It has been a while since there was any progress worth mentioning. First there was a short holiday, then there was a period with temperatures too high to comfortably do any work under the table. And it was under table where all the final work was … wiring 29 reed switches to the S88 Arduino’s.
Past week it cooled down a bit and I crawled under the table to do the wiring and the necessary soldering. A new milestone is reached: all connections are done! Should be able to drive around fully automated now. Play time!
Well … that was too much to hope for. Testing the S88 sensor signals on the ECoS the good news was that the software seems to work fine, but the bad news was that 5 sensors did not come in and one was permanently on. Electrical measurements led to the conclusion that luckily the wiring was ok, but that the reeds were bad.
A closer inspection showed that with the 6 bad ones the glass was cracked. Probably that happened either while bending the lead wires 90 degrees, which I did very close to the glass, or while pushing them into place on the track, for which with I had to apply some force, the dropper wire holes were a bit tiny. Apparently the reeds are too fragile to withstand such treatment.
Those 6 reeds needed to be replaced, which took some extra time and effort. But this little set back will soon be forgotten and what remains now is … driving fun! 🙂
The 4 engines were already ‘speed profiled’, so all that needed to be done now is to test the settings in every block for brake- and stop distance. That’s just a few minutes work per block. Just drive a train into the block via ‘Autotrain by Drag and Drop’, see where it stops, change the brake- and stop distance a few cm if needed and test it a second time. Done.
The video shows all trains drive happily around, all on a series of Schedules with successors.
rudysmodelrailway 
HI Rudy
can you tell me which reed sitches and magnets you use ?
Dick Koning
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Posted by dick koning | November 19, 2015, 18:36The magnets are these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-sale-100pcs-Strong-Round-Dia-8mm-x-1-5mm-N50-Rare-Earth-Neodymium-Magnet-Art/1909970385.html
The reeds came from an old stash, don’t know a type number. But I bet any reed will do, like maybe these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-50PCS-LOT-Reed-Switch-2X14MM-GLASS-Green-N-O-Low-Voltage-Current-100-NEW/32246839973.html
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Posted by RudyB | November 19, 2015, 18:46Hi Rudy
Great stuff, very interesting and helpful. Just like to share my experiences of using reed switches and magnets for block detectors. As you have discovered they are very fragile and easy broken, been there, done that.
I use them with RocRail but I’ve found it better not to bend the switch legs, but leave them straight and solder dropper wires to them to pass through the baseboard.
This also has an added benefit of increasing the detection length, as the switch reacts when the magnet passes over the leg at both sides, so that you get two switching actions with one pass.
I found this to be much better with RocRail, sometimes the pulse created is too short to be detected at faster train speeds.
Keep up the good work, you have got me seriously considering to change to TC Gold despite the high cost.
Peter G (Sunny Sydney)
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Posted by Peter Gilbert | August 14, 2015, 05:53Hi Peter. Hey, that was a ‘clever moment’ to leave the wires on, running along the track and solder the droppers onto them! Indeed that will probably give a longer switching pulse. I can (luckily) say though that right now it’s working fine here too, haven’t missed any train detection so far (after I found the last badly soldered and therefore loose contact under the table 🙂
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Posted by RudyB | August 14, 2015, 06:55Hi Rudy
Another benefit of fitting the reed switches with dropper wires, is that it’s much easier to replace any broken ones.
Saves soldering under the table, and the legs don’t need to be bent to suit the holes.
Peter G
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Posted by Peter Gilbert | August 15, 2015, 00:15