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21Oct/082

PCB Design Complete

Well, after a long fight of finding appropriate software and then design I've finally sent off the final (if not entirely messy) design to the manufacturers...

Sure, it's not as small as I would have liked... but it's all set in stone now. I should see 8pcs on my doorstep in around a fortnight and then I can finally produce a finished product.
I can't wait actually... Last weekend I tested the final prototype on my own layout... which really only allows for around 3 trains running (one on a branch, one stuck in a siding and one on the main) and my battery ran out on the laptop before I had a chance to fully test it all out... either way, the quick test ran perfectly on all accounts:

I also purchased two DCC Accessory Decoders from eBay. I coded those in to trainControl (you'll see a few little squares above the console messages and below the train throttles) and they work great. Unfortunately they cannot be wired directly to the Kato UniTrack points (you'll need to wire a few relays in between) but I'm told work well on the Peco points. I didn't get to test them at the time.

The DCC Accessory Decoders did require me to do a bit of fine tuning on the Booster circuit though; it turns out they suck quite a bit of current on power-up to charge their little capacitors. This meant that the initial current draw on the booster was exceeding the trip circuit and the whole system would not power on.
After a little help the 1K2 resistor providing the op-amp comparison voltage was incremented to a 1K4 and everything worked fine.
This made me realise that the circuit will have different requirements for different layouts and so the final design will now incorporate a trimpot (initially set to 1K4) that can be user adjustable [but WILL void warranty] for 'expert users' to adjust.
Anyway... the work continues... everything is now set. I'm quite proud of the entire system and I can't wait to see the final circuit boards!
UPDATE: The boards are already done and on their way (priority) to me... thanks to Silver Circuits!

Comments (2) Trackbacks (0)
  1. don’t mind to mail me about DCC Booster schematic? Please..

    • Howdy,

      I no longer have the files or the application to do this… your best bet is to trace the wires in the picture above and build from there.

      Sorry!
      Steven.


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