First WiFi Loco-Nodes, ready for fabrication/assembly


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New boards are inbound

Changes:

Deleted redundant circuits in the FX LED to save space
Micro-SD Card used
Some cleanup in the audio amplifier circuit
New power supply which is a module with inductors, diodes, etc in one SoC
Some cleanup on I2C
Added TV out

We found USB booting disables both the WiFi and Audio so the audio will be 100% now with the processor being able to boot the SD-Card

I still have an updated eMMC version I can run but the SD Card eliminates a lot of programming hassles so it's likely the format I will stick with

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All of the changes are based on testing over the past year. Looking forward to getting this batch, should be done all hardware with this version
 
These look interesting. I too would be interested but I will never send him money until I know he has the product to ship and then I would still be skeptical of him. I don't want to get into it here as he gets all pissed off if you bad mouth him in public.

Dave
 
railBuilderDhd said:
These look interesting. I too would be interested but I will never send him money until I know he has the product to ship and then I would still be skeptical of him. I don't want to get into it here as he gets all pissed off if you bad mouth him in public.

Dave
Click to expand...

Interesting, both www.layout-ioe.com and our Rebel Locomotives Shapeways store have 100% fulfilment rates. What basis do you have for your libel? If it's Railflyer, the company shut down after a successful online libel campaign killed it, but those who contacted us in the past three years had their orders filled. Other than that, that entity is done.
 
railBuilderDhd said:
These look interesting. I too would be interested but I will never send him money until I know he has the product to ship and then I would still be skeptical of him. I don't want to get into it here as he gets all pissed off if you bad mouth him in public.

Dave
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Yeah, most people would get "pissed" when you cause undue harm to their wife, children, friends, clients, and people how have worked very hard and need payment for their efforts

Since your and other "clients" online libel, and cyber bullying succeeded in the above, on a personal level it has failed

Which after all is the intent of your post, to cause me personal harm

On a personal level I have nothing but gratitude for these attacks. While you all deserve a smack down for the harm you've caused my loved ones I want to protect, personally you have improved my life by:

Enabling me to refocus on my marriage and children above my business

Enabled me to refocused my career, live a cash only lifestyle, and increase my income

Enabled me to pay off $320,000 in creditor obligations in 21 months and have them discharged

Drop a failed business model

Refocus on a better 3D printed business and WiFi based products without the burden of Railflyer

I know it doesn't make sense to you that your libel after knowingly purchasing a "pre-order" product could lead to business failure and non-delivery of that product, but reality is, that was the intent of your personal attack

That purchase was well before Layout-IoE was started and there is no connection of the two, so thank you for the help personally but please think of other people you effect when you libel a business you have never had any business with in the past

Thank You,

Christopher Howard
Layout-IoE
 
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I don't know either one of you from Adam, and I'm pretty sure at this point, I'm good with that.

Let me know if you ever make them in the US with US made parts. I pay extra for that kind of thing.
 
new boards arrived

the battery charger and power supply work, the battery I've been using is finally dead, will not hold a charge so I am stuck for testing until I get home again

this image shows the external power @ 15V being used to charge the battery

i know the bad battery protection is working. the recharge stopped midstream as it should when a bad battery is detected, and the voltage regulator module wouldn't power the system as it sensed a reverse current

the new voltage module incorporates all of the inductors, diodes, and normally external components in one single chip, it saves a lot of space

IMG_20160320_2058361_zps3n95zbwt.jpg


IMG_20160322_0850148_zps7yp2xsax.jpg


IMG_20160319_1806146_zpsq3byp23k.jpg
 
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Productive day, stepped away from GP40-2 hood CAD files.

OK - I put the "bad" battery in the system and its definitely "bad". It tripped the external rail input a few times.

The battery charger completely protected itself and also the voltage module, there is no damage at all to the board.

Later I bypassed the voltage module which will not come online unless a good battery is present, with outputs from the development board to connect to the GND, 1.8V, and 3.3V lines that are connected to the boards test pads. This will bypass the voltage module and directly power the surface components.

The CPU boots of the SD CARD. Yes, issue (#1) resolved!

I then took our last "production" Loco-Node file and tested each key input.

All of FX_LED works except the nets that changed pins. They need to be updated in the software.

Sound also works but the SD CARD is not written into the code so it mounts with this file so all I got was a weird sound when "S" for Prime Mover On was pressed. The sound is present though.

All of the other parts of the file work so at this point it appears the boards are 110%.

If there is anything needed to update the voltage module, it will be a simple resistor or capacitor value change. The modeling we did this week verified the design, and confirmed its the battery creating a short that that is stopping the voltage output (as its supposed to).

