My new Lego PF remote control for my trains...

[mostlytechnic]

I'm tired of the little dials on the real Lego PF speed remote. I've got big hands and want something nicer for controlling my trains. I spent some time making custom software on an Arduino, and then found hardware to go with it.

I'm taking one of these Saitek Throttle Quadrants:

...then ripping out the electronics and USB interface, and adding my own Arduino-based guts. I've got the software working perfectly and the throttle quadrant is ordered, just waiting for it to be delivered.

This will provide three nice lever throttle controls, plus switches below to select forward/reverse. I'd love eventually to add another to act as a remote control for powered switches on the layout as well. It'd be simple to do, now that I've got the code written.

I'll post more once I've got it fully functional.

[HighFlyer]

Wow, this looks amazing, really inventive creation! Brilliant work

[Laura Beinbrech]

Ahh, a man after my own heart. :D How much does something like that cost, I wonder? Definitely want to see it when you've got it working.

[mostlytechnic]

I got my throttle quadrant in the mail over the weekend. I opened it up, and there's not as much room inside as I'd hoped. It's pretty packed. I'll probably end up moving the clamp to the underside (so it can clamp on the edge of a table, with the levers on top of the table, and there's already mounting holes to do that) and attach a small box to the back containing my electronics.

Cost - about $30 for the arduino board, $50ish for the throttle quadrant, a few bucks for other parts (IR LEDs, resistors, transistors, etc), and then probably another $20 or so for some connectors and stuff that I'll use to hook everything up.

My original plan was to put the LEDs in the box, pointed up to bounce the signal off the ceiling. Not sure that'll be powerful enough to be reliable, and it certainly wouldn't work on a high ceiling (like a train show). So now I'm considering making the LEDs into small boxes that can be mounted on the ceiling or on poles pointed down, with cables connecting them to the control box.

I also didn't realize that those 3 buttons under the levers are actually 6 buttons. I'd assumed they were toggle switches, but they're actually 6 buttons. So I'll either have to replace them with switches, make "reverse" require holding a button, or make the software toggle between forward/reverse when you press the button. And I've got 3 buttons to spare now! Maybe make them work servo-controlled switches on the track?

[JopieK]

If I can help you with the Arduino stuff, feel free to ask... I am currently working on a feedback system with PF and Arduino.

B.t.w. I use a LEGuanO arduino, it costs me around 7,50€ :)

[fluffybunny]

Looks like a cool project, I have one of those throttle quadrants actually for flight sim, great product, but in looking to see how you were doing this, the software you are using Arduino I am not familiar with it. I did a quick google search and it looks like its a programing language but how do you interface it with PF stuff in the trains. You mentioned that there is a board and IR things, are they basically IR blasters that send on the signal to the stock lego PF IR receiver? Are your trains still going to be stock? Do you have a good link for the software and interfaces? This looks like a really good project and one that I might want to do also.

[locoworks]

could you make a lego quadrant with lego levers??

[mostlytechnic]

JopieK - I got the IR code that I'm using from some of your old links. Then I just built my own main program to handle converting the physical inputs to the commands I wanted sent out.

fluffybunny - the Arduino is a hardware board (see arduino.cc). It is programmable and provides a bunch of input and outputs for connecting things to it. In my case, I have the rotary potentiometers from the throttle quadrant and the buttons connected to the inputs of the arduino board, and some IR LEDs setup as outputs. The software that I wrote (and the libraries that I got from jopiek's links) interpret the hardware controls and send out the Lego IR codes that correspond. The trains are unmodified. So for example, if you move lever 1 to the 100% mark, the arduino sends out the Lego PF IR command for "full forward power on channel 1 red"

locoworks - you certainly could build the levers out of lego - and I thought about doing that. I'd then have had to buy some potentiometers (pretty cheap), figure out how to mount them to the lego levers (probably lots of hot glue), and then connect them to the arduino board. Certainly all possible, but I wanted something like this instead.

Once I've got it sorted out a bit better, I'll be posting more details.