the DCC on a budget workbench.

[Sean]

Starting this thread to document my first jump down the DCC rabbit hole, as always im on a budget so going DIY where possible, will be able to give a nice overview of just how easy or difficult it is these days and will also touch on costs and if its really worth it.

 

so heres the starting point.

basic old scrap computer running java runtime environment, this tiny net book was perfect, to small to be practically usable and old enough to be worthless without being completley useless spec wise. plenty of power to run trains but little else and easy to carry around.

any old computer running windows would suffice really(I dont use windows but that doesnt matter here), you can skip the computer part and add networking directly to your base station which i was going to do however i cannot locate my network card, the laptop opens up much more possibility also so ill stick with it till i find the arduino networking card 

Arduino Uno or Mega, Mega is needed for a standalone network base station.

generic old laptop power supply.

Engine driver Wifi throttle for android.

Official arduino motor shield, to assume maximum compatibility with the project as it is now.

Official IRM and MM decoders. considering the cost of an ESU unit on its own i did not mind paying the extra few euros to have pre programmed ones starting off with to make the process that little bit easier, in time im also going to try and reprogram these decoders without programmers, thats a whole other can of worms though and im aiming for the basics just now! cheaper decoders will be explored in time.

 

DIY decoders on locos seems next to impossible if not very difficult. so i dont mind justifying the costs for now, DIY accessory decoders seem alot handier however and we can take a look at these.

as for costs so far, pleasantly surprising, i already had everything on hand except the decoders and the shield, went for an official  shield to ensure maximum compatibility and this was 17 euro however i seen some clones on an irish site around the ten euro mark and china would be cheaper again, the Mega im using cost me less than ten euros a few years ago from china or ebay and i know clone unos are about a fiver.....

so what does this mean? well basically for those with a spare computer that can run an older version of windows half reasonably, it would be possible to assemble a DCC base station for around 10-15 euro. how easy it will be to set up and run remains to be seen, however given my initial tinkerings with the JMRI software and engine driver i am feeling quite positive that it will be.

 

will update later when ive had a good go of the software. have the arduino flashed and talking to JMRI over serial just fine but thats just as far as i  got before bed yesterday. got engine driver set up with a layout that i really like but did not connect it to JMRI yet, assumedly once i do that and chip some loco's i am good to go but that still remains to be seen!

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Sean

[David Holman]

Great stuff Sean, I think. Just wish I understood it...

Well out of my league, but will do my best to follow, nevertheless.

Edited February 17, 2022 by David Holman

[murphaph]

Hi Sean Nice thread. You could also have a play with RocRail in place of JMRI. It's the "European JMRI" if you will. I haven't used JMRI so can't compare them. Maybe the architecture is similar. RocRail is client/server based. The server connects via USB or whatever to the DCC hardware (in your case the Arduino+shield). My RocRail server runs on a Raspberry Pi Model B (my DCC hardware is a fairly old DIY openDCC controller), so very little computing power. You can then use your laptop or desktop running the client software in edit mode to edit the configuration. You could use the same application in "run" mode to control/monitor the layout BUT as it's client/server based you can just as easily install the android app or webapp to control it. You can have as many clients as you like. I'm not sure if RoCRail supports the Arduino protocol but Rob (the principal developer) is a fan of all things open source so I wouldn't be surprised.

[Mayner]

I used JMRI (on an old laptop) interfaced with a Digitrax Command Station for route setting on an American N & G Gauges layout occasionally using the throttle function to control locos.

The main attraction was the ability to build a reasonably authentic looking American style CTC panel and that JMRI is free!

Point motors were controlled by Lenz stationary decoders, but I never got round to installing signalling or detection.

The Sprog seems to be a reasonably low cost hardware interface between the layout and the JMRI programme https://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/hardware/sprog/SPROG.shtml

[Sean]

Well what can i say first impressions here actually have me super impressed, not knowing what was what within the software a quick youtube on how to get started got me to the roster screen and once i had a train added  everything else became super self explanitory and really just worked. I can literally just pick a loco from the spreadsheet and hit throttle and there you go full control onscreen. the withrottle worked a treat too and now i can control 2 locos from the comfort of my couch/phone

really liking how the locos will move off and coast to a  stop over a period instead of just instant power. theres also an emergency stop button just incase that stops the train dead. the shunt/brake mode is also a fantastic thing to have although it seems to be set a lot stronger on the A class decoder.  perhaps we will have to look into changing this somewhere within the decoder pro software.

if i wanted to just leave it here with the software and be happy i could but there seems to be a whole plethora of stuff under the hood so im definitely going to tinker a bit more. I am liking the idea of using automating to shuttle in  and out the push pull set, leaving the operator free to shunt the yard below or refuel locos etc.