The task now is to finish getting the Loco-Node file ready and kernel. After that its time to restart the Android UX to replace the UART terminal.

With the SD CARD, the updates are very easy to make compared to before, so you can either use a Micro-SD CARD adapter in your PC to update the files or I think we can make WiFi do it later. I am going to dig up some WiFi files next to test the antenna while I wait for software updates.

The image below shows the voltage input from the development board.

IMG_20160323_1003345_zpsoaqwvfti.jpg


The image below shows the board booting without any external source.

IMG_20160323_1003576_zpsik5srf8z.jpg
 
That appears to be the business model. Everything is a "pre order item" with little intent to fulfill the order. I still have the email suggesting that I'd get a blob of melted trucks if I didn't be quiet, a year after the order, and another not so nice email when the credit company sided with me and you had to return the payment. And to think that all I every wanted was a pair of trucks. Good luck with the dcc killer startup screens on these boards. And good luck to the people who buy them. I hope it all works out for you all.
 
The first post back in June 2014 made it sound as if product was just around the corner.

Here it is March 2016 and has anything shipped yet?
 
If a business owner sent me an email like that our lawyer would have taught him a whole new definition of regret, thanks for the heads up.

On the other hand his website is always down so I can't even verify if he has any of these modules in stock and his posts here definitely don't contain any real useful information other than his somewhat boring description of a development process.

Had no idea this has been going that long.
 
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None of the criteria; size, capabilities, integration, co-residency, support, supply or what appears to be generally accepted detailed development process management seems to be applied for these ongoing (and meaningless) screen shots. Admittedly, the gentleman has some very good ideas, but history is the best predictor of the future, and some of us who bought a lot of stuff in preparation of what turned out to be nothing have learned from it.

This product appears to be no different, (sorry), the product will not totally integrate into the existing dcc environment, which suggests what we in the telecom industry dictate as a "fork lift" of the existing infrastructure just to use the product, the board is too big to fit into an sw1 or an 060 with a motor and speaker, without displacing the control stands and crew, and the topic of price point has got to be in the category of diminishing returns, since it would need to SERIOUSLY undercut the current prices for say, a TCS WOW decoder, since you're going to be forced to throw them all out in the migration, and any argument about superiority of the product fails when run up against finance. Every time.
Now if somebody came up with a dcc based decoder that seamlessly allowed integration with a wifi mesh network that was device independent, using either existing platforms, or a common platform, then we'd be getting someplace. Oh wait, what was that ad in last month's MR?
 
I'd gladly go to an entirely new system at this point, my Digitrax gear would still have good resale and most of my engines haven't had decoders installed yet so it wouldn't be a bite the bullet situation, I like the idea of dead track as well, it would expand possibilities for me greatly, heck you could probably run HO outdoors with a dead track system. But since I had a business go under because someone filed bankruptcy owing me a good chunk of change, I learned my lesson. I'll wait for an established company with a better track record.
 
meriachee said:
None of the criteria; size, capabilities, integration, co-residency, support, supply or what appears to be generally accepted detailed development process management seems to be applied for these ongoing (and meaningless) screen shots. Admittedly, the gentleman has some very good ideas, but history is the best predictor of the future, and some of us who bought a lot of stuff in preparation of what turned out to be nothing have learned from it.

This product appears to be no different, (sorry), the product will not totally integrate into the existing dcc environment, which suggests what we in the telecom industry dictate as a "fork lift" of the existing infrastructure just to use the product, the board is too big to fit into an sw1 or an 060 with a motor and speaker, without displacing the control stands and crew, and the topic of price point has got to be in the category of diminishing returns, since it would need to SERIOUSLY undercut the current prices for say, a TCS WOW decoder, since you're going to be forced to throw them all out in the migration, and any argument about superiority of the product fails when run up against finance. Every time.
Now if somebody came up with a dcc based decoder that seamlessly allowed integration with a wifi mesh network that was device independent, using either existing platforms, or a common platform, then we'd be getting someplace. Oh wait, what was that ad in last month's MR?
Click to expand...

actually, the integration with DCC is just software

there is a completely different signal path at use here which is WiFi direct to each node on the system

if you use a node as an interface with your dcc, you can function over both

the issue though is consisting two models from different systems

the response rate is going to be different but that could potentially be tweaked

as for size, this board is 16mm x 55mm which is actually smaller than most boards out there which have a mounting PCBA

there are three other variations of this board which are shorter, but of course you loose some functionality, they will range between 30 - 45 mm in length

I also don't get the point with the comparison to DCC decoders, this is not DCC. this is a dead track system with LN0001S/LN0002B. LN0002S/LN0004B would be more comparable to a decoder where they lack the Li-PO support
 
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