stan2004 posted:I'm not sure that's what Barry had in mind but I figure he was proposing the DCSRC in addition to the existing passive-mode TIU which you'd obviously need to control your engines.
That's the only way I could see it working, and I can't see having another box in the picture when I have one that is perfectly capable of generating a watchdog. 
stan2004 posted:Anyway, I guess simplicity wins out. I was thinking it could be done with a bunch of capacitors to detect a change in the switch position and a 555-timer chip to detach the relay for a couple seconds to cycle power to the passive TIU. But during this interval the lighted bumper would turn off which could be confusing to the casual user if the lighted bumper is the only indicator of the active siding.
I think in this case, I'll go with simplicity. If they can't live with turning off the sidings when starting up a DCS locomotive, they'll have to add it while it's idling on the tracks. 
JohnGaltLine posted:As always, I'm here to save the day with more complex solutions!
We could debate the "saving the day" part...
JohnGaltLine posted:As always, I'm here to save the day with more complex solutions! How about that relay board- arduino combo from the other thread? I'm unsure of your exact set-up, but if it would be useful to ever have more than one of the side tracks turned on at the same time, I would go with the remote commander to produce a watchdog signal. In either case, one relay on the board can be used to turn on and off the remote commander, or input to the TIU, and the rest to supply power to the sidings.
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Yikes! Introducing that much extra work isn't in my game plan! You obviously missed my signature line! 
Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.
JohnGaltLine posted:As a side note, perhaps those that can bend the right ears at MTH might consider suggesting a firmware update that would allow some signal to be sent in on the serial port that tells the TIU to send out a watchdog signal. Perhaps even as an add-on box that plugs into the TIU and has an input side so that whenever the input is turned off then on again the TIU would broadcast the watchdog. this would solve everyone's problems with switched sidings, and I'm somewhat surprised that some method for users to trigger a watchdog without reseting a channel was not added years ago.
Can't argue that would be useful for a lot of folks, but I don't see it happening any time soon. Maybe this is a product idea. 
