Are there companies or people who will build an analogue mimic panel?

[ThomasDadDurham]

I know its theoretically simple, but unlike all the retirees in my local society, Ive two pre-school kids to run around after, and a business to run. Ive just spent three whole evenings and a whole day off when the kids were with grandparents, poring over these forums, driving across County Durham and Tyne & Wear to source diodes and switches, getting a new soldering iron after my cheap one died, cursing and cursing to get my joints neat and heatshrinking them, and it still does not work.

My sole goals for this summer were: build the viaduct [done] and get the points and passing loops working [not done]
Its going on three months of completely wasted evenings, destroying and melting components, trashing it, starting again, and having to either wait a week for things off amazon or an hour and a half of return driving to the one seller of components.

Given all this wasted time is time that I would have been sinking into my own business otherwise - ie the precious few hours the boys are in nursery or in-bed-but-before-I-fall-asleep. Im looking to just pay someone to do it. However much someone needs to knock up a relatively simple control box would save my sanity and cost me a lot less than the commission work Im putting off or turning down.

Are there companies out there that will make me a wired up mimic panel for the very simple 2 track/4 passing loop layout I have?

I think for the time being Im going to drop the money on LGB control boxes, but long term I wanted everything on one panel (6 isolated sections, 4 paired sets points - one point pair simple diverts the route through a tunnel or under a bridge, rather than for a station passing loop)

 

[PhilP]

Where is the mimic panel going to live? - Will it be permanently outside, inside, do you want it to be able to be plugged into the layout?

Do you want feedback to the panel, to show the route set, or just a diagram and the direction you push the switch, is adequate?

What you need is some wired-up DPDT, centre-off, biased switches.
Something that will work with either an AC or DC supply, and just need power-in, and power-out to your points..

Now, I wonder who you could send an email to, about these?


PhilP.
phil@rctrains.co.uk

 

[dunnyrail]

I know its theoretically simple, but unlike all the retirees in my local society, Ive two pre-school kids to run around after, and a business to run. Ive just spent three whole evenings and a whole day off when the kids were with grandparents, poring over these forums, driving across County Durham and Tyne & Wear to source diodes and switches, getting a new soldering iron after my cheap one died, cursing and cursing to get my joints neat and heatshrinking them, and it still does not work.

My sole goals for this summer were: build the viaduct [done] and get the points and passing loops working [not done]
Its going on three months of completely wasted evenings, destroying and melting components, trashing it, starting again, and having to either wait a week for things off amazon or an hour and a half of return driving to the one seller of components.

Given all this wasted time is time that I would have been sinking into my own business otherwise - ie the precious few hours the boys are in nursery or in-bed-but-before-I-fall-asleep. Im looking to just pay someone to do it. However much someone needs to knock up a relatively simple control box would save my sanity and cost me a lot less than the commission work Im putting off or turning down.

Are there companies out there that will make me a wired up mimic panel for the very simple 2 track/4 passing loop layout I have?

I think for the time being Im going to drop the money on LGB control boxes, but long term I wanted everything on one panel (6 isolated sections, 4 paired sets points - one point pair simple diverts the route through a tunnel or under a bridge, rather than for a station passing loop)

Sounds like Phil is your man.

 

[ThomasDadDurham]

It will be permanently in the fibreglass weatherproof box my electrics live in, with a longish lead so I can lift it out and use it (- its a low box, cant be sat on the floor all the time to change points.) This is a 2yr old picture, but its a decent size albeit only 1metre tall:


It'd be nice to have LEDs showing track power/point position but they arent essential as its an incredibly simple layout. I was going to put them in a weatherproof project box and have a simplified plan etched on the front. The kids know only I can touch stuff in the fibreglass box, so I'd just put it in to lock it up at night, and pull it out and put it on top when running.
I eventually want to have the whole thing running off RRConcepts Stationmasters, but thats a long way off - I want to at the very least get the points moving with switches first, before I wire up a way to switch between manual/auto.

I know what I need, I know in theory how it should go together. I have DPDT centre off switches, they were wired up, literally copied directly from ge_rik's original simple points box, Im now pulling it back apart so not much to see. Ignore the other SPDT switches, they work, they send power to the left isolated rail on the 3 pairs of platforms.

But points, either: theres something I missed that Im not seeing, they need diodes, or I just plain did it wrong - but they did not work, it made the buzzing that says its recieving power for both directions at once. I wired up exactly as per the old post from thread: Wiring LGB points, novice need help please.

