Lost

Dear Dr Geoff

You said in your post Are you lost, The answer is YES .

I think I will have to read it again ,again then again . I like the idea about lighting but it seems so complicated.

Smokey Dawson    Australia

Lost Smokey

Hi Smokey,

That paragraph in the sidebar, just before the lost question is asked, was meant to be an overly technical description of what the article is trying not to do. To find your way out of the forest, focus on one of the 28 projects and pick one that you might be interested in building -- the lighting projects are all pretty simple. Wiring LEDs for the project is the most tedious part, but not complex. Page 19 says it all for a project:

Once you decide which project you would like to use:
1. Set up IDE editor on your computer (see bonus downloads).
2. From the bonus downloads this issue, copy all the files in the
MRH folder to your Arduino sketches folder – usually:
…\Documents\Arduino\ on a Windows machine.
3. From the bonus downloads, copy all the files in MRH_
libraries folder to your Arduino libraries folder – usually:
…\Documents\Arduino\libraries\ on a
Windows machine.
4. Wire your Arduino according to the pictures or diagrams.
5. Download the specific sketch to your Arduino using the
instructions in the bonus downloads and enjoy!

The editors placed the detailed loading instructions to the additional materials download. It contains more than the usual additional materials -- it contains necessary and essential materials to get going. So take a moment, download and read through the Getting started with the Arduino Uno. It has detailed step by step instructions with screen shots of every step. You can ignore all the additional info for customizing or tweaking your project until you get the basic project going. Every project can be used, as is, and unmodified.

Many non techie modelers have been able to use these effectively. Ask questions along the way and you will likely build more interesting models than I ever will!

Have fun! 

The Key to this stuff for me...

Hey Smokey,

I know it's a lot to understand out of the gate.  Slow down and take it a bit at a time.

The key for me, was to buy the Arduino experimenters kit from Adafruit and FOLLOW ALONG as Dr. Geoff suggests, by picking one simple project to start, then see it through.  We all will help with any questions you have.

You don't have to buy this kit to learn, but most of us have to learn this by DOING, in my opinion.  Simply reading about it does not work for most folks.

You'll find it gets easier as you gain experience.

Regards,

Superb work Geoff!

My layout is quickly coming back together and I am so anxious to get back to the Arduino projects.  This epistle will become a reference book for me.

Thanks for the great Christmas gift!

Joe Baldwin

Great Work!

  I built my first DCC++ system using this stuff - Really quite amazing what one can do on the cheap.

Jim

@Joe and Jim

Hi Joe & Jim,

Many thanks! I hope you build some great models and share them with us!

Have fun! 

Down load

Dr Geoff

Have obtained All the downloads am trying to get my head around it , finding it hard but I am starting to get the positive feel instead of my usual fix ( hit it with a hammer if it dose not work get a BIGGER hammer)

Kevin.

Thank's I think I will try and buy the kit from Adafruit,

Again thank's to all for making this hobby enjoyable . Thank you

Smokey Dawson    Australia

Excellent Article

My future son-in-law has been excited about the Modeling possibilities of the Arduino from the outset, and this is the BEST explanation and tutorial I have seen ANYWHERE.  Thank you very much!!  I can't wait to try some of these when I get a little more layout built, especially the welder.

As an aside, my future son-in-law uses his Arduino to control the temperature in his beer brewing.  You can do amazing things with these little gadgets.

Time to throw out my Powerpoint

I gave an Arduino basics clinic last February and am scheduled to give another one this coming March for the local NMRA division. With this article, I'll be adding another web reference to my Powerpoint. Thanks for pulling all the basics together, Sir, without weighting down the topic with too much information that newbies can avoid knowing.

You're welcome

You're welcome!

Geoff can tell you the MRH editorial staff went back and forth with him on this article A LOT to distill it down to just what's needed to help you dip your toe into this topic - and not overwhelm you with technical jargon.

The very best approach is to pick one of the simpler examples and try to follow it through from start to finish. You have a photo of the wiring setup, plus a video of it in operation, so you know more or less how it goes together and what it's supposed to do.

Next is to download the bonus materials and get the parts in hand, then try to download the sketch unmodified into the board and test it out.

Once you can get it working, then you will have proven you can do it to yourself. Next, explore making a few simple changes to the sketch and see how it changes things.

Having done that, try one of the more complex projects ... and the sky's the limit!

Great article!

Thank you very much for this great article!

Arduino Uno Servo Shield and Rocrail

Dr. Geoff

It is a very interesting thing.
Question: How can I connect the Arduino Uno, the servoSHIELD with Loconet and Rocrail? - The RaspberryPI as a server over Ethernet.
Are there modules for this?


Thank you very much for your reply.

Greetings
Andreas

Five Stars!

Very well laid out and presented.  This is a mammoth article and a great introduction to Arduino for hobbyists.

