BoD

Morning all It would appear that I have court case against my name raised by HMRC. I could be going to jail. I hope prisoners are allowed a model railway club. I'm not too sure about the scalpels and soldering iron though. Valerie has packed my bag already. I will let you know what the cake is like there.

I must admit I am struggling a little bit with the Arduino's C++ but then I've only had a couple of sessions 'playing'. Having said that I managed to simulate a four signal section of automatic signalling last night using LEDs for the signals and push buttons to represent track sensors. It's how C++ structures its programs that is taking some getting my head round but it worked. I'm not convinced that it's the most efficient piece of coding but that will come as I learn new aspects of the language. As Eric once nearly said 'all the right bits are there but not necessarily in the right order'

Lots of different ways to approach this but I think they are all base on just one set of ‘drop feeds’. My test track feeds lead to a banana (speaker type) sockets and I have leads with banana plugs on so I can plug in DC or DCC but not both.

Yes, thank you Ian. That was my starting point. In the computer control forum on here there are links to a couple of series of videos/tutorials which are quite good and enough to keep me going for a while. There is certainly plenty of helpful ‘stuff’ out there.

Apropos of nothing in particular ... A good few moons ago I used to write computer programs and enjoyed doing so. When I no longer had to do so, I made the decision to cease as it could be a very time consuming and sometimes a 'hair pulling out' activity. So, could someone please explain to me why on earth I have bought an Arduino starter kit and am now sitting here hunting missing semicolons and logic errors whilst at the same time having to pick up a new computer language. Actually I'm enjoying it again, now that I have the time.

Many more happy orbits, Ian.

His last post did suggest that he was feeling a bit low but he did visit RMweb about 10 minutes ago. Take care, Bob, we are thinking of you.

You mean like in your username?

They have to find the money for all those tests somehow.

GDB still appears to be missing. A pity because I just wanted to point out to him that Falcons beat Quins this afternoon. Seriously though, I hope there is a straightforward explanation for his absence.

All of the lady teachers at my Infant school had fought in WW2. In the SS. And were now nuns. There was one male teacher. He was also a nun.

Don’t knock them. They are going to stop England ending up with the wooden spoon. I’m afraid I have very low expectation of England at the moment and so haven’t been disappointed. This is a case of the whole being much less than the sum of the parts and so the blame can only lie on on place.

I'm a bit further away but it has that affect on me too. Hopefully, one day, in the not too distant future... Until then, Rob, thank you for our daily fix.

Thank you for your reply. I was thinking more about compatibility of the software for connecting and uploading the sketches rather than specific sketches.

I hope you don’t mind me dropping this question in here but it seems related to ‘getting started. I am thinking about dipping my toe into the Arduino world, not necessarily for railway modelling use yet, just out of general interest. I was looking at starter kits and I came across this, what I assume is a clone, by Elegoo. Basic Kit I appreciate it doesn’t contribute to the Arduino project but the could be solved by a donation. Has anyone come across and used this? If so any thoughts on your experience? Will it/should it operate using the software from the Arduino website? (This is where the donation could come in).

I don’t think e-bay is that sort of site.

Only have 14 trains stored in the fiddle yard (you did say you would be swapping things in and out anyway) and leave the central road for locos to run round from the turntable? Assuming your cassette idea won't work.

Comes with its own Trackmat too.

It may be that I am not understanding your track plan or method of working but... Irregardless of type of fiddle yard, if you send a train ‘out’ it will only be going round in one direction and won’t be able to access the fiddle yard again unless the loco runs around or is replaced. Will this happen at the station which I thought was essentially a through station? p.s. wasn’t Dele Alli’s goal,a cracker.

I hadn't seen that. Perhaps not such a good idea then.

Have you seen that vertical storage yard? Nelevator I think they call it. I bet it won't be cheap - but then compared to all the ply that you use ...

I’m sure someone will give you a definitive answer, but if it behaves like a spreadsheet drag on the border between the rows. Highlight all rows and drag one border to make them all the same height.

I refuse to mention the fact that I have never had need for A&E because if I do I know exactly what will happen...

As a lover of school dinners mine would be blood and custard. Good to see you in a positive mood, Gordon.

As others have said it is great to be able to see the overall picture. I may have missed something but how do trains get from the lower level up to the Fort William/ Mallaig bit.