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A floor layout doesn’t have to be boring!

January 11, 2015


At home I do not have a permanent train layout. There’s no room, no time, no $$$ but I do have a box of EZ track and another box of equipment that myself and my boys enjoy using. So here are my tips on how to keep a simple floor layout entertaining for both kids and parents.

Be creative

An oval is boring, you can only watch the train go around in circles for so long before this gets to you. The children may take a bit longer to tire of it but the eventual result is the same. A train going around in the same circle over and over is BORING. First I did some dog bone set ups which at least made the course it was taking interest but really what you need is a couple turnouts. A couple turnouts can take your simple oval to the next level.

Small yard

For me I have 2 LH and 2 RH turnouts so what I have started doing is I make the main oval for the boys so that they can get a train that’s going around entertaining them and stopping at a station I place for them. For myself with a small yard I build I can set out the trains for them to take out. I build the first train out of a full yard (which can be a challenge) the next one is a drop off/pick up and so on. This keeps the boys happy and gives Dad something to do besides get dizzy watching a circle.

Switchlist for Mac OS X

Eventually randomly making up switch jobs in my head even got a bit tiresome so I went looking for some simple Model railroading software for basic (extremely basic) operation. Most of the stuff out there is fairly complex so the goal was to find something quick, simple and would work for a simple oval + yard set up to keep Dad entertained along with the kids.

Then I came across Switchlist for Mac OS X and it fit the bill perfectly. Switchlist made it very easy to add my small collection of freight and set up 3 dummy stops (Start, Stop, End). This allowed the program to spit out switch lists that made the train session with the kids entertaining for everyone. Switchlist also supports several formats for output and is extendible with your own customizations. I was happy with PICL format as it matched what I was used to at train club.

Another interesting feature of this software is it has a web mode which lets you pull up your switchlists and reports on a mobile device.

Keep it fun

Getting into model railroading can seem like an impossible mountain to climb these days. You look at things like Model Railroader magazine and feel instantly intimidated by the layouts and Top line products featured but in reality with a moderate amount of track, an open floor and some equipment you can have just as much fun. You don’t need a massive sprawling layout to enjoy the hobby just a little bit of time and creativity.

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Raspberry Pi A+: XBMC

January 11, 2015


IMG_3111Someone had asked me some time ago to test XBMC with my shiny new Pi A+ and share the results. I was actually already in the process of doing so and now with a few weeks under my belt it is time to share my experience.

Rasbmc

I already use Raspbmc and have been since I got my first Pi model B almost 2 years ago so I am quite familiar with the product and what to expect. Before beginning my project I checked the RAM usage from both the command line and GUI on my model B and was pleased to see in both cases even when viewing video it was under the 256MB mark. This opened up the possibility of XBMC on the A+.

Limited ports

The A+ as we already know has a single USB port. If you have a USB hub this is not a limitation but for the sake of this test the final result will only make use of that single port.

Installation

IMG_3079Note above I said FINAL result for the install I had a USB hub connected with a keyboard and WIFI adapter and ran through the Raspbmc install process without a hitch. Then I installed and configured my preferred modules which were Youtube, NHL Game center, iStream and enabled uPnP.

The reason I enabled uPnP is because I intend this to just be a satellite XBMC that remotely plays off another library and through online services without the need for locally stored media.

Post Install

I disconnected the hub and plugged the wifi adapter back into the sole USB port as this is my intended final configuration to the outside world. I will use my TV remote which works over CEC and my mobile devices with the XBMC remote to control the Pi. I am quite happy to say that this worked out fine first boot and it was time to test my Media.

Usage

Youtube, iStream, NHL Gamecenter and uPnP media all streamed without a hitch. Once again even the Pi A+ can still do all the important things its big brother can do.

Future plans

I have read online in various sources that a better option may be NFS with MySQL to share the library data between instances so I may try that out in the future with this set up. I would also like to add that this works great with the newest release KODI and that if you intend to use your Pi’s for media save yourself some trouble and spend the couple bucks on the 2 codecs available.

