Model Railroad Electronics

All products include CD's with development tools, schematics and source code. Code libraries and examples of existing control panels built for the Highland Park Society of Model Railroad Engineers, an HO club in San Gabriel, CA, are also included. These electronics are intended for the computer hobbyist with trains on the brain, some computer programming is required. All are available bare board or assembled and tested.

The Brain
A general purpose microcontroller based on the Microchip PIC16F877. This powerful little controller has a four line by 20 character LCD, 256KB of EEPROM, 512KB static RAM, an Ethernet (10base-T) interface, plus digital I/O. The Brain connects to other boards with two 40-pin connectors. These controllers can communicate with each other using UDP/IP, and with desktop computers via the built-in HTTP server or TTFTP (Tiny Trivial File Transfer Protocol). Software and data can easily be updated from PC or MAC. (A&T $200, BB $42)

Brain To DMFE Bus Interface
A double buffered digital interface which slows down and isolates address and data so input and output boards may be placed up to thirty feet away from the controller. Three sixteen conductor ribbon cables, each of which can drive eight input and/or output boards, plug into this interface. (A&T $55, BB $21)

Output 128
A general purpose output board for the DMFE bus which provides 128 MOSFET pull-to-ground outputs for driving lamps, relays or whatever. Each output can sink up to 2 amps with a maximum of 5 amps combined for all outputs. Up to eight Input 128/Output 128 boards can be connected to each DMFE bus cable. (comming soon, send email)

Input 128
A general purpose input board for the DMFE bus which provides 128 addressable pull-to-ground inputs for reading switches, block occupancy, turnout feedback or whatever. Up to eight Input 128/Output 128 boards can be connected to each DMFE bus cable. (comming soon, send email)

Brain To Panel Interface
Connects the Brain to a block assignment and turnout control panel. Address and drive for thirty-two Block Modules. Up to three Brain To Panel interface boards and one Brain To DMFE interface board may be stacked on the back of one Brain. (A&T $172 cables not included, BB $42)

Block Module
This tiny board is the basis for a control panel. It connects one push button switch, a seven segment display and up to 15 LED's, including two bicolor LED's, to a Brain To Panel interface with a twelve conductor ribbon cable. Up to ninety six Block Modules may be used to build a dispatchers control panel. (A&T call, BB $4)

Block Relay Board
Connect up to six throttles to one block. Features include: interlocking, can be extended to any number of throttles, block detection input, central traffic control output, bid LED outputs, and three color (selected, occupied and selected + occupied) outputs for each cab. Uses Omron “MY” 4PDT relays not included. (BB only $24)

Servo Controller
Use any standard R/C servo to control a semaphore signal. Three positions are settable and the LED output can be set to normally on or normally off. The PIC16F628 at the heart of this versatile little module is in a socket so you can tweak the software to do other things. Requires 7.5 to 16 volts D.C. (12 volts nominal). (A&T $23, BB $5)

Prices listed are for 1 (one), quantity discounts are available.