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A couple pictures of the work.
This is the crossing with one crossing gate and signal head installed. Sunlight is pouring in through the window making a white smudge across the scene.
This is the underside of the bench were the signal wires come down through the scenery and the control boards are mounted. The board in the left is the Grade Crossing Pro/2 with bell chip installed and the board on the right is the Grade Crossing Pro/2 Expander with the control cable attached in its proper orientation. Additional expander boards for each additional track can be added and daisy chained with the cable. The cable is part of the expander board set.
The gate servo motor is mounted up on the plywood.
I've been looking at the Azatrax system but I just don't get a warm feeling that it's what I would expect it to be. It seems that their solution for multiple tracks is, wellll maybe this would work.
Pretty much like a local guy here who says he can design something. Right, and when something goes wrong with it, I need to get ahold of him for parts or support? for a system that's being used in a way it wasn't originally designed? No thanks.
Logic Rail Technologies has a system that's designed to work with multiple tracks.
I placed an order with them and it's currently in transit.
Talk to John at Azatrax. He is very helpful and can give you recommendations for your needs. The IR sensors can be buried in the roadbed at the approaches to the crossing. He has several modules that can handle multiple tracks. My only reason I don't have gates is because the servos would be located right where the support structure is located. (Poor planning on my part.) I use multiple flashing lights, both on crossbucks and on an overhead bridge.
I've already bought the other system and currently installing.
If Azatrack can't provide sufficient information on their web site, they're cutting themselves short. I'm not going to remove this stuff now and buy an Azatrack system, no matter how good their stuff is.
Basically, I just want a system that will lower and raise the gates and turn the flashers on and to have it look close to prototype without some cartoonish sound for a bell. Azatrack may offer that, but it wasn't obvious on their web page, and I didn't want to have to suppose it does a specific thing without actually seeing it.
Sorry I'm late to the conversation, but my setup will be done with Arduino (servos, leds, censors and a nano). Lots of info on the net (Facebook and YouTube).
Finally got some work done on the GCS.
Got the gate control wires (piano wire) installed and aligned with the servo motors. The kink in the wire is for adjustment.
Added wire to the cross buck lights so they can link to the control board.
I had to remount the plywood so the servo motor leads could reach the circuit boards.
Ken just to give you a warning to make sure your wiring is correct before turning on the power. Get a wire crossed and you can blow the board. Make sure the resistors are in place. The red boards are more confusing than the green boards. The green boards you can send all the black wires to ground but not the red boards.
This is a note Logic Rail sent me about obtaining realistic gate speeds.
Regarding your gate speed question, the new boards are similar to the first generation in that there is a 5K ohm potentiometer in series with one of the gate motor outputs. This acts as a variable resistor to limit the voltage to the Tortoise motor. The maximum gate motor voltage is the same as the voltage measured on the +DC and GND terminals of the board. If you provide a lower voltage to the board then the gate motor voltage will also be lower. However, do not go below 7V which is required by other components on the board! The lowest speed setting (i.e. maximum resistance) is thus related to the incoming voltage to the board. If that is still too much you can always add a resistor (probably at least 1K ohm) in series with either gate motor output connection to further slow it down.
I'm installing a red board unit on a single track crossing today. I should be done by tonight.
I'm using a 12vdc 1 amp wall wart for this. The resistors to the lamps are in place.
I want the gates to slowly lower and raise. I've seen layouts where they pop down then back up with a snap action, very toy like.
I changed out the wallwart for an 8vdc power source. Using the 12vdc would have required me to change all the resistors in the crossbucks.
Ya have to read the instructions quite a few times to understand the programming process. Once ya see it working it becomes clear. Bending the piano wire is difficult in the tight constraints of the benchwork. Making the bend to keep the wire on the short end of the gate will break the gate hinge apart. I opted to just put a dab of glue on the end to keep it from slipping out.
Yeah, I read your previous post about the wiring. Checked it closely.
The signals light up on initial turn-on and the servos put the gates to full up.
I have a bit more fine tuning to do to the gate positions then I'll mess with the sensors tomorrow.
I'm thinkin the lights are still kinda bright so I'll prolly swap out the resistors for higher resistance.
I think a video on how to program each feature would be helpful. I might consider doing that when I get it all operating properly.
When I turned the power on all the pot Leds where lit. Per instructions I had the IR's to high above the ties and the IR's were leaking over. Their deigned to hit the bottom of the car and bounce back to the detector. I positioned them lower, and everything worked perfectly. I've should have known this because I had installed the green boards on the upper deck years ago but removed them for my layout renovation. He told me the new red boards use different IR's maybe their more sensitive.
I'm putting the upper deck green boards back this week and then hopefully I can find someone who has some Tomar gates at the Big E.
George
Very slow going on this project.
Got a couple sensor sets installed and tested today. Just about everything I have to do, I have to get up off the low stool to get something, find something, check something or go take care of something else. It's about as bad as tryin to do something with toddlers around.
Setting the emitter and sensor between the rails is easier than I thought. I just set em so they came up level with the top of the ties.
Finished installing the sensors in the first track.
Bell is programmed.
Lights are programmed on both cross bucks.
Only the servo for the front gate is linked up.
The first test run was successful. Of particular note. When the train has cleared the gate, the signals will go off instead of waiting for the train to clear the far sensors.
Finally, finished the installation of the whole system this evening.
Power supply installed and wires routed. Both gates working exactly as they should. Bell is programmed to only ring until the gates are lowered. All wires are tucked up and neatly contained and labeled. Instruction sheets are filed away in a folder for future reference if needed.
I'll shoot some video of the finished crossing tomorrow and post it here.
