EX-RAIL Command Station Build 

Easiest way to go!

@@TomsTrainsandThings Sure looks that way! Looks like DFrobot is out of stock of the buck boards so I am taking a chance on an ebay one that looks similar. lol.

@@Trains-With-Shane Jus make sure you have the range to adjust. Some are up, some are down, some are both ways!

Great to hear!

@@TomsTrainsandThingsYes Sir and I sure will be checking in on your next videos Sir and Thank You for Sharing with us

Thanks Gerald. Had the display out on the bench, but totally forgot about adding it when I first drilled the holes. lol

Your welcome. I run exclusively on DCC-ex now. My Digitrax components are still under the layout but idle. So much more possibilities and the developers keep coming out with improvements.

Those old power supplies work great

Glad you enjoyed the sound fx. lol

The power supply I used in this video was recommended by one of the members of the Dev Team at DCC-EX.

@@TomsTrainsandThings Thanks again for putting this all together. I may have missed this in your breakdown of the wiring, but how are you breaking out the power from the power supply to the buck converters and the motor shield for the trains. I was able to power the buck converts to 5V and 9V output but I'm not sure how you were splitting the power for the buck converters and motor-shield as well as the Voltage you have your power supply set to.. I'm guessing it's a terminal strip or breakout board. I just want to make sure I understand how to wire this up before I fry anything. The other question I had is that none of my Arduino's have the VIN solder on the back of the board to break the connection, I'm not sure if I just need to bend the VIN pin from the Sensor Shield or Motor shield. I don't have a wifi shield since I went with an Arduino mega with wifi built in. The install was simple I just hit a bit of a roadblock with not knowing what to do about the VIN pin and want to make sure I'm powering this up properly.

@@kevinschroll4890 15 v from the power supply is on the input of both buckk converters, it's also jumpered to the motor shield . Outputs of the converters are 9v to mega, 5v to sensor shield. If your motor shield does not have a vin soldering pad on the bottom, chances are you do not have the correct motor shield. Send me an email since these stacked comments do not go to my icomments section they are hard to find

It's not very hard. You can find everything you need to know on the DCC-EX web site

Glad you enjoyed it

You are so welcome!

Thanks! Having a lot of fun with it!

Good to hear Frank!

You're welcome

Whatever it take and what we have on hand!

Thanks

That OLED screen sounds great. My next video will be the automation with servos and IR sensors. I have some dwarf signals that I may add also. On my main layout I have the same thing without the expansion board and display. I may add them later. That one is replacing my Digitrax system

Thanks Ken. It's posted on my web page. Approximately $126

Thank you

That is correct

Thanks for watching!

Thanks Kevin. Sure will!

Thanks John.

That is correct. I have two buck converters, one each for the 5v and 9v. The 15v is straight from the power supply to motor shield and inputs on the buck converters.

@@TomsTrainsandThings Hi Tom if there a diagram you have for this as im trying to work that part out as well as i can see you used the terminals and the VIN+ VIN- on the bucks and thought that might have overloaded it. as im intrested in this as i use them but didnt think you can use them in parallel like that. Ive tried freeze framing the videos on that side of things but dont think there is anytthing i can trace from the power in to them. any info would be great on that side of things.

Thank you

The Hub is for additional spaces to plug them into. They are already different addresses

The passive hub you see there is just a set of pins connected together parallel, i.e. a way of allowing multiple devices to be connected to one bus rather than chained to one another. A multiplexer will allow multiple I2C devices with the same address, and that's supported in the next version of DCC-EX (in preparation for release).

Too many irons in the fire! They are easy dcc-ex.com/index.html

Go for it. He'll love it!

Am I going to have to make a special Playlist For you?

@@TomsTrainsandThings I am not sure I can handle more than one of your videos at a time. (I thought this was the first in the series, you didn’t reference another intro video)

EX-RAIL is a feature of DCC -EX. They dropped the ++ a few weeks ago. It,s for automatic operation using simple code to operate the movement of locos, operate turnouts, signals and other lighting and fx.

@@TomsTrainsandThings so it’s like a DIY Motorman :) How much did it cost? Materials and Time?

About $125. Already had most of the items laying around from other projects. About four hrs to build. The longest part was setting up & drilling holes the mounting those little standoffs.

On my web page along with where to buy. Approx $126. Can be cheaper but I used an Arduino Motor Shield.

@@TomsTrainsandThings Very much within reason .... IF I were into DCC... I stay DC 'cause I am olde skool and cheap ... living on my Social Insecurity, you know... heheheheh

Nice thing being, IF I should decide to go minimal DCC my best friend here in town IS an electronics genius....