Nodes command and control model railway

This webpage is about the properties of physical nodes used for designing, testing, selecting materials to build the controls for my model railway. It consists of the topics:

Command panel

This chapter is about the physical aspects of the SpDrL60 mosaic command panel like the construction, making the tiles and PCB for the tiles.

Control unit

This chapter is about the physical aspects of the 19 inch and other sub racks including the PCB's with control circuitry, power PCB, and other PCB's.

Electronic components of the system controller shall be located on PCBs in Eurocard shelves, due to the lack of space behind the SpDrL panel. Common connections will run on the back plane and individual connections with plugs on the front of the Eurocards.

Command and control wiring

This chapter contains the sections on the wiring from the printed circuit boards containing the control and detection circuits to the mosaic tiles, the tracks and the point motors.

Turnout controller to tile

This section deals with the cabling between the turnout controller in the 19-inch rack and the points tiles on the mosaic control panel. It consists of a stranded 8-core cable with Dupont connectors at each end. This ensures a reliable connection to the Dupont crimp pins especially with low-currents. The cable type and the connectors are shown below.

Figure with deployment traction unit controls stage 3 and 4.

See Turnouts on the Structure webpage for the meanings of the abbreviations used for the wire designations.

Component	Properties	Qty
TiYY cable with eight stranded cores of 0.14 mm². Outer diameter 4.9 mm Slate Unittronic Art.No.: 0028208	Current rating 1.5A	120m

Turnout and traction controller to the tracks

This section covers the wiring from the printed circuit boards containing the turnout and traction controllers in 19-inch racks to the DB 25 connectors behind the mosaic panel, which are connected to the track sections and the turnout motors.

The wire colours and their designation are:

SL	railT	The traction voltage for a traction rail section
GN	railD	The return voltage for a train detection rail section
WT	pointT	The control voltage for a point motor the set the points in the through direction
YW	pointD	The control voltage for a point motor the set the points in the diverge direction

The soldered wires to for example DB-25 D-subminature connectors are solid core to avoid breakage. All other wires connected to the Dupont connectors of the PCB's in sub racks are stranded. This ensures a reliable connection to the Dupont crimp pins especially with low-currents. The wires have enough over length to remove the connections and trace the wires.

ID	Component	Properties	Qty
0.50railT	Single solid core wire 0.50 mm². Outer diameter 1.4 mm Slate Okaphone Elektronika Art.No.: MD08GS	Current rating 6.0A	100m
0.50railD	Single solid core wire 0.50 mm². Outer diameter 1.4 mm Green Okaphone Elektronika Art.No.: MD08GN	Current rating 6.0A	200m
0.25pointT	Single solid core wire 0.20 mm². Outer diameter 0.7 mm White Okaphone Elektronika Art.No.: MD040WT	Current rating 5.0A	100m
0.25pointD	Single solid core wire 0.20 mm². Outer diameter 0.7 mm Yellow Okaphone Elektronika Art.No.: MD040GE	Current rating 5.0A	100m

Signal wiring

This chapter is about the physical aspects of the communication of I2C for line side signals.