0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Hi Everyone,I added some new important features this time, the first being that on the bottom of the board underneath each section there is a solder jumper that allows you to select operation with a common anode or a common cathode system. So your system will work our PCB, even if it is the atlas system or whatever oddball system you may have.The second major change is the addition of 3 head drivers to the board. Our first version was the same size as this board, and only had one head controller. This version can control 3 heads. If you buy a one or two head version, one or two sections of the board will not have components soldered. The section all the way to the left is the power supply. Basically you can feed any kind of power into this thing, be it DC, DCC, or AC (6-16V) and the power supply will filter it and regulate it to the correct voltage. That means that modular groups can use this signal system without having to purchase separate regulators, which in the end is another cost-saving measure.With this version we sourced a new microcontroller which costs about 1/3 of the first one we used, but still has enough peripherals and memory.The rest of the design is also coming along. We have several more versions to create in terms of heads, but work is progressing in getting the injection molded components together at the lowest price possible. I'll have more updates soon.David
I'm not sure if the signals head is groundbreaking, but that control board now sounds wonderful - doing the common cathode / common anode option has been a major issue with me as I had to convert over a bulb signal system with a common to an LED system and you find out the hard way that all LED's are not created equal. Sounds like real winner all by itself.I know you've tinkered with etching on the handrail side of things, I'm still biased to metal parts for signals. I have snapped off parts and entire masts of plastic NJ cantilevers more than I care to confess.
Hmmm.To a certain extent I think you've invented the wheel here, although the original wheel may no longer be available? I used BeNscale etched parts combined with a Tomar tricolor LED (you can buy the heads separately as a special order, prewired, for the ham-handed among us). End result, however, is pretty darn spectacular on the layout. http://www.randgust.com/winsig5.jpg Yes, signal 285.5 (Winslow) has the head on so that the ladder is in the front. And they are abnormally high.The Tomar LED's have a rather nice yellow at about a foot away, closer than that and you can see convergence issues. Stainless is definitely the right material as anything else just won't take any on-layout abuse at all, let alone the casualties likely during assembly. I'll admit this is on the ragged edge of what I can assemble from parts and make functional. I really wouldn't want to have to solder up a control board just to get a yellow aspect, don't need anything more. I'll pay $5 more just to get the LED properly soldered onto leads though, and also provide a table of resistance values based on input voltage.
Rather than rehash some ideas, here's some old threads that are worth reading through:https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=29917.msg324886#msg324886https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=31256.msg394301#msg394301
Author
Topic: New Searchlight Signal Idea (Read 5272 times)
