Published December 23, 2017 © GPL3+

Maerklin 4316 Central

Turning Märklin 4316 into a DCC central? Deal!

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Things used in this project

Hardware components

DigiSpark

Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless

Story

You are right, Maerklin 4316 is not a central but a normal waggon. But with a RaspberryPI running srcpd and Rocrail this waggon can be easily turned into a DCC central.

We need a circuit creating a differential protocol from the serial stream of the RaspberryPI Zero W, so for that I had used DigiSpark Mini including a simple timeout check to disable the tracks if no data was arrived. The Pololul MC33926 can be used as a driver stage. At last step we need power. A LiFePo4 battery is much more stable as LiIon. Adding step-up converters and a charger finishes the power stage.

So the idea is to do something like that:

A first check shows everything seems to fit:

Stay tuned for the building instructions… it is already running, see the video:

Code

Digispark Code

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  pinMode(0, INPUT);
  pinMode(1, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(1,HIGH);
  pinMode(2,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(4,OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  bool bLastState = false;
  volatile int Count = 0;
  for(;;)
  {
    Count++;
    if (digitalRead(0) != bLastState)
    {
        bLastState = !bLastState;
        digitalWrite(2,bLastState);
        digitalWrite(4,!bLastState);
        if (Count > 1000) 
        {
          digitalWrite(1,LOW);
        } else
        {
          digitalWrite(1,HIGH);
        }
        Count = 0;
    }
    if (Count > 1000) 
    {
      digitalWrite(1,LOW);
    }
  }
}

Credits

Manuel Schreiner

4 projects • 8 followers

Maerklin 4316 Central

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Schematics

Drawing Connecting Components

Code

Digispark Code

Credits

Manuel Schreiner

Comments

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Maerklin 4316 Central

Maerklin 4316 Central

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Schematics

Drawing Connecting Components

Code

Digispark Code

Credits

Manuel Schreiner

Comments

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