2 minor issues have cropped up for me, firstly both decoders have been set up with address 3, so as of yet i havent been able to drive both locos independantly,   I think its set on the decoder itself since changing it in the software seems to have no effect. however i need to investiate that more.

Secondly I am finding the marker lights to be a little wonky on the 121 decoder,  at first i thought they could not be set to work independently of the headlight at all, however, i then got the tail set turning on and off, but for the life of me cannot get the front marker to work independently to the headlight, its either all or nothing, is it like that because this is how it was prototypically or is it just a small incorrection on my chip? out of curiosity i put the A class chip into the 121 and was able to get all the markers working independently.  theres no front marker on the 141 class so im thinking of the possibility of fitting the 121 chip into that and hopefully i can control the front headlamp and back marker, then ill get a second A class chip into 121 and there will be fully working lights on the whole fleet.

is there a possibility of bringing the function 3 shunting light over to 121. did the real 121 have this light?

ideally though i would like full control over the parameters on the chip and theres talk of that being possible, along with .esu reblowing without the use of a lokprogrammer using decoder pro so this will definitely have to be explored soon. but the address issue comes first.

 

3 hours ago, David Holman said:

Great stuff Sean, I think. Just wish I understood it...

Well out of my league, but will do my best to follow, nevertheless.

I would wager that if you know what a driver is and how to install it, then you would have no problem getting up and running with this. I really was surprised how plug and play it all is once i got past all the technical jargon/

2 hours ago, murphaph said:

Hi Sean Nice thread. You could also have a play with RocRail in place of JMRI. It's the "European JMRI" if you will. I haven't used JMRI so can't compare them. Maybe the architecture is similar. RocRail is client/server based. The server connects via USB or whatever to the DCC hardware (in your case the Arduino+shield). My RocRail server runs on a Raspberry Pi Model B (my DCC hardware is a fairly old DIY openDCC controller), so very little computing power. You can then use your laptop or desktop running the client software in edit mode to edit the configuration. You could use the same application in "run" mode to control/monitor the layout BUT as it's client/server based you can just as easily install the android app or webapp to control it. You can have as many clients as you like. I'm not sure if RoCRail supports the Arduino protocol but Rob (the principal developer) is a fan of all things open source so I wouldn't be surprised.

That sounds very much so along the same lines as jmri alright, dcc++ was the base station i used and its very much plug and play, jmri itself supports connecting to a staggering amount of different base stations but not really sure how any of it works outside of dcc+

33 minutes ago, Mayner said:

The Sprog seems to be a reasonably low cost hardware interface between the layout and the JMRI programme https://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/hardware/sprog/SPROG.shtml

Was looking at that as it was showing up as a lokprogrammer alternative, I dont think things could get any more low cost than this arduino solution. if you are prepared to wait for china postage time you could be up and running with a base station for in and around 10 euro or less. for larger layouts requiring a higher amperage the cost really does not become to much higher either but a different motor solution needs to be used.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

And didnt i just remember that the 141 decoder is already coming in the post tomorrow, i guess that puts dodgy reblows at the top of ones priority list!

[Sean]

Diving into EncoderPro this software seems to be very simple and will allow me to modify all CV's and functions on a given decoder. apparently its also possible to blow sounds but im not gonna get into that.

with this in mind it has been possible to find a simple solution to the lighting issue.

what ill do is very simple, i will analyse the function map of the A class chip and then place it into the 121 and go through the functions until i see the lights i am after, I will then note down which functions and their associated aux control the marker lights, then ill do another function analysis of 130's chip and replace the 2 marker functions with the ones from the irm decoder.

 

with this software the manual states that the ui is modelled after lokprogrammer and by the looks of things it has more programming features than i would ever need. any parameters i mentioned so far seem to be moddable.

