Keep on rocking Elliot!!! Just awesome.
Scrapiron Scher posted:Are you going to have just operating sessions? How many operators? Eeeeyiiiii !
Eliot
I was wondering the same. I'd make the trip! Keep up the great work and thanks for the frequent updates. I have two revisions of Bruce Chubbs' CMRI books and may one day attempt it myself, although on a much smaller scale than yours! Thanks.
Very cool pictures
Thanks for the update Elliot. I look forward to your updates. This is my favorite thread on the Forum. 
Another great update. Happy to hear you took the high road with the museum, I'm sure you're the better for it. That helix is one beautiful piece. Too bad it wouldn't fit in my space, much less anything to go with it. 
Even if I had your space, I couldn't afford to fill it, so I live vicariously through you. As I get ready to embark on building my small layout soon, I wish I had your abilities. I'm in a learn as I go stage, so I'm expecting to make some mistakes along the way, but I know there's always someone here to help if I need it. Already looking forward to the next update.
Thanks guys!
Jim - Looking back, I wrote a really long response to Eliot's post, but I missed that part at the end. The short answer is, I see it as being mostly operating sessions, with some personal run time in between. A full crew would be maybe as many as 15 people. I have 9 cab-1's, and am starting to pick up LC+ engines. There will be up to 2 dispatcher positions as well. Regarding CMRI, most of the hardware was built for me long ago. I understand the theory, but connecting it up and making it work again will be a totally new experience.
Pat - I know there are a number of members that count on seeing these updates. I take a great amount of pride in bringing them to you on time every month. Yesterday I had to pull the trigger a little early, as we had late dinner plans and didn't get home until almost 2AM.
Dave - It felt really good to be back at the club, almost like old times. Building my own large layout, I didn't think I needed the extra work, but there is something special about being a part of something larger than yourself. My layout only plays to my fellow hobbyists here, the museum plays to the general public, and that is something special. At one point, I thought you were planning a trip up this way. Now I would suggest you try to wait until the museum reopens.
My mind is thoroughly blown. I seriously mean no offense by this but until now I had no idea you were capable of thinking of others
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Elliot,
Your monthly update as well is always appreciated in case I miss something along the way. One would think Matt would know you better by now.
Yes Matt, I can be full of surprises. I'm not as one dimensional as you may have thought. 
Very true Mark, I think this clip says it all.
Elliot, I plan to be in the area sometime in late Aug or early Sep. We are going to Maine and have to be in Halifax NS on Aug 6-13. Then we'll head to the Green Bay area for a couple of weeks or so followed by a couple of nights near Barnes WI. From there it's back here and we'll pass through the Twin Cities or maybe even spend a couple of nights in East Bethel. I see the new Transfer Rd address on their website, so we'll check to see if they'll be open when we come through.
Cool stuff yet again !
Ah, updates from Elliot and Chris' Postwar layout pics on the Weekend Photo fun. Doesn't get any better.
Elliot, made some more bases for the block signal with the 3-d printer. If your not in a hurry I can make your 50 for you. I can do six at a time overnight should take about 16 hours per set. I need to make some stuff for my layout first.I'm going to get the block signal heads from China also and I made these bases for a 1/8 inch brass pole. I'm making two light blocks with two battery boxes and dwarf signals with one battery box. Let me know. Don
jrnyfilms@comcast.net
Elliot,
I am awestruck by the size of the layout, and enjoy reading all of your layout updates. What a great layout!
Nick
hot dog its the end of the month! time to hopefully read another good update of progress made by Elliot for the month of april.............
Elliot,
I like to see the Signals your talking about . Any picture yet ?
Good luck, John
Very cool Layout Elliot. 
Your basement looks just like mine, except it's about four or five times bigger.
Howdy gang! I see a few of you were chomping at the bit today, excited for the April update. I hope not to disappoint, but this hasn't been one of my most active months.
As I said last summer, I volunteered to be the layout tour coordinator for the local NMRA division. A bunch of my time at the beginning of the month was spent finalizing details for today's tour. It looked like we had a pretty good batch of people making the rounds, in spite of going up against an event at Union Depot in St Paul. I don't think it is possible to get a totally open weekend in the train world around here anymore. I'll probably have to start working on the fall tour in June.
Some of my time was spent over at the TCMRM again, as they prepare to reopen on a limited basis on May 14th. The schedule will be Saturdays and Sundays through the summer, with the grand reopening in early fall. I expect to stay involved with them going forward, albeit on a more limited basis.
And then there was life: doctors visits, hockey games, oil changes, dinners with friends, all combining to take up layout time. In spite of all that I still managed to make some progress.
April saw me go off in a new direction, and really dig into the layout signal system. As I have mentioned before, I will be using C/MRI (Computer Model Railroad Interface) to control various aspects of the mainlines, turnouts, detection and signals.
It started off with a little project that I had been wanting to do for a few years now, namely modifying some Lionel 450 signal bridges. Once again, I gave this project its own topic. You can read about it and see all the pictures HERE.
