Model Train-related Notes Blog -- these are personal notes and musings on the subject of model train control, automation, electronics, or whatever I find interesting. I also have more posts in a blog dedicated to the maintenance of the Randall Museum Model Railroad.
2016-04-09 - Use an NCE AIU and IR sensors
Category NCE
Since I have IR reflective sensors, the idea would be to connect them to an NCE AIU01 to detect position in 2 or 3 spots for speed control and automation.
(Also I got an NCE Q-Snap to control 4 twin-coils, This would cover the front cross-over (2 turnouts), the yard entrance Y1 and the Y1/Y2 yard turnout. Really the point is learning and see what it’s good for since I can already control these turnouts with the Arduino/DigiX).
One idea is for speed matching, using one NCE AIU and 2 sensors.
- Embed the sensors in the EZTrack pointing up rather than side mounted.
- Use these directly using JMRI/jython.
- This leaves 12 unused inputs on the AIU.
How do I connect my IR sensors to the NCE AIU01?
This is how I use the IR sensors with an Arduino using the internal pull-up and next to it is the AIU input circuitry:
There's a good match here: connecting the IR receiver collector to the 5V/pull-up side of the AIU should do exactly what we want with the AIU input driven low when an IR reflection occurs.
I can get 5 V to drive the LEDs out of the DigiX.