LCC Demo Layout
Dipping my toes into the waters of LCC has raised questions by fellow model railroaders in the area. Last year I was asked to do a clinic on LCC, which went very well. The clinic included passing around the various LCC components for folks to see, feel and smell. However one consistent comment I received was that they wanted to see it operational. Fair enough - and it really is nicer to see the pieces all pulled together and working to understand how it should look. So for the upcoming clinics, I have pulled together a little demo layout.
The goals for this layout included showing how it worked in a small, portable footprint. As such, it was not set up for continuous running or even operation. Instead it is a small section of track with a single turnout, some detection, and a few signals. It contains a single node - an RR-Cirkits Signal-LCC board, with a single I/O card: a BOD4-CP.
A few features of the demo layout:
Built on a single piece of plywood. I literally found a scrap piece in the shed, sanded it down and slathered on a coat of polyurethane. I wish I had noticed it was warped as it wobbles now. Oh well...
Added a few feet to keep the board from scratching tables.
Included a power strip. I have been to clinics before where somehow a power cord gets snagged or tripped on and it tears up the electronics. I wanted the power strip firmly mounted on the board, protecting everything connected to it. Note I kept space for the coiled up power lead within the area of the board to make transport more compact and less risk of damage to the cord.
Two power supplies are installed. One for the LCC Power Point, the other for the turnout power. The turnout power comes from an old 9V wall-wart that I had.
The RR-Cirkits Power Point supplies power to the LCC network. I had considered mounting the LCC-Buffer-USB on the board, but it would have required a long USB cable to connect to my PC. So I kept it loose as I had a long CAT 5 cable that worked well for reaching to the PC. The LCC-Buffer includes one of the two terminators.
On the far right there is a terminal block for wiring the various track leads together. Note the demo layout is set up for DCC block detection using CTs. I used a length of CAT 5 cable for the track connections, but realizing 24 AWG is NOT sufficient for true power feed to an operating layout. I hope this is not confusing!
To visually link the detection to the track feeders, I also used some CAT 5 cable for the detection wiring back to the BOD4.
By the way, for the detection to work, the layout needs some kind of DCC signal on the tracks. The car I am using for demo has wheel resistors, so with DCC power on the track, it will draw enough current to trip the circuit. But I need some kind of external DCC power supply. Right here I am using a DCC system I have for my test bench. But would like to add a low-cost system to the demo layout so I don't need to drag along a separate system wherever I go. Any ideas would be appreciated!
A single Tortoise slow motion turnout drive was added to show connection to the BOD. I also included a pushbutton for controlling the turnout. I may get all motivated and put the PB into a mounting bracket to give it a more finished look.
Three demo signals are provided. These come from MRCS and are a convenient (and low cost!) way to get signals for any layout, albeit a bit rough looking. (http://www.modelrailroadcontrolsystems.com/modular-signal-system-mss/)
I tied the signals to the Signal-LCC board with a 10-conductor ribbon cable and RR-Cirkits standard 10-pin connector. Makes for clean wiring and a firm connection.
Track comes from Atlas. It's your basic code 83 flex track with a #4 turnout.
In keeping with trying for a clean look, I elected to use a clear, all-purpose adhesive to mount the track, signals and restrain the wiring. I ended up discovering Loc-Tite's "Go 2 Glue." Really neat stuff. Adheres to anything, including metals and plastic, holds in about 15-30 min, fully cures in 2 hrs, and dries crystal clear. I will be using this on other projects in the future! The power strip, terminal strip and turnout motor were all mounted with short wood screws. Both the Signal-LCC and the BOD4-CP are mounted on nylon stand-offs. Makes for a classy installation, but could have just as easily used the RR-Cirkits track.
Configuring of the nodes went along with the same methodology as was used on my layout and has been described before. Really the only major new effort on this project was operational signals. Was a bit of a learning curve, but like anything else, once I got my head around it, it was pretty straight forward. More discussion on that in a future post!
So there you go. The demo layout ready for introducing folks to the world of LCC!
 |
| Overview of the LCC Demo Layout |
The goals for this layout included showing how it worked in a small, portable footprint. As such, it was not set up for continuous running or even operation. Instead it is a small section of track with a single turnout, some detection, and a few signals. It contains a single node - an RR-Cirkits Signal-LCC board, with a single I/O card: a BOD4-CP.
A few features of the demo layout:
Built on a single piece of plywood. I literally found a scrap piece in the shed, sanded it down and slathered on a coat of polyurethane. I wish I had noticed it was warped as it wobbles now. Oh well...
Added a few feet to keep the board from scratching tables.