I spent a bunch of money ordering parts for the signal system from a variety of sources. I ordered a 1000 METER spool of very fine wire, once again starting a topic about how small is too small to run LED's. Here's that topic. BTW, I did find a wire stripper out in the garage that works on that stuff.
Finally, I ordered the last of the C/MRI boards that I needed from Chubb. Of course, those are just raw PC boards. I spent 4 hours online locating and ordering all the components to populate them, from 3 different suppliers.
What you are looking at here is Chubb's Searchlight Signal Driver card or SSD for short. Each card can drive 12 bi-color LED's using two output bits to produce 4 aspects, 0=dark, 1=red, 2=green and 3=yellow. In order to do the entire layout I need about 16 of these cards, but I bought a couple spares for a total of 216 possible LED's. Unfortunately, due to neuropathy in my hands it is very difficult for me to deal with the small 4-40 screws and nuts. But, this provides a perfect opportunity to get Mrs Big Boy involved. She gets them threaded and screwed down tight, then I do the soldering. Good division of labor, I'll have her stuff the components too.
The drawers with the masking tape labels, represent most of the components need to assemble all these circuits.
Many of the components were sent on a tape strip, and had to be cut free. These are the last of them, but there are a couple other items that will need special handling.
This board has all its terminal nuts soldered on. That's 52 of them on each of the 18 boards. So far I have 4 done. Somehow I see where a chunk of May is going.
The very first component soldered in place. I'm anxious to complete and test one circuit before going into mass production. What looks like a funny resistor, actually isn't. The single black band stands for zero ohms. It's a jumper.
May should be much quieter in terms of distractions. Yellow over green! Prepare to switch tracks and increase speed.
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holy macedonia's that's a lot of boards to make up guess no time for fun LOL
For that volume, I'd have done a PCB layout and sent them out to an assembly house.
Elliot,
1) Your big helix looks less like a helix and more like a nuclear power plant cooling tower.
2) I thought I had a fairly good handle on how to build a layout, but after reading your updates I think I am a "Know-nothing."
3) I used to read Mac magazines to keep up with technological developments in the computer world and to get more functionality out of my computers. The magazine got to a point where I didn't understand what the software did nor the terms they were using. Your updates now show electronics I have no clue about. CMRI, detection boards, camera controlled staging yards . . . I've been left in the dust. Holy Caboose.
4) I think you will need a squadron of committees to do your scenery. Roger Farkash could work there for ten years and not finish it.
5) Speechless
Eliot
so I must ask what is the motivation for having such a large layout. just asking.. and is building it the best part .
Good morning guys!
Ray - Yeah, we're going to be at this for a while. We'll just keep chipping away at it. Once we get into production, it shouldn't be too bad. The worst part is soldering those nuts on. They take a while to get enough heat on them.
John - There was an option to have them built and tested. In hindsight it might have been worth it, but I'm committed now. Each circuit consists of 14 resistors, 5 diodes, 2 caps, a trim pot and a 14 pin dip socket. I have a nice table in the basement where we can set up production. Flip on the TV and let it rip.
Eliot - I know this must seem highly complex and confusing, especially if you aren't used to it. I have an excellent set of instructions to follow for the assembly of these boards. Next month, I'll have some completed, and you'll be able to see what they do. It will be a while before the field installation begins. With this purchase, I now have all the C/MRI and signaling components in house, it's just a matter of putting it all together. Hang in there, I'll take this in steps, and it should become clearer and less intimidating. Keep in mind, you don't have to understand exactly how the circuit works in order to build and use it. Anyone can do this, you just have to WANT TO.
B+M fan - I think there are a couple of factors involved in that decision. One is based on my personal history, having a 2000 square foot space at Mall of America back in the early 90's. When that layout was torn down, I had a lot of material salvaged from it. So when I built my current house, I wanted the same amount of space. I also wanted to do a prototypical style layout with a very long mainline, so I could try my hand at computer controlled automation. I do like the construction aspect of the hobby. These days I hardly ever run the trains. That should change soon, but there are some bugs to work out.
appreciate the response and do enjoy the updates.
B+M FAN posted:appreciate the response and do enjoy the updates.
You're welcome, I do this every month, and I try to answer every question.
I've been downstairs working on this stuff, and assembled the first circuit. It works, sort of. It runs off 12VDC.
All the colors look better in person. The camera doesn't really capture the depth. We have red!
We have green!
We even have yellow!
What we don't have is dark. When neither input is activated, there should be no light, but I'm getting a weak green. I'll ask the C/MRI users group over on Yahoo. In the meantime, I think I ready to go into production.
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Got a chuckle when I spotted the resistor tray marked 0 ohm. D***ed if I didn't laugh again after seeing the actual thing. It's no wonder electricity baffles the majority of people. 
