Author Topic: Speed matching loop?  (Read 2083 times)

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TiVoPrince

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Speed matching loop?
« on: November 28, 2010, 10:58:53 AM »
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Anybody
able to explain how JMRI speed matching with a loop of track and BDL168 works?  I can find a lot of hints but no step by step tutorial to follow.  Many posts refer to a clinic that I can't seem to locate.  Either I'm missing the point or there are some specific facts that I just can't find.  Scripts are still a little over my head so maybe I'm too much a newbie to be trying this...
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Ian MacMillan

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2010, 10:54:08 AM »
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I too was wondering. I know there is a file you can download and "run" but there are no instructions on how to set it up, what track distances you need and anything else.
I WANNA SEE THE BOAT MOVIE!

Yes... I'm in N... Also HO and 1:1

TiVoPrince

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2010, 01:57:46 PM »
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Okay
so I wasn't dreaming.  I was hoping to add a speed match 'station' to my regular January locomotive annual service program...
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John

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2010, 07:45:51 PM »
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There is a script - and a panel file available on the jmri yahoo group - depending on scale  use the unitrak specified before - hook the BDL168 up as stated below - then run the script in JMRI - the files are in the scrip examples folder


Quote
# Author: Phil Klein, Version 2.14 copyright 2010
#
#   Hardware tested with this script
#   Command Station - Digitrax DCS100, Digitrax Zypher
#   Train Detection - BDL168 (Board Address 1),Team Digital SIC24 with DBD22's
#   Computer Interface - MS100, Locobuffer II, PR3
#   
#   Track - 12 pieces of Kato N scale 19" Radius Unitrak
#   Track - 16 pieces of Kato HO scale 21 5/8" Radius Unitrak
#   I used one sensor for each piece of HO scale track
#   I used one sensor for every 2 pieces of N scale track
#   The HO & N tracks share sensors 1 - 12
#   HO Track also uses sensors 13 - 16

Ian MacMillan

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2010, 02:32:53 AM »
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Quote
#   Track - 12 pieces of Kato N scale 19" Radius Unitrak
#   I used one sensor for every 2 pieces of N scale track
#   The HO & N tracks share sensors 1 - 12

Wouldn't you then only need 6 sensors?

I WANNA SEE THE BOAT MOVIE!

Yes... I'm in N... Also HO and 1:1

TiVoPrince

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2010, 09:41:44 AM »
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Wouldn't you then only need 6 sensors?



Introducing
logic at his point will only confuse me further. 

Guess I need to join the Yahoo! group and buy some specfic radius unitrak.  I had hoped to reuse the winter holiday shopping season decorative fir tree base for my loops, but it looks like I need to be open to what is proven to work.  Because you can always pick out the pioneers, they have all those pesky arrows in thier backs.  Then again, it looks like the loops could co-exist on a baseboard (using 40' cars and short locos) so next year it may be a 'bi-scale' wonderland...
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up1950s

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Richie Dost

Ian MacMillan

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2010, 02:17:01 PM »
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Ah hell its so much easier with Train Controller...I just tell it the 3 sensors I want, and the distance of each and it figures it out for me.  ::)
I WANNA SEE THE BOAT MOVIE!

Yes... I'm in N... Also HO and 1:1

Day One

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Re: Speed matching loop?
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2010, 06:07:47 PM »
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Having just gone through building one of these I've got a few insights.
The nice thing about using Unitrack is that you have nearly perfectly matched segment lengths. Those segments are easily insulated for building detection blocks too. They are also fairly short segments.  Long enough that a loco will fit inside the block but not so long that it's going to take a long time for the loco to pass through the block and add to the time it takes for the script to complete. I built mine using the 11 3/8 radius track. This gave me 8 segments detected and so far the script takes between 22-25 min to complete per loco. If you have longer blocks, it's going to take longer for this script to finish because it is just waiting for the loco to move between the detection sections. If I had it to do again, I'd probably stick with the 19" radius track and use all 12 detection segments.

You can use any radius track you like though. The script has lengths listed for what Phil and others have used but you can easily add your own. This is what I had to do. It's just a mater of calculating the length of the detection segment in scale feet and adding it to the script file. View and edit the script file as a .txt file and then save it to the Program Files>JMRI>jython directory as a .py file. To run the script, open DecoderPro and choose Penels>Run Script and select the script to run.

When I get mine up and running successfully, I plan on doing a full write up on it.