Points Controllers

My plan is for each Espduino to power 4 sets of points.  The easiest way to do this is to use L293D chips.  They are cheap and each chip powers two separate sets of points.

I will solder them onto a prototype shield so they plug nicely on top of the Espduino.  Each one of these i've made so far ends up looking completely different, but here is one of the finished items.... Photos showing the front and the back.



And here's a different flavour one - exactly the same, but a different layout.  It's all about experimenting!

The L293D chip is brilliant.  Here's what the pins do:

5V goes into Enable1,Enable2 and Vcc2

12V goes into Vcc1

The Digital pins go into the Input Pins

The first points motor goes to output 1&2 and the second Output 3&4

This gives the ability to set both pins to LOW - and the motor is stationary.  One pin to HIGH and it moves in that direction.  Both to HIGH won't do anything.

Here's the whole thing working and screwed under the baseboard

Note that my points are controlled by Arduinos and have nothing to do with the DCC system.  DCC is used for train control only.