As the layout becomes more complete from a technical perspective my attention is turning more to the scenery. #modelrail #modelrailway #modeltrains #modeltrainlayout
I hope you don't cease "messing with wires" as I found your videos about that to be entertaining and instructive. That said, I did learn an important lesson from this episode: I need to find a friend with a laser cutter.
Thank you, that's a lovely message. I think i often assume that those wires videos are geeky and boring. I have one on the block detection work i did for the upper deck that i never published, but i will now! Thank you! And absolutely yes, i totally recommend friends with laser cutters 🤣. Regards, Chris
this has made a massive difference to the look of it, even just the grey for the road but can really visualise all this now, laser cut MDF can be a bit flat, thats been done nicely so it isn't. also, you have inspired me to actually get a shift on with my own layout, so a mix of thanks and cursing for that :)
Thank you, yes, a lot of thought has gone in to the design of these components and they transformed the layout straight away, I've been painting them tonight and they've really come to life. And he, yeah, i get that, or dominates your life if you let it, good luck with that 🤣. Regards, Chris
The ideas are coming along nicely there. I think I built my layout the other way around - only through lack of knowledge. Scenery first, automation second. Got my first block detection sensor linked to JMRI via an arduino this week so going to build on that. Simple silly questions, are your sensors installed closer to the arduino or the track section and if they have no screw holes, how do you fix them to your baseboard?
Thank you, there are no silly questions! You mean the IR sensors? I have shift in registers and 5v power supply pins close to them, then the shift in registers run to the Arduino. To fix them in, I chop a square off, say a 4cmx4cm batten, then put a screw that's, say 5cm long, through the middle of the block but only half in. Then screw the sensor to it so that the bulbs stick up above the block. Then line it up to the hole, bulbs through the hole towards the track, main screw head facing down, and when it's all lined up, screw the screw into the baseboard to hold it in place. Not sure I described that all that well, I'll do a bit on it in the next video! Regards, Chris
