Sometimes early mistakes make you work twice as hard later. When I set to build this layout I was considering a NCE DCC system with JMRI but eventually I landed on a PiSprog. This presented challenges as its a open book but not well documented on how to input sensors and such. I knew when I started that I wanted to go with switch machines but did not want external decoders and switch machines like the venerable Tortoise and the SMAILs were not well tested. I went with Walthers Switch Machines but they presented a challenge. They have a form of DCC decoder in them won't report to the DCC system when you do a local trigger of a route change. Fortunately Walthers was smart enough to put limit switches on the side which can be used to trigger a Arduino sensor shield for reporting. I will cover this in a later post. The shield also comes with a added benefit of Caboose Ground Throws can be used to report the status of their routing to JMRI. The easiest way to do this is to ...
Model Railroad Musings