The Sydney Project 26: Control panels

[@PeterTillman3]

Wow - those panels are so slick Peter! I can’t wait to get my hands on them :) You also think of everything… a leg!! 😅

[@mpeterll]

There are two legs now (one stored at each end of the upper deck benchwork). I found it was useful to have one panel open for reference while I worked on another.

[@PeterTillman3]

@ oh yes! You think of everything Peter :)

[@chrisbarr1359]

​@@mpeterll plus human nature being what it is, someone may not use a leg if they have to go "too far" to fetch it.

[@scottsmith7051]

He is a genius. I've said it before, I'll say it again.

[@PeterTillman3]

@@scottsmith7051 he sure is. That’s why I retained him to design and build this layout. Someone tried to tell me that I could get it done in Australia but no way. Peter is the best there is.

[@SailorDon]

The complexity and sheer tediousness of this project is extraordinary, especially since you are doing it by yourself. I would compare the wiring to that of the ENIAC! I hope the finished product will survive and be appreciated by future generations.

[@mpeterll]

I certainly wouldn't call building a model railroad 'tedious'. There are so many varies tasks to do that I can go on to something else before a task becomes monotonous. How many miles of wire went into the ENIAC? I have about 2 miles so far.

[@SailorDon]

@@mpeterll Agreed. One person's tediousness is another's devotion to quality and work ethic. As to "how many miles of wire in the ENIAC", I admit to hyperbole, but there doesn't seem to be any agreed upon quantity other than "miles of wire" as to what was actually used in building ENIAC. It is the only comparable analog wiring project I can think of. That said, I am sure a lot of your followers, including me, would really like to see a list of materials (not costs, just quantities) for some of your major projects, especially this one.

[@chrisbarr1359]

This one button routing is the best thing since chocolate covered bacon. You thought i was gonna say 'sliced bread'!

[@gdowling8959]

Incredible, what you achieve, Peter. I'm in awe of the size of this layout and your ability to eventually ship it. I look forward to your next video and when it's in place.

[@mpeterll]

There will be a lot more videos before it gets shipped.

[@gdowling8959]

, looking forward to many more videos of this splendid project. Thanks again Peter.

[@purrple.shadows]

Aluminum vs. Aluminium.

[@mpeterll]

I've now lived in the USA for longer than I lived in England, so I now say it the American way. The only Americanism that I refuse to adopt is dropping the H from Herb. It will always be Herb, not erb.

[@chriscorrigan7420]

Well Peter, I certainly hope the man has a pilots licence. LOL. What a nightmare doing all of that wiring but looking at it, it appears to be coded so all should be ok. What an awesome creature the end product will be. As each session goes on the more spectacular it is. It truly is a masterpiece. Well done Peter.

[@mpeterll]

Yes, all color coded. I even have multiple colors of zip-ties to color-code the various looms as well.

[@ronaldrondeau7870]

very impressive work thanks

[@martijnderu9115]

Love this, keep up the nice videos.

[@stevewoodard527]

The magnum opus continues to unfold -- amazing!

[@Harp-House-Halt]

Extraordinary work, but I'd love to understand how your control panel wiring interfaces with the rest of the layout, have you ever done a video on wiring ? I get the DPDT toggle switches are probably for points, but not sue what the 5 wire push button are for or how they are wired and what are the littles PCBs they connect to ? Sorry if you have done a video on all this previously, but I could not find one.

[@mpeterll]

The toggle switches are for isolating each staging track individually. The push-buttons are for turnout routing (one button per route, regardless of how many turnouts are required).

[@chrisbarr1359]

Go back and watch his video on proof of concept for one button routing. It will fill in the pieces. FYI: if you don't de-energize a track with a dcc loco sitting on it you will be consuming valuable LocoNet power (times all the locos in staging.)

[@chrisridd9423]

What are those little circuit boards for? I couldn't spot any markings even when freeze framing!

[@mpeterll]

They come with the push-buttons. All they do is allow the RC control cable to plug in.

[@donstratton6343]

The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all, as well as a great deal of patience and persistence. Great job. Loved the frame tip.

[@mpeterll]

The frame tip . . . You mean cutting the pieces the wrong size?

[@donstratton6343]

@@mpeterll I cannot cast the first stone!

[@steveross129]

Very nice design for the control panels. I am curious as to the route control system. Have you published anything about that?

[@mpeterll]

I explained that when I made the first prototype control panel many months ago. That video is near the beginning of the project play-list.

[@ngaugefouroaksstreetstatio6932]

Excellent

[@gagasmancave8859]

Lovely progress chap , just an idea are you going to use ribbon cable from the boards to the layout, might make it a bit simpler and neater, also how many people will it take to actually run this layout ??

