Welcome to the Cumbria & Scottish Borders Area Group Forum

 At  today's meeting of the North Wales Area Group, Alan Turner presented a basic introduction to the FCU ( FLim Configuration Utility) for controlling CBUS units. Alan began by describing the minimum requirements for a test board which is the best way to begin with CBUS so that you understand how things work before attempting to implement it on your layout. Starting with a push button operating a led that switched off when the pushbutton was released, Alan showed how this can be readily changed to a latched operation  by manipulating the Node Values. Depending on whether you use push buttons or normal switches you have the flexibility to choose either. Alan then added a new module , the CANMIOSVO which can control up to 8 servos. The end positions can  be set up and then controlled by switch or pushbutton. The beauty of CBUS is that a single event can actually trigger more than one output which would allow one switch to set a route of perhaps five points on a layout. Important mes

 At this mornings Virtual Area Group Meeting, Rob Thomas described how he uses  CBUS to control his OO9 layout.  He discussed the Pros and Cons of the various available systems including MERG's Automatic Train Controller, commercial offerings and Mike Bolton's Basin Speed Controller. Having opted for the Basin Speed Controller version as the basis of his project, he then looked at how he might add additional control using CBUS. Various versions were developed starting with a seven speed and stop initial project with subsequent modifications to overcome some of the problems associated with the different behaviours of individual train motors. Speed and Inertia were eventually  controlled using files created from a Python script and stored on an Arduino. He uses RFID to identify the locos so that the correct profile can be loaded to the controller. This is certainly not a beginners subject but the video is available on the Merg website for those interested.

 Yet another well attended meeting of the West of Scotland Group with 34 members attending including Greg from Australia. Davy Dick showed us some work he had been doing on improving the basic Track Circuit Voltage detector (PMP 1). A commercial offering shown below has recently been reduced to just under £13 pounds. The theory behind how these work was explained and various potential methods outlined including rectification for DCC users. Keith Shovelin also demonstrated a DCC version that included a voltage display which would be ideal for fault finding on a layout. These solutions are all substantially cheaper. George showed us his new Diorama of a street scene with flashing road cones using pre-wired  MicroLitz leds with  a welder repairing pipes using basic PMP kits and some 3D printing. Davy then discussed progress on the carriage lighting project using the much smaller SMD ITR8307 instead of the TCRT5000.  He demonstrated the voltage change using a flag attached to some points.

 At the 23rd October Meeting of the Cumbria Area Group, we were joined again by David Roberts to present the second of his talks on Power Supplies, this time covering Voltage Regulators for Electronics Modules. He covered linear regulators including the 78xx and 79xx series.  The important subject of regulator efficiency was discussed with the requirement of heatsinks to dissipate the unused energy. How Power Supplies are designed and used was illustrated using some of the readily available MERG Kits including the 5 Volt Adaptor Module (Kit 60),  12 V from an ac supply PMP 6 ( Kit 806), the Universal PSU (Kit 920) and finally CANACC5 (Kit 85). Then the much more efficient and more expensive switching regulators were covered towards the end of the talk, followed by a general question and answer session. Andy Woolass has managed to record both of David's talks and I am delighted to let you know that these are now available on Channel 36 in the MERG TV section of the website. If you a

 The North Wales Group are currently running a project on Shuttle boards. This is an ideal project for those new to the hobby and is based on Davy Dick's Pocket Money Kits. Allan Geekie is assisting on the project which benefits from the availability of Printed Circuit Boards rather than the normal stripboard. Full details are available on the North Wales shuttle blog , but you will need to be  a member of the Group to access the pages. Apart from the outlay on the PMP kits, Allan has produced a set of additional parts that include the PCB's, additional components and a 3D printed frame with inserts to assist with mounting. As you can see from the photograph above, the Kits being used are:          PMP 10  Speed Controller          PMP 4    Simple Shuttle         PMP 15  Station Auto Stop There is no reason why this cannot be extended further using PMP4a  - Shuttle Add on which works in conjunction with PMP 18-  Ezypoints. If you are interested in the PMP 18, I have made up a P

