Lots of traffic.

Traffic is increasing and luckily Getafix came by to popup some trees within seconds.

The green painted spots are waiting for some 'real' grass.

No comment...

... like to park that way. :)

Road markings.

Using a self cut template of cardboard I added the middle road marking.

For the first markings I used a brush with a little bit too much of white paint on it. The best result is to use an almost 'dry' brush.

I noticed on my bicycle tour that the markings on country roads have a much bigger gap between them. But who cares? Looks OK to me. :)

Air Tunes

Music is something for the soul.

My Marantz CD player does no longer want to play my CD's. Looking for an alternative I found a nice device name "Airport Express" from Apple. This device has the possibility to receive streamed audio and convert it to an analog audio signal which can be connected to the amplifier in the living.

So, my solution looks like this:

On the Mac Mini, used for Plan-F, I shared the iTunes library and connected iTunes with the remote speakers attached to the Airport Express which connects to the living audio system.

On the iPod Touch I installed the free App "Remote" which can be used as remote control for all iTunes libraries available in the home network.

The Mac Mini is upstairs in my hobby room, and I am with the iPod in the living choosing from all available items in the library: Great! :)

The next step is to include the ordered Apple TV in this setup to make iTunes TV, movies and so on also available in the living.

I needed a lot of time to get the Airport Express joining my existing Wireless LAN.

If the WEP Key is a HEX sequence it must be prefixed with a $ sign in the Airport Utility

Spotlight...

Not only trains have wheels; nice cars have them too.
This picture is dedicated to my dear friend Dirk who joins the Rocrail project for many years and has a look for detail. (In general...)

Road to the railway station.

The main road to the railway station is painted and all ballast is in place.
The platform is from the Neustadt a/d Weinstrasse station. But I stripped of the roof because the wetter is always very summer like indoors, and it shows more of the trains without the roof.
The grass machine did work fine but it sparks wildly when the tea strainer touches the nail in the wet glue. ;)

Fly flap

The formal fly flap will serve es grass machine.
I will post results here this afternoon If I did not get an electro shock. ;-)

Ballast, ballast and ballast.

Besides hacking Rocrail & Co. I do find sometime time for modeling.
This weekend I managed to get to the railway station with the ballast. Th part on the bottom of this photo is still soaking wet and needs about 36 hours to dry completely.
I'm still waiting for a platform for the right side of this module before I can bring on ballast.

Snail mail from Hong Kong

Today the cigarette lighter camera did arrive by snail mail, but unfortunately it is a not working exemplar.
Those cameras are probably not tested before they are sold to end users.

Well, it was worth a try for the little amount of money they want for it.
I have to wait for another opportunity because I will not send it back.

WTH is he digging for?

This scene shows a railroad employee ready digging a hole.
But its not obvious to find some treasure in plywood. ;-)








Also some delicate horse shit is spotted on the grazing land.

DE-1 in action

The Artitec DE 1 in action:

Plan-F Scenery progress

Some ballast and grass is added to the Plan-F module 6.
I forgot to paint the plywood green before I 'planted' the grass, but its OK from some distance. ;-)
More time for getting the optical details better is needed. But so far I like the job.

New 'Think' Bike

Maybe a little bit of topic, but biking brings me lot of good ideas for Rocrail. Even many programming issues are thought over and come out in a better way.

Yes, I already had a new bike in 2009, but I was very disappointed by its quality.

DE 1

Finally, after three years of waiting, the Dutch DE 1 arrived at Plan-F.
The Dutch manufacturer, Artitec, decided to let it produce in China but they experienced a lot of difficulties on this cheap and pollution way.
Many of the delivered DE 1 have some optical errors, but I got one in good condition.

Two years ago I proposed to Artitec to pay at least 100 Euro more for a European manufactured product, but they were sure it would have cost more than 100 Euro more.

In the weekend I will try to let it run and hope to experience a good ride...

Drawing makes fun.

The first pencil art made on the "old" drawing table is the Plan-F module connections for double and single track.
I have saved over the many year a lot of tools for drawing, and they are still operating as expected. It is a real pity that all drawing 'art' is now days done with clinical computer programs without any emotion on the plot.

But I hope some will like my hand drawn publishing at Rocrail.net.

Drawing table

Today I collected a drawing table, Nestler "Ingenieur" A1, in Dortmund.
Jean-Michel was so kind to give me company and a hand to get this object in my van.
After a lot of cleaning and testing I am happy to have it for brain storming and designing.
But... I need a high chair for this table. Its OK to work standing, but not for hours. :-)

There are CAD programs now days, but I started my career as architectural draftsman with pencil and ink. This old fashion way shows the drawing style which CAD does not.

Drawing track plans, and other sketches, I always us a pencil and paper which gives me more freedom of expression as a computer program.

New station for Plan-F module 6.

The Faller 110120 station is currently under construction for the Plan-F 6 module.
This modules was originally targeted to hold the "Neustadt" Station but is rejected because its too big for just a few tracks and it would not allow to see the trains running in and out.

Piko NS 6495

In my holidays I found this loco in Goes(NL) for just 85 Euro.

After coming home I plugged in a cheap Lenz Decoder and it runs very smooth.
The front and rear lights are small LEDs.