[@mpeterll]

Ribbon cables are very small gauge. I need much heavier wire to carry main track power over long distances.

[@sierge1]

Hi Peter. This project is really coming along and looking great. I have a question. You have done several large layouts similar to this and all the benchwork and sub roadbed has been plywood or regular wood. My question is how do you plan for the expansion and contraction of the wood so that the tracks don't buckle especially some of the really long runs?

[@mpeterll]

I leave a small gap between each piece of track to allow for expansion/contraction. Occasionally, I've had a rail buckle during delivery, but that's easy to take care of during reassembly. In most cases, it's just a case of sliding back a rail joiner ans snipping a small piece off the end.

[@jeannettemckinley2457]

Are you going to show the setup in Sydney?

[@mpeterll]

Eventually.

[@RichardRohn-n4m]

I ran out of great compliments for your awesome work long ago. The sheer amount of planning much less the actual construction probably was a mind bender in itself. Has the Sydney project been completed by now? Will there be more coverage during/after installation?

[@mpeterll]

Only about half-way through. These videos are only a few months behind my actual progress.

[@RichardRohn-n4m]

@@mpeterll it still boggles my mind all your hard work. I'm sure your client will be more impressed once he sees it installed.

[@steamfan007]

A very informative video, Peter, and a permanent reference guide for anyone building a control panel in the future. What are those green circuit boards wired up to the large push buttons? I don't recognise them. Why do push buttons need such a board? Overall the layout is taking something closer to its finished shape and thus giving a better 'feel' for the finished product. Truly awesome.

[@mpeterll]

The small circuit boards come with the push-buttons and are for connecting the RC cables that will connect them to the control boards for operation with JMRI.

[@steamfan007]

@@mpeterll Ah, got it! Thanks.

[@charlesemerson6763]

The small circuit boards, are they frog juicers?

[@mpeterll]

No, they come with the push-buttons.

[@peterthornton8520]

Only one comment. Spectacular. Cheers

[@Llamberg.Railway]

What is the manufacturer of those push buttons and Circuit boards

[@mpeterll]

N3ix

[@Llamberg.Railway]

@ thank you

[@hubsimike]

👍🤗🤩, Mike

[@iant9159]

You made reference to components available from N3 Robin Becker but I can not find any reference/link in Google for this entity. Could you please clarify and or provide a link. Thanks.

[@mpeterll]

They are all available from his web-site N3ix.com

[@scottsmith7051]

When I was building my airplane, every single circuit - whether to a strobe, a landing light, transponder, or fuel gauge - required a circuit breaker of appropriate rating for amps drawn. Is this a consideration here at all?

[@mpeterll]

Each power district is broken into 4 sub-districts with their own breakers so that a short in one area doesn't shut down others, but that's about it.

[@scottsmith7051]

@ Thank You!

[@darrenoleary5952]

could you use shrink-wrap plastic tubing instead of the masking tape?

[@mpeterll]

Yes I could use that (if I had it in stock at the time). The masking tape works just as well.

[@OliverBreidenbach]

Nice panels. Why don’t you use computer controlled switchmachines that sit on a bus instead of wiring each directly to the switchboard?

[@mpeterll]

Everything has dual-controls. Individual operators can select routes via the control panels, while the dispatcher can switch anything using a lap-top computer with JMRI.

[@legotrainchris]

I've seen videos showing how the routing switches are used to line up all needed turnouts. It would be much harder to run without those, especially when there are multiple operators. But, it occurs to me that even though you can label the tracks on the control panel, there doesn't seem to be much on the physical staging tracks. Does anyone try painting the ties on the various staging tracks different colours, and echoing that on the control panel? That would be a no-no on visible yards, of course! And here I don't mean colour dots, I mean a huge swaths of paint along the whole track.

[@mpeterll]

On one previous railroad, I used concrete-tie track for track 5 of a 9-track staging yard (simply because the client had a few yards for me to use up). Once the yard is full of trains, the track can't readily be seen. I have seen staging yards with the tracks numbered in thin sticks of wood that pass over the trains, but this is dependent on viewing from the correct angle. I don't think there is any easy answer. It might be easier to have removable tags representing the train or locomotive numbers (more specifically, DCC channel number) and place those directly on the control panel over the appropriate track. That way, you don't actually need to work out which track it's on. Just set the routing and select the channel. The correct train is the one that starts moving when you turn the knob.

[@malcolmone1]

you need no interruptions doing all that wiring lol

[@mpeterll]

What could possibly inter______ Look, squirrel!