Large Scale Central

Arduino DCC shield

This seems like it might be fun to play with.

https://www.iascaled.com/store/ARD-DCCSHIELD

I’m hoping their Proto Throttle comes down to a more reasonable price, it really looks like fun.

Chris Kieffer said:

I’m hoping their Proto Throttle comes down to a more reasonable price, it really looks like fun.

Yea. 500 clams for just the throttle is a bit steep, even if it is cool. Someone needs to come up with a beltpack implementation, too.

There’s also this one, but it’s in the UK

https://www.dccinterface.com/

I can understand how some people prefer tactile controls, But I am so happy with JMRI free software connected to my DCC system (Digitrax) and android apps as wireless throttles on my old smart phones and tablets. Friends and visitors have downloaded the app on their android or iPhones and can run a train intuitively. All function buttons available and labeled in plain English on the throttle app.

Note that the DCC shield only provides 400 mA. If you want to do this with G scale, you could use a higher-power H bridge, and toggle the direction line with the DCC bitstream. An intermediate option is the 2A Motor Shield. The DCC++ project has info on using this to drive both main and programming tracks.

Yea. I’m just getting into DCC here, even though Ive played with Arduinos (Arduinii?) for years. Not even sure what I’d use it for. I’d probably piggyback an optical relay shield with it and use it to turn lights on and off on the RR…

Crap, disregard my comment about H bridges. I thought it was a encoder at first glance, not a decoder.

The NmraDcc library (available through the Arduino Library Manager) is pretty robust for both stationary and motion decoders. Not super intuitive, though. This is what I’ve been using for my AirWire decoder experiments.