 

I will add Forward and reverse rows for F1 and F2 with the correct Aux's labelled and that should sort things out on the lighting front.

so as we see F0 has some weird conditions and F1 and 2 are blank, 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Sean

[murphaph]

I had to play around a fair bit in Lokprogrammer to get the desired result on the 121s so I could lash a pair up nose to nose and have them behave as a single unit for the purposes of lighting (primarily having no nose lights on at all when lashed up but also ensuring I could hit a given F button to toggle "light power"/"hauling something" so that I could kill the red marker lights when hauling a train.

[Noel]

Hi Sean. Interesting stuff. Have you looked at any of the self build MERG PCBs and components for DCC?

[Sean]

well holy moly! went deep down a rabbit hole with jmri tonight and this is the result, theres an EMD 645  sound also  hard to show it off on such a short bit of track but its a start!  sound is coming from a stage monitor with the bass cranked sitting just behind me. 

 

still feel like im only just barely scratching the surface with jmri, it has massive potential.

 

On 18/2/2022 at 6:54 AM, murphaph said:

I had to play around a fair bit in Lokprogrammer to get the desired result on the 121s so I could lash a pair up nose to nose and have them behave as a single unit for the purposes of lighting (primarily having no nose lights on at all when lashed up but also ensuring I could hit a given F button to toggle "light power"/"hauling something" so that I could kill the red marker lights when hauling a train.

ya theres weird conditionals tied up so that they were only working with the headlight and even then the front marker was tied up to the headlight with no apparent solution unless you reprogram.

 

actually murph I did install rocrail tonight but i had no clue what was going on so i left it,  I was looking for a way to hook up to multimaus etc using the Roco proprietary lan protocol so that the rocrail system would appear to other devices as if it was a z21 box.  found a super interesting implementation of what i have in the video above but unfortunately it only works connected to a z21 station. it actually seems way better than the jmri implementation so if i could get the rocrail to be a z21 it would definitely prompt me to switch over to that platform in a heartbeat.

[Sean]

ah yes so the plot thickens even further.

found out that rocrail supports both dcc++ and it can be configured to as a z21 base station in a sort of passthrough manner; im in luck!

figured out that rocrail is not that bad and just needed another guide to get me started as the menus are a bit nuanced. (its definitely not as stable as jmri as it crashed a few times) once i had that working i added the z21 server and fired up my third party solution.

this is where things get interesting because now my throttle app doesnt work anymore, but the official z21 one does, and it feels a good bit easier/more comfy to use, and the functions seem more straight forward.

There is another application now also listening on the z21 server and this is where the sounds are being generated.

So why have i gone to all this extra trouble you may ask? well mostly because i wanted  the 8-567 and 12-645e and the jmri option had been only offering me 16 cylinder versions that left a lot to be desired in terms of detail.

 we are now decoding .esu files!

to take things a step further even, the person developing this has begun mounting bluetooth speakers within locos. possibly a sign of where the tech might be going soon. whats interesting is i see scope for having the bluetooth speaker complimented by some sort of small sub woofer hidden somewhere near the baseboard.

 

 

so something else in terms of sound also which could be possible using jmri, the audio backend really reminds me of the audio engine within a video game, i see there may be some scope to add 2 or 4 speakers into the corners of the layout which carry a panned soundscape of the surroundings on the baseboard, an example of this would be the sound of welding buzz coming from the car garage on my layout in the right location, there may be also some scope to trigger effects based on block occupancy, for example the layout has 3 points in a row at one stage. it would be cool to set these up as a block that triggers the sound of flange squeal in the location of the block in question and stops it once the train is off..

it could be done over multiple different blocks depending on where it would be desired. other effects could be triggered in such a manner too.

 

one thing i will definitely be doing once the layout is all set back up is i will be setting up 130 with the push pull carriages as a shuttle that comes and goes in between manual freight workings.

[murphaph]

Very interesting Sean. I had been mulling over a homebrew implementation of the above idea (using Rocrail to run an external sound player like VLC) to save money on sound decoders but it seems the tech has already overtaken me and it is possible inside Rocrail and amazingly using esu files directly?

I will certainly be investigating this route before I spend any more money on sound decoders. Personally I don't think I want my locos making noise everywhere on the layout. It would just be a cacophony of sound like that. I always wanted sound at "points of interest" and fixed speakers at stations etc. we're something I was going to install regardless for other sounds like station announcements that match the actual train in question.