Included a power strip. I have been to clinics before where somehow a power cord gets snagged or tripped on and it tears up the electronics. I wanted the power strip firmly mounted on the board, protecting everything connected to it. Note I kept space for the coiled up power lead within the area of the board to make transport more compact and less risk of damage to the cord.
 |
| 9V wall-wart power supply on the left provides power for the turnout. On the right is the LCC Power Point power supply. |
Two power supplies are installed. One for the LCC Power Point, the other for the turnout power. The turnout power comes from an old 9V wall-wart that I had.
 |
| The Power Point provides power on the LCC bus, powering the nodes. Yep, all the power for the microcontrollers comes via the CAT5 cable. Any additional power is simply for auxiliary uses such as for turnouts. The lower box is the LCC-USB interface used to tie to the PC for configuring the network. Only one is needed for an LCC network. Note each LCC device has two RJ-45 connectors. The system must stay in a linear configuration. The end points have a "terminator" inserted the device plugged into one of the two RJ-45 connectors on the USB interface. |
The RR-Cirkits Power Point supplies power to the LCC network. I had considered mounting the LCC-Buffer-USB on the board, but it would have required a long USB cable to connect to my PC. So I kept it loose as I had a long CAT 5 cable that worked well for reaching to the PC. The LCC-Buffer includes one of the two terminators.
On the far right there is a terminal block for wiring the various track leads together. Note the demo layout is set up for DCC block detection using CTs. I used a length of CAT 5 cable for the track connections, but realizing 24 AWG is NOT sufficient for true power feed to an operating layout. I hope this is not confusing!
To visually link the detection to the track feeders, I also used some CAT 5 cable for the detection wiring back to the BOD4.
By the way, for the detection to work, the layout needs some kind of DCC signal on the tracks. The car I am using for demo has wheel resistors, so with DCC power on the track, it will draw enough current to trip the circuit. But I need some kind of external DCC power supply. Right here I am using a DCC system I have for my test bench. But would like to add a low-cost system to the demo layout so I don't need to drag along a separate system wherever I go. Any ideas would be appreciated!
A single Tortoise slow motion turnout drive was added to show connection to the BOD. I also included a pushbutton for controlling the turnout. I may get all motivated and put the PB into a mounting bracket to give it a more finished look.
 |
| On the left is the Signal-LCC board; on the right is the BOD4-CP I/O board for the track detectors, the push button and the Tortoise drive. The BOD4-CP has no intelligence in it; it simply conditions the signals for the Signal-LCC. A 10-conductor ribbon cable connects the two devices. Note the second terminator in the Signal-LCC board. An LCC network MUST have no less than 2 nodes. In this case, there is the LCC-USB interface and the one Signal-LCC node. This is a minimal LCC network, but it works. |
Three demo signals are provided. These come from MRCS and are a convenient (and low cost!) way to get signals for any layout, albeit a bit rough looking. (http://www.modelrailroadcontrolsystems.com/modular-signal-system-mss/)
I tied the signals to the Signal-LCC board with a 10-conductor ribbon cable and RR-Cirkits standard 10-pin connector. Makes for clean wiring and a firm connection.
 |
| Wiring at the signals. Note that each connector of the Signal-LCC can run 2 heads of signals with FOUR lights each. Since I only needed 3 lights per signal head, two wires are spare. I could tie these to ANY other lighting project I might want to do. The pin-outs are entirely configurable. |
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| On this signal, I used a 2-head signal. Again, there are 2 leads not used. I could tie them to a "lunar" lamp or whatever else might be desired. The LCC folks even suggested using for radio tower beacons or other layout animation. |
Track comes from Atlas. It's your basic code 83 flex track with a #4 turnout.
In keeping with trying for a clean look, I elected to use a clear, all-purpose adhesive to mount the track, signals and restrain the wiring. I ended up discovering Loc-Tite's "Go 2 Glue." Really neat stuff. Adheres to anything, including metals and plastic, holds in about 15-30 min, fully cures in 2 hrs, and dries crystal clear. I will be using this on other projects in the future! The power strip, terminal strip and turnout motor were all mounted with short wood screws. Both the Signal-LCC and the BOD4-CP are mounted on nylon stand-offs. Makes for a classy installation, but could have just as easily used the RR-Cirkits track.
 |
| Really good stuff! |
Configuring of the nodes went along with the same methodology as was used on my layout and has been described before. Really the only major new effort on this project was operational signals. Was a bit of a learning curve, but like anything else, once I got my head around it, it was pretty straight forward. More discussion on that in a future post!
So there you go. The demo layout ready for introducing folks to the world of LCC!
 |
| Note here I had used a longer CAT5 cable to tie back to the PC (red cable). On the right are the DCC track power connections. |
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