Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

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Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby SignalFreak on Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:55 pm

Hey all,

Been a while! I haven't gotten much time to work on my NEMA interface lately, sort of took a back seat to wedding planning and whatnot. But I continue to pluck away at it.

So far, I have 9 of the 12 I/O modules done up and mounted.

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What you see above are, from left-to-right, phases 1-4, the overlap board, and phases 5-8.

I'm using 1.2K/1W resistors to protect the LEDs. The basic premise is that the A/B/C harness wires will land on these (every last wire save the AC hot/neutral and chassis ground wires). The panels will tie in on the forward pins, and the rear sockets will allow me to jumper onto the I/O board that will exit the bottom of the enclosure to the OPTO22 box (not installed yet). Should make changing around load switches a breeze!

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This promises to be an all-winter project. Slow going, but if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right I say!
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby vaughn on Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:32 pm

Whoa whoa whoa, :panic: I don't know what this does but I want it. :drool: All these switches intrigue me.
That's a work of art.
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby SignalFreak on Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:46 pm

More parts arrived and more progress has been had! I am working on wiring each switch and indicator to each I/O board. This should keep me busy for a long time. Descriptions follow each image...

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I have the 3 holes cut for the A/B/C cables coming from the controller (upper right). I've also mounted both DB25 connectors which will be my signal bus down to the opto-22 box (the load switches). The center hole is for the 120V supply that will drive the signals (I figure I need ~5A with my current display, max probably 10A).

Image

I apologize for the blur in this one, I no good with camera. :lol: You are looking at the back side of the ring 2 control panel. Each blue box is a toggle switch. Phase 8 is on the left and is wired to the I/O board, followed by 7 to the right of it. Phases 6 and 5 have yet to be done. To the right of that are 2 groups of switches.... the top group being ring 2 control, and the bottom group being all the misc. I/O not tied to a ring (external start, CNA1/2, test A/B, etc.)

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This is a closeup of the I/O boards for phases 8 and 7, respectively. From left to right, each channel is: Unused, Ped Omit, Phase Omit, Phase Hold, Ped Detector, Vehicle Detector, On, Next, Check, Walk, Ped Clear, Don't Walk, Green, Yellow and Red.

I chose the indicator ordering to match the I/O steering functionality of the Peek 3000E controller, so with some generic 3-wire RYG jumpers, I can have up to 24 phases. Ok, technically I'm limited to 16 phases with 2 DB25 connectors, but it's a good start for now. Heck, I only have 28 opto's so I won't even max that out.
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby Troy on Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:56 pm

Whoa.. :shock: . That is way beyond my brains' capabilities.....just like about everything else.

Looks good :clapping:
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby vaughn on Sat Jan 26, 2013 5:36 pm

I swear I was thinking of this post not to long ago and forgot where it went, Thanks for updating this post.
I'm curious to see it fired up and operational :yes:
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby mikerm on Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:48 pm

Very cool. :thumbsup:
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby EagleSignalFan on Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:49 pm

That is awesome! It's great to see the project progressing, I can't wait to see it finished and running. :thumbsup:
-Jeff

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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby SignalFreak on Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:16 pm

Not the update some are hoping for, but I've had a setback. *Someone* forgot to design in some diodes on the signal lines. Normally, this won't be a problem. However, if my +24V common on either panel becomes detached for any reason at all, at least one LED will blow out as it passes 24V in reverse. :rob:

Thankfully I've caught this oversight before it cost me rework on the panels. Soldering each LED lattice wasn't a picnic, and I'd hate to have to do it again because I took a shortcut!

So I have 93-ish connections to de-solder, shorehorn in a diode, and remake. Then test.

Maybe I'll have it ready for a signal meet in 2014? :Phil:
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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby SignalFreak on Fri Apr 19, 2013 7:58 pm

Progress update! After terminating all of panel #2, I decided to land all the NEMA wires before I completed panel #1 (panel 1 is phases 1-4, overlaps and system status).

Good LORD, this is a lot of work. I'm averaging 2 phases per night on the nights I can get to it. 168 wires to categorize, extend, route and terminate (not including AC power).

I first started with Phase 8, and thought I'd just put the diodes at the end of the wire for the outputs. This turned out to be a bit messier than I had hoped....

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Have to hot-glue it to keep it from shorting. Here's an overview to give you an idea of what I was staring down....

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So I decided to inline the diodes further back on the wires, before they got to the I/O boards. This worked will since I had to extend the wires to their original lengths, so I just put the diode at the splice (and yes I kept all the wires I trimmed down originally! Being a pack-rat can really pay off! :crazy: )

Final progress through tonight, from right-to-left: Phases 8-5, ring 2 control (includes some general I/O), overlaps, and phases 2 & 1. That bundle sticking into the air on the right is phase 3. I ran out of heat-shrink while on phase 3 so I have to take a break for now.


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Re: Update on my homemade tester/"cabinet"

Postby SignalFreak on Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:35 am

Got panel 2 installed and started testing yesterday! I have a few kinks to work out:

* Phase 8 keeps shorting +24V to chassis ground. Narrowed it down to the yellow indication, and reworked the solder joint. Megged out fine, then when I applied power the controller faulted again and now it's registering another short. :rob: Leaving it disconnected for now.

* Only 2 inputs are unresponsive... I have narrowed it down to a bad solder joint on the PCB I/O board for phase 6.

* Only 1 LED is unresponsive... it tests fine, I may have the wrong wire ran to it (wouldn't be the first... those connectors are not labelled very well!)

Anyway, here's what many of you have been waiting to see.... sorry for the blur!

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