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Thrifty Raspberry Pi A+ case

December 18, 2014


My Pi A+ continues to impress me with its form factor and abilities but as I begin to settle it into a more permanent role its lack of case becomes a continued problem.

I would like to eventually get the Pibow Royale but being the Christmas season I can’t justify buying myself something at this time so maybe in the new year I’ll pick one up!

IMG_3109Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

If you’ve read any of my arcade Pi posts you’ve probably noticed that both my original and current arcade are a reuse of a box. The first version where I followed the Adafruit tutorial I used the box Adafruit shipped the parts in. The second one I used my VMware 5 year service award box (there was a gift in the box they didn’t give me an empty black box for a service award)

This time I am going to use the box the Pi came in. It has pretty Raspberry Pi and element14 branding on it, it’s mostly the right size and it’s easy!

Cutting edgeIMG_3112

So for any box to case conversions your main…only tool is an exacto knife. It will allow you to easily carve whatever shapes you need into the box of your choosing. For the Raspberry Pi A+ you need to pick a corner for the Pi that will accommodate the single USB port and the power/HDMI/sound ports on the side. I cut a single hole for the USB port and a long slot of the side for the 3 other ports. If you plan to use GPIO as well you can cut a hole in the top of the box for this as well but in my case that was not required.

Keep it in place

Now this box is bigger than the Pi itself and it can move around freely so what I did is I rolled up the static bag the Pi came in and placed it behind the Pi to keep it from moving side to side. Then I folded the part of the roll sticking out the end length wise into the box to keep the Pi from moving back and forth. Keep in mind if you plan to unplug and plug things into the Pi a lot that this does not prevent all movement. You may want a more sturdy case for that. In my situation this Pi will be in a mostly static form with minimal cables coming and going so it will work.

If you are worried about heat you can cut holes into the top of the box but the A+ is pretty decent in that respect and the ventilation provided by the USB and HDMI slots I made appears to be sufficient. Now as you can see I have a functional case for my Pi at 0 cost to me other than 5 minutes of my time. It isn’t perfect but it works

IMG_3114

 

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Raspbmc: Remember the cool red Confluence ?

December 10, 2014


When I first started using Rasbmc almost 2 years ago it had that standard Blue XBMC Confluence and since I was new to the whole XBMC thing in general it was still all shiny and fine in its default glory.

Then!

A month later my Pi did its little updates one reboot and all of a sudden I had this totally awesome Raspberry Pi inspired Confluence and my excitement was over 9000!!!!!!!!

timthumb

THEN!!!

A few months later my SD card was corrupted and I had to reinstall and my famous Red Connie (what I will call the Rasbmc Confluence from now on) was gone and mentions of it were stricken from the universe!!

Whyyy ohh why

A year passed and suddenly I wanted Red Connie back and I found a forum thread where they did exactly that, patched it and brought it back. If you are running Gotham (13.x) it is as simple as ssh to your Pi and paste the following to the shell:

cd /home/pi
wget http://mirrors.arizona.edu/raspbmc/downloads/bin/xbmc/skin.confluence.raspbmc.zip
unzip skin.confluence.raspbmc.zip
cp -R /home/pi/.xbmc-current/xbmc-bin/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence /home/pi/.xbmc/addons
mv /home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence /home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.raspbmc
cd /home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.raspbmc
sed -i 's/id="skin.confluence"/id="skin.confluence.raspbmc"/' addon.xml
sed -i 's/name="Confluence"/name="Confluence Raspbmc"/' addon.xml
cp -R /home/pi/skin.confluence.raspbmc/backgrounds /home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.raspbmc
cp /home/pi/skin.confluence.raspbmc/colors/defaults.xml /home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.raspbmc/colors/
cp /home/pi/skin.confluence.raspbmc/media/Textures.xbt /home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.confluence.raspbmc/media/
sudo rm -R /home/pi/skin.confluence.raspbmc
rm /home/pi/skin.confluence.raspbmc.zip
  • Reboot
  • Go into Settings > Appearance > Skin> Skin and select the new Confluence Rasbmc that appears.