Do you have any useful links to share?

Edit: Ah I googled a bit and it seems the decoder application is external and relies on windows dlls from the Lokprogrammer software. Is that the application you're using Sean? Could still be an option for me but not sure how it would work with the system I have in mind (not z21 based but maybe I can use the same passthrough/emulation method you did with your dcc++ hardware). Definitely worth spending some time on I think.

Edited February 21, 2022 by murphaph

[Sean]

can only link you to some random german forum theres no website or anything for the project as such, but videos of it working on youtube... i think its safe but as always with random.exe files take care. my german is poor to nonexistent so you may find better insight there than I have ha.

https://www.stummiforum.de/t200523f7-NextGen-the-Windows-loksound-simulator-free-download.html

not inside or part of rocrail as such its more of like a "plugin" for z21 systems and it just so happens rocrail can emulate z21,

the only downside im seeing so far is that it only supports esu 5 files, so the 071 and 201 downloads on esu's site are not working as they are esu 4 files.

im hoping i can make a small alteration with the lokprogrammer and resave these so that they become esu 5 files. worst coming to worst i can live with american prime mover sounds and ill find an irish horn somewhere, i was always just gonna put a class 66 hornby chip into 201 anyway so i dont need exact accuracy to be satisfied  

suddenly a wheeltappers Baby GM file becomes an attractive proposition to purchase.

[murphaph]

Sean the MM sound files in the ESU site aren't the best anyway. There are hifi V5 files covering those engines (12 cylinder 645 Turbo file for the 071 and 12 cylinder 710 turbo for the 201). I don't believe the MM files were actually recorded from Irish locos or anything like that. The 121 one definitely wasn't IMO. They are US recordings but like you they are more than adequate for me and they are good quality recordings by ESU too.

But yeah you can convert the files to v5 format. I took the above v5 prime mover sounds but the horns from the v4 projects and saved them as by and it all works so I guess the decoder application would also be able to decode them. 

Thanks for the links. I'm good with German so I can ask in there though it seems the developer is not a German speaker. He posts in English I think. Impressive progress for such a young project anyway.

Hint: if you see NT in the ESU filename it means non-turbo. These are the ones you'll want for the small GMs.

[Sean]

Does anybody know what voltage the aux pins on a 21 pin decoder are outputting at or if 5v is present anywhere on the decoder or loco pcb?

[murphaph]

I think pin 12 on a 21MTC decoder will be Vcc at +5v. The function outputs actually get pulled to ground to make them work as these decoders use a common positive at track voltage (pin 8).

[Sean]

Interesting.

 

In theory once theres enough current then somthing like this could be dropped in and wired to the existing speakers set up as a set of headphones within windows

 

https://gleanntronics.ie/en/products/bluetooth-audio-receiver-module-5v-for-diy-wireless-speaker-3099.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAjc2QBhDgARIsAMc3SqT0NNcSf37RttamCCVKjc7j_NFhYLLoBSNlkVpMJw41PaBzEhZpgMMaArf_EALw_wcB

[murphaph]

I'm not sure that particular module can drive a speaker directly. There's no mention if how many Watts it can drive which leads me to believe it's just a pre-amp. I think you can buy similar receivers with a class D amp incorporated into the board though and probably for the same sort of price. Fascinating possibilities alright.

[Sean]

ya your right, seems to be mention of an amp board too in the comments, 

 

another possibility would be a small  battery powered bluetooth box, have an old lynx one here that im gonna pull apart for a look tonight , only downside is you would need to get at the charging port easily, so im thinking 141 would be a good contender since the cab comes off so easily.

 

looks like bachmann have an implementation of it in their app too.

[murphaph]

Ah I wouldn't overcomplicate it. I'd stick with something like this:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/272322746439

That's a Bluetooth receiver with an integrated 3W stereo amp. That's at least as powerful as a Loksound V5, which is 3W but I think it's mono so only half the power.

[murphaph]

Sean, how does the sound syncing work with full throttle features like drive hold? Have you tried it out with a FT file? The NextGen app digests messages from the z21 server (or emulator) and then acts on them but I'm wondering if it gets confused with FT. FT is not at all common on European ESU projects so I'm wondering has the developer considered how to properly handle them.

