The Sunshine Report.

Another exhibition done and dusted, the Sunshine Model Railway Club by their reports had a reasonably good turn out over the weekend of the 6th & 7th of August, to myself it felt busy at times but not too crowded, with the punters easing off during the last hour or so on both days.

Plenty of natural light at Sunshine.

There were two main points of interest with the layout, trams as opposed to trains, and the use of wifi control with smartphones/tablets with  JMRI and DCC. 

The tram angle with the JMRI works as it allows tight head ways and independent operation with the ability to wander from one terminus to the other whilst in some form of control. 

The other great feedback was how detailed the layout is and also how given its compact size offered plenty of operational scope. 

The exhibition was another chance to catch up with a few familiar faces and  put faces to names on people who follow this blog. There was plenty of variety of layouts on show, ranging from Z scale to G scale live steam covering Australian, British, European and U.S. prototypes, along with the usual traders.

On the Sunday, I was assisted by my oldest daughter which eased the load of having something on the move while chatting with the public. 

As per usual, there were a few dramas, such as stalling, derailments and the odd bit of bang roading together with a complete shutdown of the JMRI when the eldest turned off the laptop, but these add character as well as a few more grey hairs. 

The other thing that dragging out the layout does is it gives you a chance to view it from different angles and from a distance.  The pack up was pretty swift, the exhibition closed at 4pm and the car was packed and the key in the ignition by 4:27 and was home by 4:45 after swinging by the bottle shop(off licence/liquor store).

Looking along Victoria St back to the Depot.

 

From the depot end.

A few photos from the weekend. 

There wouldn't be an exhibition without Lego these days.

Pondering what to do next from under the wires.

Glenn

The Sunday shakedown and a photobomb.

In preparation for the Caulfield Exhibition, testing is currently underway. So far so good, the DCC wiring bus is working, the lighting is working, and most trams are behaving.

Most of the issues are related to details, decals and advertisements, plus some scenic items.

The JMRI and decoderpro passed with flying colours, the spare wifi router did its job, and every device was employed to have a crack at driving.

 

Seven trams on the go, from the left, two on the powercab, one each on the apple devices,

then three on the android smart phone, plus the USB interface on the right, complete madness!

 

 

 

shakedown Sunday, (this will be more presentable next weekend)

  

 

 

then Sparky decided to drop in and act as starter/inspector, he will

be at home in his cage next weekend, (he is currently going through

 that awkward teenage destructive phase and learning bad language)

 

 

From under the wires and close to the exhibition.

Glenn.

Off to the racecourse.....at Caulfield.

There is a good reason why a fair bit of infrastructure work is going on Victoria Street at the moment. Victoria Street has been nominated and accepted to exhibit at the AMRA-Vic Branch August Exhibition, (23rd-24th August) at Caulfield Racecourse.

Doing the form.

 

So how would the layout read in a racing form guide, something like this....

 

"

VICTORIA STREET

 

A 5 year old tramway shelf layout out of Something Different (Carendt USA) & Some Bit Of Time.

 

Last Three Starts:

                             2012-Sunshine Model Railway Club Exhibition. Reconfigured Layout

                             2011-Sunshine Model Railway Club Exhibition. Extended Layout

                             2010-Sunshine Model Railway Club Exhibition. Original set up.

 

Gear Changes since last Start:

                             Fitted with NCE DCC Powercab/USB interface with JMRI Decoder Pro.

 

Form Analysis:

                             The removal of block wiring and the installation of DCC has improved the operational options of this layout, coming off a long spell (two years) from its last three runs at Sunshine, it finally gets a chance in town. Watch with interest.                                                       "

So there you go, you can wander into Caulfield with your smartphone loaded with either Wi Throttle (I phone) or Engine Driver (Android) app, say G'day and make yourself known, after which you may be invited to 'cut a notch' on Victoria Street.

In an effort to facilitate safer working for guest drivers, Perspex barriers have been install at the ends of the layout, so to prevent trams diving off and onto the floor, as momentum is sometimes a cruel mistress. Some reworking was required so the larger trams did not foul the terminus points. The Perspex was courtesy of one those gift boxed bottle of wine/dodgy port boxes.

 

 "It's like some sort of weird force field"

  

stealing millimetres, everyone counts

 

 

Those familiar with Caulfield, know that it can have some rather dim corners in the exhibition space, that is why the lighting side of Victoria Street is now a priority.

