At the last MERG Area Group meeting at the clubhouse, Malcolm conjured up a vision of how he would like to develop the next stage of the Dockland layout.
Key to his thinking is the wish to control all features of the layout using a glass screen abd to start implementing animated sequences of train movements.
All grand plans must start somewhere – and Test Track Three will be an enabler for Malcolm’s grand vision.
Time was spent on the final adjustment of the points movement – three were configured correctly and the fourth resisted – back to the workbench for the module involved.
Then the DCC controller was connected and the diesel dusted off and left running for a couple of hours – its last outing was two or three years ago.
The next step will be the connection of the point modules to the layout control bus (LCB). The LCB was connected earlier in the afternoon and connected to a PC. As soon as the last point is configured, the LCB will be connected.
Although a PC will be used to configure the animations that malcolm dreams of, it is likely that a Raspberry Pi will be used for control purposes. Last week we tried to get the Pi up and running without success. A second attempt this week also ended in failure. However a little on-line research discovered that there are known problems with a Pi connected to a DVI monitor. Newer technology is required!