The release of Raspberry PI 3A+ is a good host for a mini level system due to it’s powerfully 4 x 64 bit CPU, but as the RPI itself do not contain any com connectors we need to use an adapter card. I decided to try ESP32 because that makes it dual purpose. ESP32 can…
This new addition to Raspberry PI is interesting. I have a few hat’s laying around and the form factor is a bit larger than what I recently plan for a modular PLC, but it is not horrible. In fact, this is what I started out with. All my Hat’s will fit onto a A+ making…
Part 3 of the Train Controller will go to a separate USB card we need to connect for initial programming of the ESP32. On this we connect GPIO0, ChipPU and the default UART. This is needed to program and develop the FW on ESP32. The USB chip is a CH340G. Most other designs will use…
The second part of the Train control system is it’s motor driver. This is based on a classic L9110 H-Bridge chip. This allows us to drive a 500mA DC motor in both direction and we regulate speed with PWM duty. We need to return to speed adjustments later but we will be using the PWM…
It’s time to get my train controller right. Starting with the PSU. The power feed for a model train is the rail track that on some old systems can be AC, but mostly is 12V DC. To cover both these i use a classic rectifier MB6S. This will allow the 12V to be connected any…
These are just drawings of my new Micro PLC formats. I am considering 20x50mm, 30x50mm and 50x50mm formats. This discussion started as I received my previous PLC bus design and realized the actual size of it. The reality is that I need things much, much smaller and having a big backbone bus is very expensive.…
System Workshop for STM32 or ac6wb or SW4STM32 is an Eclipse based, free IDE supported by ST. I started using this a while ago and the great thing about this is that CubeMX generate start-up code, project and everything for this. It makes it ideal for doing initial testing and to get off ground fast.…
I am only using 12V, but DRV8313 worked on 2nd attempt. First failed so I ripped it off, revoved a lane and placed a new that worked straight up. Just using trapsoidal for the moment, but it’s a start. I need to code up a Sinusoidal algorithm and better Acceleration and Speed Control. I also…
This was a bit of work. Soldered 2 x 10uF in a bridge – simply removed the protection TVS for now. If you look next to the led you also see space for a coil where I use a 1206 component, so I can probably squeeze the 1206 caps in there. I don’t want to…
I have done a few PLC system drafts – one based on Raspberry PI, a second larger one and a 3rd based on distributed components. The pure PLC system was “ok”, but it was a bit larger with the bus than I expected. Looking at some of my 50x20mm designs I wanted to try a…