 

Having more sophisticated options is part of the fun for me to see the potential growth in the future and keep my interest.

 

Thanks,

 

Abushoni