Cobbed together "Voltage" car with digital display on my phone :)

[afleetcommand]

ALREADY building a 2.0 that will be totally normal looking in a caboose. But this real time info was REALLY useful for me to debug track and track connections so I figured I would share.

 

[Rico]

Very cool idea!
If you could put that into a Sperry inspection car even cooler!

 

[afleetcommand]

Anyone make a SRS Rail Detection car?? I'm in the process of acquiring a smaller volt meter. That camera is fine and fits in a typical 0 sized car. Turns out if I'm "smart" about the voltage , I can use track voltage to power the gage

 

[Rico]

Off the top of my head Walthers did one in a few variations.
Oh wait… that’d be HO.
Any doodlebug or similar could be made to work I’d think.

 

[afleetcommand]

Yup. So far a hacked passenger car with a smaller display is the plan where I STILL get the visual reference from the camera to go along with the voltage readings. But small enough to be concealed in a car That will be 2.0 , I was thinking of going with a raspberry pi to just collect the voltage and wifi it to my phone with a display app, but realize the camera, and resultant video is a better place to be if I actually want to review what I've captured later

 

[afleetcommand]

Right now it looks like to get the "Size" I want' I need to get a mini dv voltmeter and rectify the ac to dc more complex than I wanted but will work. Problem is an additional delay and loss in voltage UNLESS I take a locomotive with DC can's and tap off the feed to those. I think I have JUST the Locomotive! This big cheesy Williams SD 45 with ONE powered truck. Tons of space inside and already has a rectifier. Put the read out there and the camera inside as well.

 

[Rico]

I have some locos equipped with the Ring Engineering “Railpro” system.
They read out the track voltage on the handheld as they go which shows where I need better feeders.
This is a neat project you’re onto here!