Apparently Kodi (14.x XBMC and beyond…….) it doesn’t work so hot but the thread I followed has instructions for that if you so desire.

Link to original thread here

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Raspberry Pi A+: Testing the limits

November 27, 2014


IMG_3074So now I am on day two of the A+ and I wanted to see where that 256MB of RAM would leave me. I have a stock Raspian Wheezy image installed plus I have a powered usb hub with a keyboard, mouse and wifi adapter connected for these tests.

MAME
I do a lot of Arcade gaming with my B’s so it was necessary to see what the A+ would do. On reddit all sorts of people say the RAM would prevent it which made little sense to me since these games used little RAM and the emulation was all CPU.

I put mame4all on the Pi, it was no longer in the Pi store anymore so I downloaded it from google code.

If you decide to compile this on your own for some reason you’ll need to add -lasound and -lrt to the LIBS= line they’re missing but really just save yourself the hassle there’s a pre compiled binary with folder layouts in mame4all_pi.zip

I got Ms Pacman and Street Fighter 2 roms onto the Pi. The key to the test will be is the sound emulation perfect as that is the first sign of failure.

Ms Pacman of course passed no issue the real test was SF2. Let me just say SF2 performs as flawlessly as it did on the B, no blips, no slowdowns. Perfect!

So this opens up the possibility of a cheap no solder 2 player Pi Arcade system *adds to project list*

OpenParsec

This one pushes the B to its limit but is it a GPU or CPU limit or RAM? Based on a quick glance at top on the B it might be CPU/GPU but that cache line leaves it open to guess so I better check it out.upload1

This required me to build SDL2 and SDl2-mixer so that gave me a chance to test the Pi’s heat and stability at the 950MHZ rating. I am happy to say it is just as stable as the B is at this frequency and it seems to actually generate less heat under load. Once I had the dependencies installed I was able to compile OpenParsec. This for anyone unfamiliar was a space combat game released as a LAN game in 1999-2002 and then was open sourced in 2003. The latest source tree allows for it to work with the Pi’s hardware accelerated GLES driver.

The game runs and plays music just as well as it did on the B, the RAM was left at around 15MB free with 20 in cache so it was close. So far the A+ is just as capable for anything I have done in the past with the higher RAM B models. I had to increase the GPU memory to 96MB because at 64MB the frames were bleeding together.

So flying through space, collecting items, everything was fine I added 6 bots from my PC to the server and that reduced the framerate quite a bit. The limit for the PI seems to be around 3-4 players max A or B models. Still, for a $20 board I have MAME and space combat so far. I think we’re doing OK.

Epiphany

I had yet to try Epiphany, my one Pi B is XBMC and the other a dedicated console Arcade so it was time to see if this lived up to the hype. We all know the previous browsers were junk and slow so **ANY** improvement would be great.

So, general browsing this seems to work decently, you can see the CPU Load window fill up pretty quickly but it is significantly faster than Midori and others I had used on the B. Even with the reduced RAM this was a significant improvement.

I decided to be a jerk and try to crush the PI and went to Youtube. I was quite happily defeated. I played the Jurassic World Trailer on it with NO ISSUES AT ALL. This must be that fancy hardware decoded video playback I heard about. So even on an A+ you can enjoy Youtube.

I clicked the fullscreen button and things sorta fell apart there…..256mb RAM, I’ll let that slide. I couldn’t watch any Youtube at all on the old browsers even on the 512MB RAM B model.

Conclusion

The only drawback to the A model is the lack of USB and ethernet which with a USB hub you could work around that issue. The RAM doesn’t have too much impact for single purpose projects and its smaller form factor is better for embedding. A great addition to the Pi family and I am glad I got one.

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