Hi there, I'm looking to do a little brainstorming for an idea I had involving the Model Railroad my Dad built in his basement.
There's 2 things I want to do.
1. add sound to the scenery - He has a DCC layout which gives sound to the trains themselves... but I want to add sound to the scenery.
i.e the waterfall in the corner... or the some birds in the forest... even the sound of mechanics hammering away in the maintanence yard/engine house.
2. Arduino controlled signal lights for sections of track based on trains in the area...
i.e Say there are 4 blocks of consecutive track - A B C D. if a train enters track block D the signal for following trains into block D should be red. the signal for block C should be amber and the signals for B should be green. It also get a little more complicated when adding track switch positions into the mix...
For Goal number 1 the idea would be that sounds don't play until you're standing infront of the scene. I'm not sure whether to use IR Sharp Distance sensor or a cheap Ultrasonic sensor as the triggering device. And then I don't know what to use to play the sounds.. It would need to be small speakers that can be hidden in the scenery.. I'm thinking no bigger than the size of a quarter. And then what stores and plays the sounds?
Goal number 2 has LED's embedded throughout the layout... some signals would be flag type signals requiring servos to move the position of the flag... My biggest problem is how do you detect the train's position on the track?
I want to figure out the hardware situation first, then I can start worrying about writting the programs...
I'm thinking the 2 operatons would require their own processors (2 arduino control boards) Unless it is possible to have one board control everything. But I don't know.
Any ideas would be great.
Thanks,
Guido