[Sean]

That boards looks absolutely PERFECT for the job and you know its gonna be tiny when you see that micro usb connector. took apart the lynx pack and its essentially one of those although the pcb is a bit too big for a loco, its a good starting point for mounting into a building etc.

that board is actually capable of 2x3 watt so i bet they could be tied together into a 6 watt package for mono setups like we have in our locos.

 

not sure about FT just yet,  I dont think its enabled by default  but at the same time i really dont know what i should be listening for, i was trying to use isolation switch and reverser centre functions and they were not responding as expected, however they are disabled by default in the files anyway.  nextgen does send throttle info and the default enabled functions just fine except now the loco responds to functions both on the decoder and in nextgen so its a little bit of a mess until i get in and map them out to different f numbers.

 

I assume it should work but i dont really know how it should be behaving with it turned on so cant really say until i investigate further.

[murphaph]

The most important test would be easy to perform. From a standstill with the loco "ticking over" in idle, hit whatever F key "Drive Hold" is (if you use the US ESU files I am pretty sure they all use F9 by default) and then whack up the throttle to max. The loco should stand still with no motor revolutions but the sound should not, it should ramp up to notch 8 (full throttle) as if the loco were trying to move a heavy train from a standing start at full revs. If that doesn't happen, the developer hasn't (yet) implemented handling for FT. Notching back down the sound revs should drop back also. The throttle controls the sound not the motor when Drive Hold is engaged.

Edited February 22, 2022 by murphaph

[Sean]

Will investigate during the week as I have to borrow a Windows laptop each time I wanna mess around. I reckon I'll be putting a better computer together from the scrap pile this week. Have a sound card with 8 outputs too so that should be interesting.

 

[murphaph]

Look forward to hearing how it works. I tried messaging the developer but haven't heard back yet. I mean even without Full Throttle support it's still very interesting because I couldn't justify a Loksound in every one of my locos. Just too expensive.

[Sean]

hey phil @murphaph

 

just getting back to this late, i have not yet gotten around to running trains or nextgen since our last conversation(I will soon) however I am just about to order one of those bluetooth boards(or an identical looking one) and one thing that has me stumped is the electrical connection for the speakers, how could i go about identifying the speaker connector on the board and where would i get one, I will probabaly solder ground and +5v as theres convienient pads but i dont fancy soldering the pads on the back of that connector or it would probabaly be a very quick recipe for a hot melted mess!

 

regards

[murphaph]

Sean, I'll take a look at the board in the morning. Mine arrived from China the other day. I was going to desolder the speaker connector completely as it's some proprietary one I think and I will just sum the stereo output to mono and solder directly to the board. I'm sure there are through holes to solder to, but I only looked quickly at the board before chucking it in the drawer so can't be certain. I think you just need a couple of 1k resistors to do that and job done.

[Sean]

why the resistors i would personally just wire directly to the board

[murphaph]

11 hours ago, Sean said:

why the resistors i would personally just wire directly to the board

I'm not sure if they are really required to be honest but I have a vague recollection of needing them when summing stereo to mono. Maybe I'm wrong but in any case it should be trivial. It may even be trivial to just stream everything to one channel as the ESU files are mono anyway, and then just connect one of the channels to the speaker. I think these boards are like twice as powerful as a Loksound 5 anyway so sacrificing half the power would see no dis-improvement.

[Sean]

Sound board arrived today, it's already mounted inside of a loco (pics to come)

https://dccwiki.com/21MTC_Connector

Time to start probing for 5v, I think the earlier suggestion of pin 12 could be the way to go. Once the multimeter confirms that I'll trace it back to the easiest solder point and we will pick things up from there

 

[Sean]

"perhaps ensure everything is working before trying to power it from the unknown" - probably somebody wise 

 

 

[Sean]

If the last post didn't give it away I'm gonna be working with a 201 class for this. The baby GM's are a bit too small for the PCB I got so that will have to be looked at again. The A is still too new to go pullin apart. Loads of room inside this so I won't be hard for space. I DO have another railway planned for it eventually anyway

 

Top off and a borrowed from another loco decoder fitted to ensure it all runs.

 

Loads and loads of room inside this body shell, I will simply just gorilla tape the board in as shown above.

 

Pin 12 is on the very left and will be easy to solder a wire to the pad here.

Pin 20 is earth and it's in the middle of this connector so much harder to add a wire to. I'm gonna seek out alternatives as I know too well how to ruin a PCB

Yup. There's 5v between these points with the loco on the track.

