Newest building – the Proffit Yard Office. I’m building a new town just for this fellow.
Model Trains
I pulled another project off the back burner and got the basics working. This is a Android Phone App I wrote in Python that interfaces to my control widget but with Bluetooth instead of 802.15.4. It uses the same DCC output code as all my other widgets but with a Bluetooth Network interface instead of Xbee. I seem to be late to the party all the time but I found this unit- it’s a pin Xbee compatible unit so it will fit right into my Control Widget design with no problems, just some different software. In the picture above, the unit on the left is my Asus 7″ tablet and the one on the right is a cheapo smart phone I got off of Amazon. Both work quite well. Not sure on the range yet, once I get the boards built I’ll be installing it all in my Aristo U25B for some real world testing.
I don’t have all the function codes working quite yet, but the throttle works great. This is all done with a BT board I’ve had laying around for a while- I have one of the above Xbee type units coming so I will be refactoring the code a bit for that anyhow. I should have boards for testing in about a week.
Update: Starting BETA testing – see Blueridge Engineering
My new Farmhouse. All of the infrastructure was cut out on my 3D router using .060 and .120 sheet styrene. The siding and windows are resin castings. Not quite finished, still needs some details and lighting but it’s almost there.
Finally got everything together and had a nice Fall afternoon to fire it up. Still kinda winging it here but it runs really good.
Finished off the grocery store. Well, almost. It’s hooked up to power out in Gilbert, but it sorely needs an interior with those big windows. Also the interior lighting is bulbs, way too yellow for my tastes so that will be replaced. The ‘neon’ sign came out ok but it was bitch to get together, lots of little fragments of EL wire.
I also got this little rail truck together. Made from an off the shelf kit and a little ‘robot’ transmission I got from pololu.com. Does ok, good speed but a bit noisy. The flanges on the wheels are not quite right, too square. It does well on straight runs but jumps off the track when going over a switch. Oh well, more engineering to get it tweaked right.
So here is the General Store/Grocery for Gilbert. This is from an older design I originally did in wood. Alas, the wooden one fell apart pretty quickly in the elements so I made this one from styrene sheet using the same patterns. More or less.
This is only the shell, I will need some detailed lighting and an interior with all that glass on the front, looks pretty ridiculous empty like that, eh? But I plan for this to be the centerpiece of Gilbert so it needs some work. A neon sign perhaps, lots of lights. A small parking area.
Here is a video of the router cutting out some of this:
Finally got a complete loop of track down. Now I can go roundy roundy! Which is good because the ‘reverse’ button on my controller has failed, so no backing up! Need to fix that.
My new building. Everything is cut from sheet styrene on my Probotix X90. I do love this machine and working with styrene. It cuts like butter and you only have to run the router at about 7600 rpm so it’s pretty quiet.
Anyhow, this is a tower sort of depot near the south end of my bridge. It’s on stilts, With all the windows I’m going to have to make a decent interior, frosting the windows is not really an option I don’t think. Work in Progress as is everything.
Need a few more switches, so rather than make them like the last, on foam boards, I decided I should make a jig so I can (in theory) make them a bit easier. So far so good, this one came out pretty well but it had one small high spot I had to grind out. Still needs the point control bar, whatever that’s called and a waterproof servo for a throw. Took me about 3 days off and on to make this one. Now for some more epoxy, stain and seal.