Setting up

That's a NodeMCU, a motor shield suitable, hooked up to the track and Märklin power supply. Also got some servos, and a wiring loom ready for a CAN bus interface.

Now for software...

Some direction

This is a project in my spare time. Now, how much spare time I have is another question, but it is still a spare time project.

However, given the fact I noticed something mentioned about OpenLCB hardware (Silicon Railway, RailStars), I believe I can comment on a bit of it.

Here's the screenshot in question:

I honestly can't remember what the Io:Duino was worth in price, but pretty certain it wasn't the cheapest, otherwise I'd be a proud owner of one. I was actually a proud owner of a Silicon Railway LEDuino, before it got stolen, I paid the cost of shipping from Canada to Australia for it from the preproduction run. As far as I know though, LEDuinos were never really offered for general sale, as I tried to get another before RailStars come on the scene.

I also note, both Silicon Railway and RailStars had little engagement with the community. These were probably part-time/ spare time ventures, and shipping Arduino's to customers who then clamoured to know how to actually use the poorly documented things would've been Hell, and probably led to the folding of both Silicon Railway and RailStars.

I noted at the beginning, this is also my spare time project.

I have quite a bit of spare time though!

I can't produce OTS hardware to begin with while I bootstrap myself in this venture, and prove it'll work. However, I'm going to name a favourite project of mine:

http://www.canb.us

And note the whole Kickstarter thing, all of that.

To my rescue, I can build a circuit board assembly robot, a toaster solder oven, and get a vacuum pump easily. Most of the issue right now is budget, but if I sell some copies of my book, I can probably get the OTS hardware show on the road. I've got a 3D printer, an UP! Mini. I'm getting another, come March, to hack the crap out of (my main job is 3D design and printing of those designs). I'm going to try to push the envelope with the printers, see how fine and precise I can get my prints.

Are my products going to be exclusively for model railway applications? No. Am I going to market only to that segment? No. There are other uses for CAN, in automotive applications, in CNC applications. Having a Linux computer that can talk native CAN with only a small addon board would be an advantage to those sectors. Plus there is my own interests in CAN, as a noise resistant industrial data bus. There is applications for CAN popping up in the Vedders ESC, a high torque 50A open source brushless DC motor controller. I have reasons to focus on that, and I thank a friend, Rory, for putting more onto that in the first place. Vedders ESC is most familiar in the longboard world. I'm hoping to open a new application for it.

What I will offer is the first couple of chapters of my book for beta review by the community. I want your thoughts and comments. I honestly love the technology we have now, but the price! If you're handy, like me, you can probably build it for the same price point I'm doing it at.

I hope you join me on this journey. I was once asked to make a contract I was doing open source, before the contract terminated due to ill health. But this is the first ever project I am making completely open source of my own volition. I think modellers should enjoy the models, not cringe over the sticker shock of the fancy control system, when everyone else is enjoying it for less than a third of the price.

The beginning of a journey

"You know Shane, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step..."

- Professor Terence M. Sabine, 2004

Just recently I bought a Märklin train set from my local Aldi here in Casino, at the reduced price of $99.99, down from $179. It was old stock from Christmas, of course, and stubbornly wouldn't shift, despite the reductions placed on it. I picked it up two weeks ago, and while I had a general idea the set could be computer controlled, I didn't realise I'd be tumbling down Alice's rabbit hole, almost literally...

I can build a computer controlled command station for AU$26!

Shocking hey?

If I spend a bit more money, I can have up to thirty amps in a section!

How am I able to do all of this?

This is the beauty of open source.

I'm well versed in both open source hardware and software as part of the duties I undertook as an embedded systems developer after I took my trade as a linesman. I started off with Arduino, moved onto the Raspberry Pi, and yup, I am a true child of the GNU Generation.

If you look carefully at the ECoS made by ESU, you'll note it's quite similar to what I work with - an embedded Linux computer! But I personally find the cost of the ECoS quite shocking, at near AU$1,000, especially since I was skimping my pennies to get the Märklin set in the first place!

Besides, I can build stuff, both with soldering iron and keyboard, in equal measure. So I've committed to making my little train set run with a computer control system, based on an Arduino Leonardo, a motor shield, and a CAN bus shield. It works out to be $26 in parts.

All good you reckon. Well, I ain't going to stop there - I will then attempt to make a point machine capable of controlling 27 points, for next to nothing. I imagine that would be about $40 in parts, not including the servos that'll move (or actuate) the points themselves. The word actuate I'll be using a fair bit, get used to it.

My game is, I want more money to spend on locos, and stuff like points and trackage. For wagons, control, buildings, so on, I'll make it myself, and I'll show you how to as well.

The Open Source Express train is about to depart Platform 1, all aboard please!