 Martin Pearson has been busy again and produced a really useful Servo Mount. The gcode file produces a single print of three pieces which need to be separated and slightly cleaned before assembly. Holding a standard SG90 servo a piece of stiff wire is attached to the servo arm and passes through the vertical slot of the slider. The clip on lid provides a method of attaching micro switches which can provide feedback on the position of the slider at both ends of  its travel. Keith found that he had to glue a small shim to the contact surfaces to make sure the switch activated. This might be down to the type of micro switch being used. I used one with an actuating arm and the range of movement available in the mounting slots was ideal without any modification. A partially assembled example is shown below. The base has two mounting holes for securing to the baseboard and the slider can be installed with the actuator bar facing  left ( as in the picture) or right. The three pieces click to

 Two interesting PIC projects were shown at JALSIG's last meeting which is now available to view on MERG TV. Brian Norris demonstrated a program which simulates eleven lit traffic cones working in a chaser sequence as you would see on a motorway or roadworks. Developed using a 16F18323 chip, Brian explains how he moved from a very basic program to a more sophisticated one using the pintools function. This was followed by a presentation by Ian Hart showing a CANMIO board with modified code that checked the inputs and outputs in a specific sequence.     This apparently is a really useful tool to fault find boards coming from other members to ensure outputs and inputs are soldered properly without shorts or bridges. The session was recorded and is available on the JALSIG area of MERG TV You would have to join the Group through the area groups page.

 On today's West of Scotland area Group Zoom (11th October 20), there was a general call to members to provide video material for a Virtual Exhibition. These don't need to be of completed layouts and in fact would be more useful if they were work in progress or how you are using MERG kits to do things on your layout from points control to automation. About 30 members joined the session , hosted by Davy and presented by Chic Thomson. A very entertaining presentation as always which covered, selection of equipment using HDMI and USB standards, cameras, lighting, microphones, video mixers, tripods, storyboarding and lots of where to buy information. Lots of hints and tips on how to produce video with consistent results, including perhaps the most important -  don't move the camera or zoom during a shot. It is far better to take multiple separate clips without audio and edit or add a script later. The Powerpoint is available on the West of Scotland's DropBox. Some samples o

 Although this was only a coffee and chat meeting, eleven members joined us for an interesting session which basically covered what was on our workbenches. Some members suffered from technical gremlins on the Zoom session but hopefully they will have that sorted for next time. Andy Woolass had volunteered to be a guinea pig for building the latest version of an EzyBus Input Module. It was a fairly straightforward build but the lack of sufficient ground points for external connections was a suggested improvement. The original Input board which used an MCP23017 Module was originally supplied by Davy Dick for £2. Members trying to build their own using a provided PCB, sometimes fell foul of the different form factors of this Module which caused obvious fitting problems. It is for this reason the PCB has been redesigned to accept a more standard 28 Pin DIL device. The Kit will be available in the Kitlocker, but at £7.20 it is a little expensive. Various members showed Arduino development b

 I have been using my PIC Programming Kit for a number of years.  In the main, I have downloaded the relevant Hex files from the MERG website and written them to whatever PIC was required, either for my own projects or for those of other members. PICs can be significantly smaller than Arduino Nanos for example and as I sometimes model in N gauge, space matters. Following a previous post on carriage lighting, I considered using Davy Dick's PMP 19 as a starting point. Even a 12F675 PIC takes up a fair amount of room, but then I came across an SMD version of the same device. It's much smaller and surprisingly cheaper than the original, but how the hell can you program them? I found this device on AliExpress which simply plugs into the programmer using the standard pitched pins on the base. The SMD device sits on the top and a set of spring loaded pins then secures each pin above and below to ensure good contact. Works an absolute treat.  Now all I need to do is design an SMD circu

 At last week's Cumbria Group meeting, the twelve attending members were treated to an excellent talk delivered by David Roberts. The in depth presentation covered the old style 16 Volt ac / 12 Volt dc type, the smaller and more efficient switch mode power supplies in their Wall-Wart and power brick guises as commonly found on modems, monitors and laptop devices. Recycled desktop computer supplies and bench power supplies are also discussed. There is plenty of good advice on ensuring safety by keeping mains voltage off the layout and ensuring the supplies you use are fit for purpose. For those who missed out, the talk is being delivered again to the Scottish Border Group on Sunday 4th October at 2:00 pm

 This is the cafe sign that Andrew Robb has set up for me, and I have installed it in a Metcalfe kit PO254 It runs off a Arduino Nano board with a 132*32 OLED The set up is the same as the Station sign but with a new program in the Nano The display board is mounted into a slightly modified 3D printed sign holder Sorry the Video is not very sharp. Many thanks to Andrew for doing this for me.