This is the prototype control widget. I originally called them ‘train widgets’ but that is a bit limiting as they should be able to control pretty much any surface vehicle. I wouldn’t use them for flying devices however as the range is only about 300 feet- fine for earthbound machines but a bit too limited for anything that flies.
Nevertheless, since my primary purpose is controlling G scale model trains, this will do nicely. As you can see from the photo, these are very simple devices. An Xbee series 1 and an Atmel Attiny 1634 micro controller. I also have a suite of software modules written to control or monitor each of the functions mentioned in the diagram, plus do all the Xbee network message passing.
Each widget can control servos, motor controllers, discrete outputs (lights etc), a sound card with 8 channels of up to 1000 sounds, an RFID reader (for position sensing) and a configurable set of I/O pins for inputs (speedometer, current sensor, etc) or SSI/SPI to expand the I/O.
The Xbee allows bi-directional radio communications using the 802.15.4 protocol, so any node can communicate with any other node in real time. One Xbee in a hand-held configuration can control multiple locomotives, turnouts and animatronics, while a computer can also control and/or monitor the same (or other) locomotives or devices.
Anyhow, I’m working on a whole series of designs based on this, I have ordered the first set of PCBs, they should be here in a couple of weeks. After that I’ll be designing PCBs for the handheld, working on the sound card (I have a new one, see this link for more info) and expanding the software modules.