Great Northwestern Railway

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. 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 o...

A few months ago there was a post on the LCC Groups.IO forum talking about the ability for one of the LCC node I/O points to both act as an INPUT, that is, to accept a push button command, AND act as an output, such as to illuminate an indicating light.  This is super cool!  Why?  Well at an all-in cost of around $3 per I/O point, it's hard to justify a lot of indicating lights on panels.  BUT... if we can get a "free" output for each discrete input, well, that is just like having your cake and eating it too!  (Never totally understood that analogy, but seems fitting.) The way this works is the node runs the I/O point as an output for 63 milliseconds, and then for a few milliseconds, it converts the output to an input where it polls the input.  So if it detects a "low" or a "high" in this window, it creates the appropriate event.  Slick, huh?  Timing at 63 ms is fast enough that even if the PB is just momentarily touched, it is enough to trigger...

So ALL the efforts, costs, brain damage and such to get LCC integrated into the layout is paying off in this one new step.  Let me explain. With LCC, each node is essentially its very own stand-alone microprocessor, capable of processing commands INDEPENDENTLY of a central PC or other server.  It just is connected to at the CAN bus, either looking for commands to respond (consumer) to or to issue them (producer).  SO... this addresses one of the goals of integrating LCC into my layout.  Sometimes I like to come down into the layout room and just run trains.  I don't have others with me, and for me, its a great way to unwind.  When I do that, I don't want to have to futz with turning on a PC and getting it going.  Ya, I know, some say it is not that big of a deal.  But if I am only going to be there for 5 or 15 minutes, seems like a hassle to mess with that.  I just want to through the power switch on, have the layout come to life, and run s...

One of the hardest things about learning about a new hardware system is to simply understand the parts and how they go together.  Here is an introductory walkaround of the LCC components on the GNW.  In the video, you will see the "hubs" - collections of nodes, nodes, both Tower-LCC and Signal-LCC, how the LCC Power-Point ties in, as well as the USB computer interface.  Also presents a few ideas on how to install the system. Link is   HERE Enjoy!