Can you build me the whole thing? Or do you just sell switches pre-wired?
The thing I want to avoid is buying more switches, more wire, more solder, another project box, spending another two or three rare evenings where the kids *actually* sleep and I dont fall asleep too, and winding right back up here again, where it doesnt work. It'll be Christmas by that point. My physical building projects rattle along and are very satisfying, but anything electronic drags and drags and drags, I actually started on this last August! 2024!

 

[PhilP]

I will email you later..

You could dismount your switches, and send me the lid.. I could mount / wire switches, and fit some-means of connecting in cables to your point-motors.

It sounds like KISS technology, would suffice, at least initially?

PhilP.

 

[ThomasDadDurham]

PhilP As Im going to just plug in some LGB control boxes for the time being, and looking at your site, would you be willing to build me a completely RC control for my station passing loops? It'd have the advantage of then I can just close the electronics box when the kids are in the garden and carry the switch controller around, rather than having to watch them?
My setup runs on 3 gaugemasters (Track 1, Track 2, and the Isolated-back-incline-section-for-track 1*) , so I was wondering if I can put other speed controllers in line after it, so the gaugemasters in the box control the max speed around the line, but the isolated 'platform' blocks can be controlled with a seperate dial, on a remote which also includes the points/power switches for them?

I know radio controlled track power isnt common, but it makes sense for how simple my layout is.




*as they usually need some extra oomph to get up it, but if I boost the whole track they're going too quick as they go down the other incline. Track 2 runs the opposite direction and needs no boost, because the other incline is much longer and gentler. I could always change how I do that?

 

[ThomasDadDurham]

I will email you later..

You could dismount your switches, and send me the lid.. I could mount / wire switches, and fit some-means of connecting in cables to your point-motors.

It sounds like KISS technology, would suffice, at least initially?

PhilP.

This lid isnt important, its literally just a project box I had lying around that already had 8 holes drilled in (I only need 7) and was going to be a first-iteration thing. If I actually got it working then I'd have gone and bought a nicer box and had an engraved plan thing made.

FWIW, track plan attached -trains always run on the left- (the lower station doesnt have 4 platforms because of space constraints, I had planned for it to to but I cant take any more of the lawn):

 

[Cobalt6700]

How would you feel about a digital / tablet based panel?

I have built a few different physical panels, from stationary to wireless, and they all take time. More than I was expecting!

I love the tactile element of a physical panel, however as my railway is constantly evolving as I come up with new ideas, a physical panel wouldn't last long.
I went down the route of JMRI, which is great for me. I have built a fully custom panel, and I can work on it away from home / on work trips / etc.

I have a mate who also wanted control but isn't any good with electronics, we have settled on some of the mXion decoder components for him - using the Z21 App which is pretty simple to get a layout up and running.

 

[ThomasDadDurham]

How would you feel about a digital / tablet based panel?

I have built a few different physical panels, from stationary to wireless, and they all take time. More than I was expecting!

I love the tactile element of a physical panel, however as my railway is constantly evolving as I come up with new ideas, a physical panel wouldn't last long.
I went down the route of JMRI, which is great for me. I have built a fully custom panel, and I can work on it away from home / on work trips / etc.

I have a mate who also wanted control but isn't any good with electronics, we have settled on some of the mXion decoder components for him - using the Z21 App which is pretty simple to get a layout up and running.

Isnt this DCC though? The exact thing Ive avoided because my layout is so simple and I dont want to have the extra hassle of putting thousands of pounds total of DCC chips inside the cheapy Thomas locomotives which cost me £100-130ish 2nd hand.

 

[Cobalt6700]

Isnt this DCC though? The exact thing Ive avoided because my layout is so simple and I dont want to have the extra hassle of putting thousands of pounds total of DCC chips inside the cheapy Thomas locomotives which cost me £100-130ish 2nd hand.

Yeah it is DCC, however you don't have to use DCC on the rails - just as a control system.

If you are already wiring to point motors / isolated blocks, you would terminate into DCC decoders (you could even hook these onto the back of the LGB control panels to give you that local / remote control). You would run a DCC command station to drive the decoders, and control it all from a WiFi tablet / phone / PC.

If you ever decide to go DCC in the future, all that's required is a link to the track


Thinking on your idea of controlling secondary throttles remotely, use of the DCC system could help with that. You could setup some multifunction DCC decoders that drive dc motor controllers, allowing you to change the voltage output 'downstream' of the Gaugemaster, and thus the speed of the trains. Gives you pretty much full remote control with the Gaugemasters to control the top speed.

 

[HobbitFertang]

Hello, I've just put this unit together using some of Phil's switches. It controls 4 LGB points (room for 6) using a 12 V battery pack. It's not waterproof of course . . . and my system doesn't use track power.