Studying the form from under wires.
Glenn




 

Ménage à trois (no, it's not what you think!)

As one does occasionally, I decided to kill time by updating apps on the mobile, call it housekeeping if you want; however, the engine driver app on my android smart phone received its update (v2.8.2.), and now it offers a third throttle slot. Now I don't know if I am a servant to three masters or a master of three servants.

Given that I can run Victoria Street by a bog standard Powercab (v1.28) that has a two recall limit,  together with JMRI and a USB interface plus laptop I can push it a little further, then with either wi throttle/engine drive I can try to trip the current overload of the Powercab. Now with three slots per smartphone who knows what can happen.

A few photos of the new app in action, and yes there was the odd collision.

 

No good can come from this.

 

Cutting notches.

 

 

It's like herding cats plus spinning plates

at the same time.

 

 

I may not leave the house for a while.

 

 

from under the wires and irradiated by the wifi.

 

Regards Glenn.

 

 

 



 

 



What we have here is a failure to comunicate.....

While all is well and good with the physical refit of the man cave, then one thing came along and bit me on the arse. The magic that consists of a whole heap of ones and zeros failed to come to the party.

As someone who spent most of his working life beating machinery into submission, the dark arts of data transmission along a couple of pairs of wires has me stumped.

For one reason or another, I could not for the life of me get the engine driver on the smartphone to communicate with JMRI on the computer via Wi throttle on wifi. Which in theory proved that my initial set up for smartphone control of Victoria Street was pure luck, of the lottery kind.

The original setup using the antique laptop that still runs windows XP, that now requires plugging in an external monitor as so to actually see information on a screen, While I could call up a throttle on the screen and use it, therefore the JMRI was working, but the wi throttle sent out server and port information the smartphone could not pick up, even when the numbers were punched into the smartphone (REPEATIVLY!!!!). This also applied to the bride's I phone and I pad.(ARGH!!!)

The smartphone was connected to the wifi, yet neither were playing the game. I phaffed about with firewalls, tried to use set port numbers, googled inane requests for help, and nothing worked. What really sent me spare was that I could use the internet on the ancient laptop via the wifi router!

The original set up.

 

 

What went haywire

 

 

So in a moment of genius, I thought, what if I loaded up JMRI on the 'good' laptop, brilliant! The program was loaded, a few tweaks, here and there, and bingo, under a trial operation before plugging in the DCC-USB interface, the wi throttle was transmitting server/port details to all available wifi devices.  However, some clown who will remain nameless managed to stuff up the loading of the driver for the DCC/USB interface, so therefore communication between the good laptop and DCC/USB interface no did not work.

 

 

From the frying pan and into the fire

 

This is where a normally very patient man, who can drive in peak hour without an even raising an eyebrow, and follows a football team that has not won a flag since 1954, is about to lose his mind.

 

Enter the IT guru, (the Bride) with questions like, "Did you read the instructions?" and  "Have you ticked the compliance boxes?"

 

Within two minutes, the bride has done something that certain clown did not do, and as I witnessed a wry smile on her face, she pulled out her smartphone, connected to wi throttle, ask me what tram number to enter. (812) then proceeded to 'cut a notch' and 812 trundled off along Victoria Street. 

 

Yes, she is a keeper.

 

 

The improved set up

 

So now I use the ancient laptop for programming DCC, and the good laptop for the occasional  multiple running with wifi.

 

From one very happy household under the wifi,

 

Regards Glenn

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



Computer games

Now I have finally crossed over to the DCC side, not happy with smooth running and multiple light functions, I pushed the boundaries even further, I hooked the laptop to the DCC using the NCE DCC usb interface, then to go that one step further again, I can now run the trams via wifi from my 'smartphone' all with the JMRI software and apps. I have achieved satisfaction.

The smartphone with JMRI controller.

 The NCE DCC usb interface.

(note the professional application of electrical tape)

The NCE DCC usb interface will be housed in a clear lidded zippy box so I can watch the LEDs light up as the computer and the Powercab chat to each other.

The ancient laptop which runs Windows XP with the JMRI software that allows 

myself to spend countless hours phaffing around with CVs.

Getting all this technology to work together required watching youtube vision, google searches, bad language and a few beers, best to be done when women and young children are not present.

*** SAFETY TIP*** 

When using your smartphone to run multiple trams be aware that incoming phone calls WILL result in losing control of your fleet as they will continue on with their last instruction, and you cannot stop the trams until you complete the call. 

From under the wires

Glenn