105 replies to this topic

[Maxlaam]

I love the buttons, especially the 45° Switches and the E-Stop with the ring. This thing will look so realistic, I'm super excited to see this finished!!!!!

Thank you

buttons... push!!

Glad to see things are still going along with this project

Yep, money is the biggest factor to this project. Progress takes a while and parts are arriving every other week

In the meantime Mr. Jogumpie is working on his own "Phase". I want to do my input through a laptop, though.

Damn, you are so Dutch

Anyway, let's get back to Max's project. I do like your buttons, but I never figured out how they are mounted. Enough programming experience here, but hooking up electronics is rather new for me (although I had some electronics classes a couple of years ago).

Mini tutorial for Jogumpie (and the others who are interested):


These parts make up a full button/switch assembly: A locking ring, a button/switch, a contact element and an adapter (in the future also a name tag but these come in the next shipment).


Let me demonstrate you by cutting a 22.5 mm hole in a piece of cardboard.


Insert the button.


Put on the lock ring and make sure it's tight so the button doesn't rotate around (you have a special tool for this but it's about €9 so I figured it's pretty stupid to buy one, my fingers are strong enough...)


Locked firmly in place.


Put on the adapter, this will form a "bridge" between the button/switch and the contact element. You have different kinds of adapters that can hold 1,3 or 5 contact elements (or lights, some buttons are illuminated.)


Put on the contact element, these come in different flavours. I prefer to use Normally Open contacts (NO) which means that the contacts will be bridged when I push the button or turn the switch. Now you go figure what NC stands for The contact element has 2 screw terminals in which you secure your wires.

So, that's how you mount these buttons/switches

[LaMbChOpZ]

Put on the contact element, these come in different flavours.

I'll take a chocolate one, and if you don't have that I'll take a vanilla one.


So what does the white box thing (contact element??) do exactly?

[Maxlaam]

I'll take a chocolate one, and if you don't have that I'll take a vanilla one.


So what does the white box thing (contact element??) do exactly?

The white part, aka contact element, is the actual part that switches or connects both ends of the button. I use NO contacts so when the button isn't pressed there is no electrical connection.

Last week I got a nice package in the mailbox, this is my new light sequences which is more customizable than the one I previously used. It's in the same price range though except this one is made by a group of hobbyists from Bulgaria instead of a corporate manufacturer. Works like a treat and can handle 1A per channel instead of the 400mA the old sequences was able to handle.



Furthermore, it was about time I did some work on this and my mom actually told me to continue with this instead of being a couch potato for most of the day.

Today I managed to drill all the holes for the panel and tomorrow I will be buying some paint to give it a nice finish.







I wonder if anyone can guess what every button and switch is supposed to control

[Aaron]

I think the big red button will be an emergency stop button , and the key enables you to use it the panel.

Looking awesome so far Max!

[Blackkitty]

I want to push your buttons

[TheRandomGuy]

Just like the real thing! Keep it up!:tmbs

[Maxlaam]

I think the big red button will be an emergency stop button , and the key enables you to use it the panel.

Looking awesome so far Max!

The key will actually start up the Power Supply, an old PC PSU.

I want to push your buttons

Yeah they are nice and firm.

Spoiler

Oh my...

Just like the real thing! Keep it up!:tmbs

Thank you

I'll let you guys guessing for the buttons for a while, I'll tell you what everything will do once I get my labeler fixed... Seems I can't get a new roll of label paper anywhere...

[-=TK=-]

Wow! This project is going to be huge, eventhough it's huge already!!! Great job on those buttons so far Max. It looks really nice and clean so far!

-=Tk=-

[Dragon]

key:turn the panel
big red buttom:emergency stop
turn gray buttoms:lights,stationgates
press buttom:lift,tires,station

and i think is this and more!


but it´s a great job max!

keep doing!

[pkiknex25]

I think that big red button makes it go...

[Maxlaam]

I think that big red button makes it go...

Almost, but please don't spoil the secret.

Spoiler

I don't want anyone to know about the super secret Ejection Seat button!

[Britfag]

Key - Turns the whole system on

Emergency Stop - Just that, either stops all chains or possibly

Spoiler

activates brakes

Two green buttons at the bottom - One's begin automated mode and one is exit station in manual mode.