Bruce
brwebster posted:Got a chuckle when I spotted the resistor tray marked 0 ohm. D***ed if I didn't laugh again after seeing the actual thing. It's no wonder electricity baffles the majority of people.
Bruce
Fortunately Bruce, they don't charge by the ohm. They're still a penny a piece, but so are the 100K's. 
Big_Boy_4005 posted:What we don't have is dark. When neither input is activated, there should be no light, but I'm getting a weak green. I'll ask the C/MRI users group over on Yahoo. In the meantime, I think I ready to go into production.
It may be as simple as adding a resistor across the LED to swamp out the leakage current, see if a 1K across it solves the issue.
I can give that a shot John, but this circuit should have taken that stuff into account. There are already a dozen resistors in the circuit. Would dropping the voltage make a difference?
Hard to say Elliot, I haven't taken the time to do a detailed analysis of the circuit. Truthfully, that's not the way I'd have approached a fairly simple signal circuit. Mine would have four or five components and an 8 pin PIC processor I expect.
I hear you John, and while this thing may be a little component heavy, it is a convenient format. Come to think of it, this card has a copyright date of 2000, so there is probably a better way to do it with a newer chip. I've made my bed here...
In truth, I don't need a dark aspect, but it would be nice to have it working as intended. I was mildly impressed with my assembly skills on this. I only made one mistake, which I caught and corrected right away. My eyesight caused me to mistake the 8 for a 6 when doing the resistors. Won't do that again.
Hi Elliot,
Do you have a schematic you could share with us? Are all four OP Amps of the LM324N used by each LED driver circuit? Just curious.
Anyway, THANK YOU for the update - they (your updates) always are very interesting and educational.
Alex
Thanks Alex, each circuit has just the one chip, but all the pins are involved in its operation. Here's all the documentation from Chubb's website, 8 page PDF.
You don't need to use C/MRI to use this card, you just need outputs that produce a ground signal, to activate the card's inputs.
Big_Boy_4005 posted:Thanks Alex, each circuit has just the one chip, but all the pins are involved in its operation. Here's all the documentation from Chubb's website, 8 page PDF.
You don't need to use C/MRI to use this card, you just need outputs that produce a ground signal, to activate the card's inputs.
G'day Elliot
Mate its been awhile.
I've enjoyed your posts and the progress of your layout... Keep up the good work.
Also, if you can, please continue to post you're video's on YouTube, I understand you have much going on but they're great to watch.
Inspirational mate...
I don't think I have to this date posted a reply on your topics as I feel I'm way out of everyone league here, but I do read them.
This circle of friends you have around you have a vast wealth of knowledge and experience and I do enjoy reading their expertise on certain matters in this wonderful hobby we share.
To one and all
Cheers from down under
Al
Thanks Al, sorry it took so long to spot your post, but I haven't been spending a lot of time on the forum lately, and I missed it. Yes, the guys here are an invaluable resource, and keep me out of trouble in areas where my knowledge and expertise are lacking.
May was all about signals again, with two related projects. First I got my wife involved with the board assembly. She is no stranger to this process, as stuffing components was what she did at her last paying job. while she was doing that, I spent much of the month with the soldering iron in my hand.
This stack represents just half of the 18 total boards to be assembled.
There are still a few components left to be added. This batch should be done in early June.
The other project was scratch building signals to go on those modified 450 signal bridges I made last month. Let me run you through the process.
I started by making a jig to hold the targets in the proper position, by drilling 3 holes in a scrap of wood.
The mast is a piece of 1/8" brass tube. It is super glued to the targets.
Using the Dremel with a cutoff wheel, the tube is notched to make a hole for the wires.
Using a dental pick, the brass flash is cleared so the wires can be threaded through smoothly. The leads on the LED's are trimmed closely and they are tacked in place with more super glue.
32 gauge wires are soldered to each LED and threaded through the mast.
A bunch of the completed units.
The masts are then super glued to the bridge.
The wires are then threaded through the bridge.
I used liquid tape to keep the bundles of wire together.
Here we see the nearly completed bridge.
These are Arduino connector plugs and sockets. The LED wires will be soldered to the plugs, and the sockets will be wired to the outputs of the circuit boards.
Here are the individual male plugs.
Here are the finished bridges in their approximate positions on the layout.
They still need a little paint to complete the look.
Other than my wife, there will be no outside help for the foreseeable future. I did meet up with Patrick a couple weeks ago in order to give him his trains. He wants to come down and help, but his job keeps him too busy to get away. Joe finds himself in a similar situation these days. There are plenty of small projects to work on.
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Did you remember to plug the vacuum back in after you used the drill press?
Matt, I didn't use the drill press to make that jig, just a hand drill. But I always remember to plug the vacuum back in when I do. As a matter of fact, the last person to use it was you, in September.
Hey Elliot,
Always impressive! What signal bridge structure are you using? (Lionel?) and or did you make them?
Thanks George, those are Lionel 450's, but they were modified to span 3 tracks. I basically took 3 of them and made 2 triples.
