Made by a hobbyist
Lighting plays an important role in the appearance of the model. Controlling it using Arduino and relays is possible, but once you want to configure colors and brightness, the complexity increases. Home Assistant (HA) already supports many devices and allows you to manage scenes: WiFi/ZigBee bulbs, switches, and ESPHome. The final result is that from…
This post explains how to increase the number of controllable signals of a model railway from iTrain in an economical way, with an approximate cost of 0.7€/output using DCC-EX. I control the locomotives and turnouts with the ROCO Z21 application or from iTrain. The problem is that to control traffic signals and building lights to…
I sometimes want to program CV to one locomotive without the need to remove other locomotives from the track (POM). To avoid this, added a siding with a DPDS connected to the Z21 white. This allows to bring a loco to the siding, change the switch, program the loco and after changing the switch again…
Creating a cheap and easy setup to view your model railroad from a cabin can be achieved with basic FPV drone equipment. This is not meant to be realistic, although it can be hidden inside a container. Material needed cost approx 50 euros: The layout is simple: Can be mounted in a low wagon and…
Instruction manual can be quite confusing. Here is my simplified circuit installation in a NOCH preformed layout. The manual states that the switch must be connected to have a more robust connection. I have not being able to avoid short circuits following the manual. Making no additional connection to the switch work well. NOCH preformed…
There are a various way to control the signalling on a layout. One possibility is to use the same P and N (rails) to have it fully integration inside the DCC addressing. For this option and using ROCO devices, the layout and material needed is: It is compulsory to connect P and DCC from the…