I have tried to make motorized Lego switches for some time now, but I just can’t seem to get the to work with any reliability. Lego train switches are, in my opinion, horrible. They are extremely stiff to actually switch and gives a horrible cracking noise when you do and even then they aren’t too…
Arduino
Project Plan: Lego Trains II
Project Goals The goals are somewhat far reaching and I’ll add links and information as we go along. Trains Rechargeable battery powered. A train needs power and I don’t want to use the metal tracks even though this would be easier. The reason for this is that I don’t want to get dependent on tracks that…
Showtime!
First off… The result hasn’t been what I planned it to be. The main reason for this is, well, that I have a day job. 😀 The result, however, was fantastic! It’s a simple layout with two trains running in opposite directions, two stations and a control tower in the middle. (Image of layout to…
Testing Infrared LEDs
One of the more difficult things about IR LEDs is that you can’t see if they work or even the LED in question is an IR LED at all or just a white LED that doesn’t work. I have seen many ways to counter this but the easiest way is to power up the possible…
First Batch of Things Arrived
The Lego trains and some additional track arrived today. The packaging was so bad I was kind of impressed actually but Lego being Lego nothing seems to have been damaged. After about four hours of speed building I was done. I took a lot of pictures and will upload a couple of the here, but…
Project Plan: Lego Trains
Project Goals – Control two Lego trains using an Arduino board (Success!) – Control switches using an Arduino (Nope) – Track train movement, track occupancy and switch status (Partial success) – Automatic route scheduling, track planning and train driving (Nope) – Working train signals, Swedish variant with two lights (Nope) – Working collision avoidance (Success!) –…