4 '45*' switches: Nominal things, like Station Gates, Automatic / Manual mode, Light display on/off etc.

Two lit up white buttons in the middle - to have the porn and hookers and blacjack come in and partaaay!

But seriously, if you plan on doing Activatable / Deactivatable breaks, it's tricky..

[Jogumpie]

But seriously, if you plan on doing Activatable / Deactivatable breaks, it's tricky..

Is it?....

[SuperTKDKid]

What will this be used on?

[floris2burn]

I don't want to know the price ticket on all of this.
(<= is broke)

And will the wooden board with buttons get painted? it's a bit ugly with all the marks on it.

Besides that, I think the words are "awesome" and "overkills".
Keep us posted Max.

[Maxlaam]

Key - Turns the whole system on

Emergency Stop - Just that, either stops all chains or possibly

Spoiler

activates brakes

Two green buttons at the bottom - One's begin automated mode and one is exit station in manual mode.

4 '45*' switches: Nominal things, like Station Gates, Automatic / Manual mode, Light display on/off etc.

Two lit up white buttons in the middle - to have the porn and hookers and blacjack come in and partaaay!

But seriously, if you plan on doing Activatable / Deactivatable breaks, it's tricky..

Getting close but no-one got what the green buttons are for yet.

Is it?....

Indeed, servo's

What will this be used on?

Just about all of my new roller-coasters.

I don't want to know the price ticket on all of this.
(<= is broke)

And will the wooden board with buttons get painted? it's a bit ugly with all the marks on it.

Besides that, I think the words are "awesome" and "overkills".
Keep us posted Max.

Yep, those buttons cost a fortune. Wooden panel is currently drying from the 3rd coat of paint. My mum is currently after a labeller while I'm just about to start doing homework

[Britfag]

Indeed, servo's

Yeah, I had figured the Servo's part on my own build, but am yet to write an error free code in basic.
I can use 4 parallel processes and it's still proving tricky having:
3 brakes (Block, Brake run, Station)
4 chains (Station, Brake run, Block, Lift)
Station Gates, Lights, and sounds also.
and that's with a 20+ Year Systems and Control Lecturer at my disposal, although his coding is terrible..

but good luck, I'll be pleased to see it done, no matter how much I envy it

[Jogumpie]

How come your parallel processes are limited, Rhys?

[Britfag]

How come your parallel processes are limited, Rhys?

I am using a Genie E-28, as I make all of my PCB's myself, and artificially create the circuits in computer simulators before hand, and my choice of chips is limited.
Unfortunately, an E-28 will only manage 4 Parallel processes (truly parallel) or it can do 8 Sub-Processes, but interrupts are not efficient when used in Sub-processes. :/

[Maxlaam]

You are using BASIC for programming? Oldskool, but yeah, I don't know if that can use a Switch Case structure like I use.


Anyway, been a bit productive yesterday, went to the PC store and got a new 8cm case fan and a new 12cm case fan, also a new mouse and a canister of compressed air.

The 12cm fan and the new mouse are for my PC obviously, just drawing away some heat from my GPU as BF3 is quite a 'heavy' game The new mouse is to replace my old one, I "broke" a button on my old mouse that I use for voice communication, it didn't pop back properly any more, guess I must have talked a lot...

The 8cm casefan is to replace the fan from an old PSU that started making a lot of noise, apparently there was so much dust clogged up in the PSU and that particular fan that it was "screaming" when turning. Tried to clean it with the compressed air but didn't work for the fan, I already rendered it broke anyway. So I replaced that old fan with a new one and the PSU is now quieter than ever. Having removed all the dust that was clogged up on the inside probably makes it a bit safer to use too.

So I have a working PSU, I have a better PC and most importantly, my panel is "finished":



I wonder why nobody actually noticed the LCD screen that I will use to display messages to the user about what is going on. I also added the "shield" around the buttons and lights so I guess you guys now all know what everything does. The buttons that do not have a tag on them correspond to the lights above with a tag.

The Public Disallow/Allow will probably raise some questions, but I won't tell anything about that one until the next shipment comes in

Nothing is wired yet, I just hooked up my Arduino real quick to make clear I'm using an LCD panel.