But compared with the NS 2400 series of Roco, also to have for less then 100 Euro, it has a small motor, plastic look, and less details.

Victory! EtherNet/LocoNet Bridge!

Yes it works great!
Today we tested it and it was a pleasure to see it working! :-)

I got the prototype for testing with my Plan-F Layout to get proof of concept.
I only have left one small week before holidays, but I will try to test it asap.
Keep tuned.

LocoNet Ethernet: MGV101

Tomorrow, July the 10th, I will meet Peter and Robert who developed the MGV101; The bridge between Ethernet and Loconet.
The meeting will be in the MGV Club house at 12:00. (Just drop by if you want to see it work.)

The MGV101 was developed to get rid of the USB converters, and to try a different approach to communicate with the Command Station and all other Loconet devices.

Some technical details: The communication uses the Multicasting protocol which makes it possible to sniff the traffic with more than one computer.

As far as I know this project is unique and has no competitors.

Links:

• http://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php?id=mgv101-en

To Turntable or not...

I'm not getting happy with the Digital-Bahn decoder...
The most important part is the positioning of the bridge which seems to be very dependent of the motor condition.
You can get the positioning right with programming the slow part of the moving, but it is a snapshot of the motor characteristics at that time.
The original mechanics had a slot to run in to get an exact positioning of the bridge which is removed for this decoder type.

I invested a lot of time to get it right, but the slot is needed because without it the tolerance is 2 mm which is not acceptable to use in automatic mode.
I'm afraid that I will stop investing more time and money in this turntable project.

Turntable revised

Thanks to Heiner I have now a super working turntable with a digital-bahn.de decoder and extra "In position" detector.
I wired and tested it yesterday and I am really surprised to see the turntable moves so smoothly. Also the extra LED signals on the bridge are smoothly changing aspect.

The extra "In position" detector generates a short pulse to inform Rocrail that the turntable can be accessed by a locomotive.

I need some extra MGV50 modules before I can test it in automatic mode.

To be continued on this blog.

"Split" in Rocrail

The new "Split" module is added to Plan-F in Rocrail and was an amazing easy job to do.
The routing did workout also without any problems, and the first test run was successful.

The next challenge is running locomotives over the bridge to the turntable...

Plan-F "Split"

Some progress has been made to module #10, "Split", for the Plan-F layout.
All wiring and electronics are in place, and the servo is also adjusted to operate the 'Y'-Switch.

Next is the Rocrail part. The new module XML is created with all routes.
There is no block on this module so the routes are all from compass point to compass point.
All tracks are current detected wired and are part of the routes.

Its a real pity that my model railroad room is so small, because this "Split" module opens a lot of new possibilities.

"RennsteigBier"

Rocrailfan, Heiko, did send me a box with some suspicious content.
But somehow it reminds me of "Hop-Tea", well known in the Rocrail community.

Thanks Heiko! Cheers!

NS Motorpost did arrive today!

Today the NS Motorpost 3002 did arrive which was mechanically and electrically upgraded by Peter.
As soon as the MP had his first test run I will report it.

Märklin DC... It really exists.

Tattoo Dockingstation

A dockingstation for recharging the battery, and optionally a spare one, was missing and arrived today.
It can be connected to the computers USB port or with the included power supply.

Because I also use the Tattoo as alarm clock, to get up on time to go to work, I will place this dockingstation on my bedside table. The Tattoo will have a full charge for the new day.

A4 Keyboard

The A4Tech keyboard has just the right dimensions and all keys are as big as a normal sized keyboard. And the special function keys on the left top are also supported by Ubuntu.
15 Euro is a good bargain for the space saving keyboard.

Ballast@Plan-F

In between programming and debugging some time is left for doing some real work.
The ballast job is a relaxing one but triggers a "Ghost Train" event in Rocrail.
I hope to green it soon.

Ubuntu 10 64-Bit

Plan-F has been run for almost a year now on a Mac Mini and the time has come for a change.
The xPC with a 64 Bit processor and a fast SSD is mastering the job very well.

I'm not saying farewell to Mac OSX, but the Mini was a little slow. Further development for the Mac OS X takes place on my Mac Book.

The keyboard is a little too big for the Trolley and will be replaced with a small notebook like one.

NS Motorpost mP3000

Last week I bought at Marktplaats.nl a HAMO Märklin Motorpost.
Märklin is the only mainstream Manufacturer who build this locomotive for the Dutch market. The two rail DC version is not easy to get, but this one is in very good condition.
Item# 8309 manufactured in 1989 only.

Peter is optimizing the engine and decoder to get it running as smooth as possible. It also get ball-bearings on the anchor axis.

Plan-f "Split"

The new Split module is growing and misses only the Servo controller and some end PCB's for fixating the rails.
By using this new module in the Plan-F layout some new possibilities are available:

• Fiddle Yard parallel to the main line.
• Adding the "Zandkreek" and Turntable module.

andRoc

The Android based Rocrail client, is highly accepted and appreciated.
The navigation is not 'round' and will be improved in the next weeks.

I put a lot of effort in this new client the last two month and am content with the result. The aim is to control a layout with only this client which is reached from my point of view.