[Coco] Model Railroading with a CoCo... WAS I'm grilling in January in shorts and no shirt.....

[George Ramsower]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Banerjee"
<snip>

> I was wondering if anyone had ever worked with pulse encoders -- like the 
> kind pulse telephones use.  I'm working on finding new and unique ways to 
> connect a coco to a model railroad...
>
>                   - Aaron

 Aaron,

  I've pondered and studied using a Coco to run a model railroad for years. 
Studied the internet and even have a small N-Scale layout just for testing 
some ideas.
  I wanted a way to identify the location of two locomotives on the layout 
so I could make them operate on the same track without colliding. The 
problem is identifying which loco is which when they cross over detectors. 
There are devices today that can do that and report back to the computer the 
info.
  I can't imagine how a dial pulse could help with this, unless you are 
thinking of using pulses to control speed and direction. If this is your 
intent, then you may be on the right track. Today, Pulse Width Modulation 
(PWM) is the way to go.
 To control speed and direction with PWM, you can make a loco go so slow, 
you can't even see it moving. It's speed is almost always constant 
regardless of the load as PWM uses the full voltage potential with each 
pulse. The longer pulse on time and shorter off times makes the loco go 
faster. The high voltage pulses will burn through poor connections on the 
wheels that make the electical connections and result in a more reliable 
drive over not so perfect rails.
 I started playing with PWM back in the seventies and I loved it. Would 
never go back to variable voltage DC again.
 What was you original thinking on this subject?

  George