 

This pad is earth according to the multimeter and verified with the esu Manual.

 

Painless to add a wire here. There are no components to damage with heat.

 

Bit more hassle soldering this. As expected I bridged loads of the pads with solder but I persevered until it was on. 

 

Made sure the decoder still worked at this stage

 

 

So

 

 

With all this said and done it doesn't work. The Bluetooth board keeps on power cycling as if it is not getting enough current. The decoder does not respond at all. As soon as the Bluetooth board is disconnected the decoder begins working just fine.

 

To me this is either one of two things. Either the board isn't getting enough power from the decoder. Or is there a possibility that it's still an ac current at pin 12? Not really sure what's going wrong so may have to wait until someone more knowledgeable can chime in with any suggestions.

 

What about taking power directly from the rails and converting it to 5vdc? 

 

 

 

[murphaph]

It would require a very small bit of circuitry to output a nice clean 5vdc from track voltage. I had always assumed this would be required to be honest. I wasn't all that optimistic that a usable supply would present itself that easily lol.

So close though. I read on the Stummi forum (RMWeb for German) that the guy actually contacted ESU about his software and they said ok let us know how you get on. They clearly don't expect too many people to do this, which is probably true.

Great posts Sean.

Edit: The power supply will probably need some form of keep alive in the form of a capacitor, the more capacitance the better. Otherwise the board is likely to cut out at every bit of bad track it encounters and that would be annoying. The sound wouldn't restart like with a decoder obviously but it could be very "clicky". 

Edited March 24, 2022 by murphaph

[Sean]

Thats actually super surprising, i had assumed that esu would want to cease and desist him to bits for such use of their ip but all the better if not.  im probabaly going to end up buying at least one loksound in the end due to nextgen so theres always that angle to it.

(on a slightly unrelated but surprising note, I think the JMRI software decoder is based on the audio engine from the game trainz, at least thats what some of the notes within the downloaded sounds suggested to me,the guy seems to have just repacked the sound from trainz plugins, i wouldnt be surprised esu used somthing similar to assemble all the final sounds....somthing to revisit if i end up not liking rocrail)

 

your right about needing a stay alive, could be even more annoying than with an actual decoder cutting out as the unit rebooting could drop the bluetooth connection altogether. at least the long wheelbase of the 201 makes it extremely reliable in that regard but they seem like a simple addition either way.

 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=bd6099c6664fb31e9a4f5dce765aa087&topic=29654.msg321036#msg321036

have done a bit of digging with the google tonight and somthing like this should do the job well im thinking. it is explained in depth on the linked forum but some modification may be helpful for my purposes. 

 

BR1 is a bridge rectifier, connected directly to the rails this will give us a dc power source.

R1 is a 150 OHM resistor for overload protection, i shall leave this alone.

C1 is the stay alive, the bigger the better, should be ample room for a large cap within the 201.

 

 

R2 is another resistor with an unspecified value(experiment until you find one you like) its in that circuit to set LED brightness however this will not apply to our application and the circuit as built so far will be supplying 15/16vdc which could blow up our bluetooth board so I will most likely exchange this component for a voltage regulator

 

.

this should in theory give us the 5vdc we need to power up the board without stealing power from the lokpilot. 

 

its going to take a week or two to gather the components as shipping is high and id like to add a few other bits to make it worthwhile.  in the mean time if anybody spots anything glaringly obviously with this plan and or schematic please do chime in and let me know.

I shall also keep searching for smaller components as i want this in my baby GM! much easier doing the R&D on a big loco though.

[Sean]

so I made this today. For one reason or another my BT board released its magic blue smoke and no longer works. I don't think the regulator was properly regulating. Oh well.

Thus I have had to concede that my electronical theory isn't up to scratch for putting together the 5v regulator part of the circuit.

It's not all bad though as I did get a better understanding of how the bridge rectifier works as well as the seperate components in the BT board and because of this a new baby gm friendly version has been developed and will be assembled on Wednesday in 201. With a few to doing 141 as soon as we get a successful run done. Unsure of doing 121 due to the convoluted railing system so that could well end up being the one that gets a proper esu.

Beyond that I have some other fun stuff planned with sound but next in line will be point and signal control using servo motors and finally layout lighting.