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Control Panels for your Layout

 Sunday's Scottish Border Zoom Meeting featured a talk by John Gowers on Control Panels. 

Twenty one members joined from around the country with our normal group numbers swelling to over fifty as a result of Covid-19 and the adoption of Zoom meetings.


John started his talk with how he used to do things with switch panels and complex wiring before turning to JMRI (Java Model Railroad Interface) an open source project that consists of JMRI, DecoderPro and PanelPro. These programs are available as a free single download from JMRI

He predominately uses CBUS modules to transfer signals across the layout and they have designed their own PCB's to ensure switches and lights exactly match the laser etched front panel.

This is made of a two colour layered acrylic sheet with the top black layer being etched away to reveal the white tracks underneath, Holes are drilled through to accommodate the push button led switches mounted on the PCB below.

Some custom CBUS kits have been made by the group and are available for purchase through the Railway Modelling Experts website.

Some of our members had to leave early due to a conflict with other MERG Zoom meetings. Thanks to John for his presentation.

For those missing all or some of the event, or wishing to revisit it, Keith fortunately chose to record it.

Due to the expense of hosting Zoom video, this recording will be edited and eventually be made available as a YouTube link. Many thanks to Jim McPherson for his efforts to make this available to everyone.

You can watch the video now.

Andy R

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