Model Train controller - revisited

[malc-c]

Don't you juts love bablefish !

Regulator for railway model making
Ci to be downloaded: 32 MODFERCI.zip

If it is a field where electronics contributes an interesting share, it is well in model making. To our readers amateurs of railway circuits, we propose the realization of this regulator intended for the piloting of the machines of traction.



Extract of L’article page 32 of the Practical number 316’D Electronic:

We deliberately chose an operation close to reality. The rise to power as well as deceleration are extremely progressive by the placement of fifteen stages visualized by two-tone leds. The inversion of the direction of walk can be carried out only one time the stopped convoy. Lastly, this control panel also comprises a button of emergency braking...

Oh well.... just goes to show how good my concept was...

[malc-c]

Well to finally put this one to bed, I've found that in the real world the practical aspect of using the PIC in this environment, is not without issues. The main problem has been with the reliability of the PIC. Whilst the control at slow speed can't really be beaten even with commercial controllers, the PIC often falls over and stops generating the PWM signals and requires the power to be disconnected and re-connected. I'm not sure what causes this, but would suspect that its something to do with the noise that model railways generate, or the back emf or something.

The concept was great, I've gained a lot of information and found some nice new usefull routines and had fun playing with these circuits and code

how's that saying go... back to the drawing board