Following on from my mention of MERG in my Workbench thread, I will split that topic out here so we can give it the attention it requires
Starting off with ne of my DCC setups. This is my basic home version that I made portable. It did include a 5A booster as built but that has been replaced by a 10A version while I built a booster for someone else (you never know when a whole yard of Heljan sound fitted locos might appear at our local club)
I also built larger setup for one of the OO gauge layouts that I work on at the club. It does include more District cutouts DCO as it's split up into three bus bars and the DCO's mean that if a short occurs on one circuit the rest of the layout still runs. Very advantageous at exhibitions so I am told
So working around from top right and around to top left
CANUSB4 which is the USB computer interface
CANCMD the main DCC board
Booster 5A or 10A depending on some resistor changes as you build it
District Cut Out DCO can be set at 1.5A or 3A for current limiting
Raspberry Pi 3B running Raspian/JMRI and acting as a wireless access point
Control is by phone of your choice Windows/Android/Apple using Engine Driver/IThrottle. A screen can be plugged into the RPi and used along with the Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad which is included in the setup
I used the RPi3b as it comes with WiFi built in. A bit of reconfiguration and that can be turned into a Wireless access point. Other people use a separate WiFi system but this saves yet another component. I have plugged the RPi into my home network at one stage and used the WiFi that is already there, which is another option
A further alternative is to plug the CANUSB4 directly into a laptop running JMRI and then you have the full KVM setup It also saves the cost of a RPi
I quite often run the system headless as I have also configured the JMRI to load on boot so you just plug it in, wait a bit and connect the phone. Some will castigate me for this but I just take the power away to shut it all down. I wouldn't do that if it was running Windows, but Linux is a bit more resilient and if it does corrupt I can just restore the image
Ah another thing I considered was security. Putting a password on the WiFi means that no one else takes control of your layout especially at exhibitions
So for me it fits with how I see a setup like this working and it fits in with my learnings on spending now I live in Yorkshire
I did start off with an NCE PowerCab, but didn't fancy paying out another £150 to get the 5A booster. Adding another handset by someone else spending their Dosh added another £150. See learning Yorkshire
This whole lot is about £200 all in and if you want another handset get out that redundant phone from the drawer. It's great for use at the club as any visitors that turn up you can set their phone up for a running session. If you are paranoid you can change the password after they have gone
Next edition will be digging into CBUS and the boards on offer. Add any questions on the above and I can go through them as well
Starting off with ne of my DCC setups. This is my basic home version that I made portable. It did include a 5A booster as built but that has been replaced by a 10A version while I built a booster for someone else (you never know when a whole yard of Heljan sound fitted locos might appear at our local club)
I also built larger setup for one of the OO gauge layouts that I work on at the club. It does include more District cutouts DCO as it's split up into three bus bars and the DCO's mean that if a short occurs on one circuit the rest of the layout still runs. Very advantageous at exhibitions so I am told
So working around from top right and around to top left
CANUSB4 which is the USB computer interface
CANCMD the main DCC board
Booster 5A or 10A depending on some resistor changes as you build it
District Cut Out DCO can be set at 1.5A or 3A for current limiting
Raspberry Pi 3B running Raspian/JMRI and acting as a wireless access point
Control is by phone of your choice Windows/Android/Apple using Engine Driver/IThrottle. A screen can be plugged into the RPi and used along with the Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad which is included in the setup
I used the RPi3b as it comes with WiFi built in. A bit of reconfiguration and that can be turned into a Wireless access point. Other people use a separate WiFi system but this saves yet another component. I have plugged the RPi into my home network at one stage and used the WiFi that is already there, which is another option
A further alternative is to plug the CANUSB4 directly into a laptop running JMRI and then you have the full KVM setup It also saves the cost of a RPi
I quite often run the system headless as I have also configured the JMRI to load on boot so you just plug it in, wait a bit and connect the phone. Some will castigate me for this but I just take the power away to shut it all down. I wouldn't do that if it was running Windows, but Linux is a bit more resilient and if it does corrupt I can just restore the image
Ah another thing I considered was security. Putting a password on the WiFi means that no one else takes control of your layout especially at exhibitions
So for me it fits with how I see a setup like this working and it fits in with my learnings on spending now I live in Yorkshire
I did start off with an NCE PowerCab, but didn't fancy paying out another £150 to get the 5A booster. Adding another handset by someone else spending their Dosh added another £150. See learning Yorkshire
This whole lot is about £200 all in and if you want another handset get out that redundant phone from the drawer. It's great for use at the club as any visitors that turn up you can set their phone up for a running session. If you are paranoid you can change the password after they have gone
Next edition will be digging into CBUS and the boards on offer. Add any questions on the above and I can go through them as well