Control a model railroad with a vintage Atari ST
In the 90s, Cyril Rossignol dreamed of controlling his miniature train with his computer. While this was possible at the time, it was not easy and would have required some serious hardware and programming skills. But today, thanks to development boards like Arduino's, it's a much more accessible project. This is how Rossignol was able to fulfill his dream of controlling a model railway with a vintage Atari ST.
The Atari ST line of computers came to market in the mid-1980s and featured mouse-controlled graphical user interfaces. Rossignol recently found his vintage Atari 1040 STE while sorting through old stuff and realized he could fulfill his 90s dream of using an Arduino as a middleman between computer and model railroading. With a custom software interface programmed for the Atari, Rossignol was able to control their model locomotives from their computer.
The Rossignol Model Railway features DCC (Digital Command Control), which controls the amount of power and its polarity going to the tracks, as well as the switches. Rossignol just needed a way for his Atari to communicate with the DCC. For this, he chose an Arduino Mega 2560 board. The Atari communicates with the Arduino via an RS232-TTL converter, and the Arduino, in turn, communicates with Rossignol's DCC-EX via I2C.
This configuration was a success and now Rossignol can operate its trains with its Atari, as it envisioned 30 years ago.
Categories: Uncategorized
In the 90s, Cyril Rossignol dreamed of controlling his miniature train with his computer. While this was possible at the time, it was not easy and would have required some serious hardware and programming skills. But today, thanks to development boards like Arduino's, it's a much more accessible project. This is how Rossignol was able to fulfill his dream of controlling a model railway with a vintage Atari ST.
The Atari ST line of computers came to market in the mid-1980s and featured mouse-controlled graphical user interfaces. Rossignol recently found his vintage Atari 1040 STE while sorting through old stuff and realized he could fulfill his 90s dream of using an Arduino as a middleman between computer and model railroading. With a custom software interface programmed for the Atari, Rossignol was able to control their model locomotives from their computer.
The Rossignol Model Railway features DCC (Digital Command Control), which controls the amount of power and its polarity going to the tracks, as well as the switches. Rossignol just needed a way for his Atari to communicate with the DCC. For this, he chose an Arduino Mega 2560 board. The Atari communicates with the Arduino via an RS232-TTL converter, and the Arduino, in turn, communicates with Rossignol's DCC-EX via I2C.
This configuration was a success and now Rossignol can operate its trains with its Atari, as it envisioned 30 years ago.
Categories: Uncategorized
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