I look forward to delving deeper into this.  Kudo's also to MRH, I know well how the back and forth goes on a piece of this size and technical nature.  Nicely done, all!

Thanks as always, Dr. Geoff!

Best regards,

Experimenters pack

Kevin, if all you are going to do is use one (or more) of Geoff's projects I think the Adafruit kit will be over kill. If you want to learn how to program the Arduino and control things beyond Geoff's projects then the Experimenters pack is probably good, so before you buy decide what you want to do.

You don't really need to learn how to program the Arduino to use Geoff's projects, simply get the components, LEDs, resistors, UNO, wire and put them together in one of the projects, load the sketch for that project and away you go. Don't know what stores you have in Australia that you might be able to go and buy the electronic parts in, but there are lots of mail order sources, of course some probably have outrageous shipping.

I think if you read through the Bonus Extra: Setting-up-and-using-the-Arduino-IDE.pdf you'll have a better handle on things, especially if you can get yourself an UNO easily, don't know how long the e-bay source mentioned in there will take to get you one.

Outstanding article Dr.

Outstanding article Dr. Geoff. You certainly knocked this one into the next Zip Code.    10 stars!  100 likes, and three cheezies!

Randy

@Smokey

Hi Smokey,

Glad to hear you are getting a bit more comfortable. If you are spending more than several minutes thinking about a particular step -- ask a question! There are many good, knowledgeable people here on the forum who likely went through exactly what you are working through now -- including me.  Asking questions is how we all learn and it can same you furstration and valuable modeling time.

Have fun! 

Hi Michael, Kurt, engineer

Hi Michael, Kurt, engineer (name?), Kevi, and Randy,

Many thanks for your kind comments.

For those of you giving clinics locally or regionally you might want to check out clinics I gave this past summer at the NMRA Indianapolis gathering.

I look forward to all of your great modeling projects to come.

Have fun! 

@Andreas re: Loconet and Rocrail

Hi Andreas,

There is a loconet library that works written by Alex Shepherd which you can find at: http://mrrwa.org/loconet-interface/  Jim Plocher has designed a Loconet shield:  http://www.scuba.net/wiki/index.php/LocoShield

I don't know very much at all about Rocrail, or an interface to it.

Also there are some very knowledgeable people who could likely help further on the Yahoo Arduino for Model Railroaders group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Arduini/info

'Hope this helps.

Have fun! 

Great article!

This is just the type of article that is needed - no tech jargon, just a very good how to explanation. Features like this are why I love MRH.  THANK YOU! 

Arduino, Loconet with Rocrail

Dear Geoff,
Thanks for the reply.
I have to make myself smart and read through.

Greetings from Germany

Inconsistency

On the 8 pushbutton controlled servos with LED indicator, the picture only shows 7 servos and 6 pushbuttons, yet I see you define 8 of each. Did you just not have enough buttons and servos for the picture? At first I thought maybe one button moved a couple servos, but didn't see that in the video.

Overall a great article and many use cases provided.

@Jim re: Pushbuttons, Servos and Project Rationale

Hi Jim,

The servo demo started as a 6 servo switched demo that I wanted to extend to demonstrate "route" control and differentiate route switching by literally adding another servo. After that I realized someone was likely to ask to "maximize" pin utilization to the fullest and the eight switch/eight servo sketch came about. The reason I added the example, in fact many of the examples, was to get people to realize how easy it was to alter the sketches for your own modeling. For example, there are 2 sketches for the crossing lights and bell where the only difference is how the switch which turns it on is used -- ON with switch LOW or ON with switch HIGH. For those using a switch or sensor in some model later on, they can look at the 2 and compare methods.

There was actually more work than one might imagine to write an article like this (easier/simpler than many of the more technical articles and blogs I have written), It probably doesn't even seem like this! I debated over the approach and examples and structure for literally months before putting it all together. And even then, the editors went at it too, whose interaction spawned virtually all the sidebars. I was reminded many times of the writer who started a letter to his friend: "I am sorry this letter is so long, but I didn't have the time to write a short one." I first noticed this when teaching a basic programming course to Business School students. Too much, too soon, with the wrong vocabulary and you lost your class. I hope these efforts reach many, many modelers. I believe the additional leverage it can give a modeler is worth all the effort.

Have fun! 

Inspiration

This article inspired me to bring my Experimenter's pack with me this week to work on in the evenings while away from home.  I hope by the end of the week, I'll at least have my crossing flashers working, but I have to buy that sound module for the bell and add that later.

Thanks for a great article that has provided some inspiration!

Arduino.

Dr Geoff.

I checked out the Web and come across CORE Electronics (in Australia) they stock Adafruit & Arduino Uno ,Plus they have video's , tutorial's

So here go's if there's a large blackout in OZ it's probably me plugging in the the wrong leads ( But having fun doing it)

Geoff please keep up the excellent work.

Smokey Dawson      Australia

PS     Merry Christmas & a Happy new Year .