Closed Circuit TV For Your Model Railroad (235)

[@garypeterson6802]

Larry, I look forward to your new videos every week. Keep up the good work. I do the same with my staging yard only one track powered at a time and only when trains are moving. I would like to offer you a tip. You may want to install a snubber diode across the coil terminals of your relays to absorb the voltage spike created by the relay powering down and protect you electronics. A few cents for protection can save many dollars down the road.

[@TheDCCGuy]

Yes, when I dug into my parts box for a diode my hand came up empty, and then my All Electronics order didn’t arrive in time for the video. I’ll have to do a quick update next time.

[@marioangols3186]

Happy New Year, and THANKS for the effort you are putting on all the videos you are doing and sharing information, tips and new ideas.

[@peterjhillier7659]

Dear Larry, been a little busy of late so have a bit of catching up on your great Videos. Many Thanks the wonderful Content of your Films.

[@TheDCCGuy]

Happy New Year to you all. Now for a quick heads up on this video. In the video I used a 12VDC relay with the Illuminator accessory decoder. When I filmed that segment I was out of diodes so went without one on the relay to keep the project closer to schedule. However it is important to attach a diode between the +/- terminals of the relay with the white band end facing towards the positive terminal. This will prevent voltage spikes that may occur when the relay is turned off from traveling back into the decoder and killing it. I should have mentioned this in the video but forgot. Now that my All Electronics order has arrived I will install the new diode and show you what I mean in the next video-Larry

[@ronduz1281]

Great video Larry, really enjoyed it. Merry Xmas 🎄 and a happy new year 🍾

[@dundasjunctionmodelr.r-jam8267]

Hi Larry , great video, I need to look into the ilummator for my yard. Would like to see how to control with a switch vs my pro cab , my plan at this moment is use toggle switches to turn power off/on for each yard track, only have 5 tracks , need to try your method on filling gaps , great video , happy new year Larry

[@TheDCCGuy]

Toggles work great for controlling power on visibly ready tracks in yards.

[@Hanzo.Azmodan]

Hi Larry, great video as usual. As you have as "dead end" staging yard I would have thought the two most important locations for cameras would have been the ladder, as you have one, but the other located at the far end so that you do not run trains off the end of the tracks. I know I would be doing that all the time! Perhaps you will do that as you can get two more cameras? Happy New Year to all!

[@TheDCCGuy]

Yes, that would be the next location for a camera. However by keeping the trains shorter than the staging track and getting engineers to stop as soon as the last car clears the turnout I might be safe. I still plan to add a foam pad bumper at the end of each track.

[@andrewstevenson5449]

@@TheDCCGuy You could even incorporate a microswitch into the bumper that cut the power to the track when a train hit it, which might help if operators might get distracted, and you just have a train pushing against the bumper until someone notices.

[@thomascanady1967]

Hi Larry, Are you going to enclose your staging yard? Do you use lights for the cameras to see? The camera system I am looking at has night vision. Will that have enough light to work with? My layout staging yard will only accessible underneath and special doors on the fascia. Also my layout is N Scale.

[@TheDCCGuy]

It will eventually have a curtain along the front. The cameras do have a see in the dark capability but I don’t think it works all that well. I will either install LED strips or LED bulbs over those sections of the track that need extra light.

[@thomascanady1967]

Thanks for the information. This will help a lot.

[@dundasjunctionmodelr.r-jam8267]

Larry are you planning a video showing trains leaving your yard and going to your helix accessing main level

[@TheDCCGuy]

Yes, as soon as I build the helix, next big project coming soon I hope!

[@rjl110919581]

THANK YOU FOR DETAIL VIDEO

[@ronaldheller3638]

What is the brand of the monitor and cameras? Where did you buy it?

[@TheDCCGuy]

ebay, ebay, ebay! Look for 7" Wireless Monitor 2.4GHz 4CH WIFI Cameras Audio Security System CCTV DVR Kit but these are a generic product probably sold under a variety of names.

[@SammoKarm]

I use buffers with LEDs, when the track is powered, the LEDS are lit.

[@TheDCCGuy]

I considered doing it like that but placing the LEDs at the entrance to each track. That required mounting them on some sort of post so decided to put them on the switch machine instead. However I am about to order a new CCTV system with 4 cameras so may decide to put the LEDs on bumpers at the ends of the track instead and place a camera back there too.

[@SammoKarm]

On my storage yard I installed DPDT centre off switches to enable me to control the power to all the tracks individually, I cannot always see the locomotive clearly enough for its ID so in order to get its address I have wired the switches so that when they are up they are switching to program track wires and down for the track. this way I can find out what the loco's address is by going into program mode on the controller and switching a switch to the up position.

[@ricter591]

Thanks Larry. 🐾🚂.

[@SammoKarm]

Good video, Thanks

[@railwayjade]

Happy New Year Larry!

[@jacobhart8939]

What brand of camera did you use on your model railroad

[@TheDCCGuy]

It was a generic Chinese product I got off eBay several years ago and is no longer available. There are a number of others available now.

[@SantaFeBob]

Happy New Year!

[@hondo1650]

This is an option that I want to use in my first new model railway. I'm looking to place a fiddle yard under the town of my layout and use CCTV to watch my trains operate in that area. KZbin has been a godsend for tips and help on getting my project moving forward.

[@Joe-td4pq]

This is a nice option. Thank you for sharing. I recently installed the cheaper non wifi harbor freight version and I was really impressed what I got for $60. This would make a nice upgrade for me in the future.

[@Madonsteamrailways]

Surely in DCC, there is neither positive nor negative. It’s all live!!

[@PaulSmith-pl7fo]

Hi Larry. Happy New Year to you. CCT: When showing the first camera installed on your layout, I was a little concerned about the power source for the camera. It looked as though there was an adaptor with two metal ins coming out of the top that may have carried mains voltage; is this correct?

[@TheDCCGuy]

No, that is another DC power supply just sitting on top of the outlet box waiting to be plugged in. When I built the layout I installed a 120VAC circuit under the layout for providing convenient mains power. My next job is connect all my various wall wart devices to the 12VDC power bus.

[@OScaleMike]

What CCTV system did you buy?

[@TheDCCGuy]

It’s in the description.

[@dkaustin98]

Happy New Year. Another use for the camera is in those long tunnels, if the ceiling is high enough. I know some people will build tube tunnels and then build a mountain on top. However, if your mountain is hollow and the entrance and exit is the only narrow part you should be able to mount a camera or two inside your mountain so you can see the train(s) inside that tunnel. Sometimes we build a siding in a tunnel, a train enters, you park it and then fire up another train already sitting inside the tunnel to run it out. It sort of makes it appear a train is on a long journey. These cameras will help to see those trains inside the tunnel. I am still looking forward to the control panel build. I have a lot of unanswered questions. Like is that Alpha Switch D required? I also went through the video again from DCC Concepts. This time I paid attention. The Alpha Switch D is not mentioned. Yet, there is a diagram on their site showing it used with ESP. Richard mentions in the video that there is a second Receiver with the transmitters and it is operating the LEDs on the panel. Yet, there is no explanation how that is wired/configured. I thought the transmitters were paired to one receiver. Why can't we get rid of the toggle switches shown on DCC Concepts control panel and instead use the LED switch push buttons (momentary or latching) to select the route? Those push buttons do come in two and three color options. I have found Red/Green push buttons in 8mm - 12mm sizes. I would rather push the button of the route I want, have it change from Red to Green and change the other route's LED color to Red rather than flipping a toggle. That would get rid of one more item for each turnout displayed on the control panel and de-clutter the panel.

[@TheDCCGuy]

The ESP system is so new that there are still situations they have not had time to test much less provide guidance on. For example we are only assuming it will work with other brands of accessory decoders such as the Illuminator! I have been trading emails with them for a month trying to figure out how it all works and think I have a pretty good idea. I plan to go over the ins and outs of using the ESP system in the next video. As for using the LEDs it requires using their Mimic LED interface attached to a second receiver that the transmitters are also paired to. So a transmitter can be paired with 2 receivers, one used with the iP Digitals and the other for the LEDs. Then when a switch is thrown or pushed it sends the signal to both receivers. I know they have a lot of plans for future development of the system and hopefully to more fully document the operation.

[@andrewstevenson5449]

Thanks Larry, and Happy New Year to you and yours. The camera systems looks a particularly neat one and ideal for your purposes. Ingenious idea to use the lighting decoder as a switch to cut power to the final track, but it occurred to me that it's still a switch that an operator needs to flip: I wondered if the lighting decoder had the same address as the point motor (I'm using UK terminology, as I started getting confused between switches/turnouts and switches for switching something on and off!) controlling the track, whether that would allow the power to be cut without a separate switch. But of course, that would just power the next track. So you need a master switch for the yard, which might not be a bad thing.

[@TheDCCGuy]

All of my control panels have switches that operators need to flip or push to control points so this no no different. In the case of the first 8 yard tracks the toggle will control the iP Digital switch machines which in turn will control track power via their internal SPDT switches. In the case of track 9 the toggle will control the Illuminator accessory decoder which in turn will control track power. The tracks on the panels will each have a toggle switch so for the operators they will all look alike.

[@donmartin9567]

Use your rail nippers or sprue cutters to do the initial trimming of the styrene piece in the rail gap. I use gap filling superglue and let it cure overnight. After filing I paint it with a bit of brown paint (which is what I use for my rails as well). I like to do this when the track is fully installed and have the styrene go all the way down to the roadbed and glue it to that as well.

[@TheDCCGuy]

Great tip!

[@marioangols3186]

Hi Larry, could you kindly let us know what kind of relay (12v) do you use and where the diode will be connected too (a diagram will be appreciate) , sorry but I'm not a electric guy :) and the Illuminator will power 3 lines each + the led?, Thanks

[@TheDCCGuy]

As I said in my pinned comment I will cover this next week.

[@lloydb6637]

Looking forward to it. I wanted to try and get some before next week but I can wait. Personally I wish they stated the Current Draw so I don't exceed 100mA. Cheers

[@russrockino-rr0864]

Larry! Where did you buy your small solid state relays? Thanks, Russ from Oregon

[@TheDCCGuy]

AllElectronics.com

[@JohnTaylor-wq1lo]

Can you do a video on LCC. I have been reading about this and would like to hear your comments.

[@TheDCCGuy]

When and if there are enough products available to talk about I’ll do it. Right now it is mostly vaporware with the exception of RR-CirKits products.

[@felipesanchezcuriel]

Love your videos. Already got one of your books and have other coming. When you said you were going to run power on/off on the yard I thought you were going to be using one of the switches, on the back of the Cobalt, to control the relay. Happy New year

[@TheDCCGuy]

As I said in the video I will be using the internal switches in the 8 switch machines controlling tracks 1-8. I am using the Illuminator only on track 9. More on the iP Digitals later.

[@noelpurdey3494]

Gary, did you consider using the turnout contacts to turn the track power off?

[@TheDCCGuy]

Keep watching it’s in the following videos.

[@mr.shadestrains6033]

Awsum 🚂😎❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@Madonsteamrailways]

Happy New Year, Larry!!

[@ka5kla]

Sorry don't like above wiring and switching doesn't look good