StarSeer
tags: workshop-log, electronics, StarSeer
N.B. This is a broad overview; if you're a techie, stay tuned for detailed posts on implementation.
Many years ago, my niece Tahlia had asked me to build her a train. Later, one of my other nieces, Shakira, had also asked me to build her a train, one thing that Tahlia asked me, all of seven years old, still echoes in my thoughts, especially now:
"I want to know what you did Uncle Shane, and more importantly, WHY you chose to do it that way..."
It was also around that time I told Little One she'd be able to drive the train, by remote, using nothing more than her Samsung tablet.
That wasn't some large, fanciful claim I made to impress a kid.
This is the system diagram for the StarSeer Automatic Train Control computer.
I've been inspired by the long gone Ericsson ATC computers that were fitted to the State Rail Authority's Tangara suburban electric multiple units when I was Tahlia's age, in 1988. Information regarding the ATC computers higher level operation is available online, and by asking in the right places.
This is a photo of TAN1 (what is T20 these days, I believe) with the Train Management System console in the middle of the drivers desk, and the Ericsson ATC console at the top of the desk.
This is the Train Management System console for the StarSeer, you can see where the inspiration came from.
A basic circuit diagram I made for the console, apart from the fact this needs to be a usable system, it is also a tool to teach various concepts like embedded computing and legacy protocols.
The system in all its glory, albeit uncompleted. I sometimes affectionately call it "My mad science experiment."
It is based off a Eurocard chassis I recovered from a GE Healthcare Datex Ohmeda S/5 computer I found in an e-waste pile during the 2022 Northern Rivers Floods. The system diagram at the top is a copy I made of the original system diagram, with my own modules put in to the system rather than those it came with.
It is, essentially, a "network" of single purpose Arduinos all talking over an embedded network (RS485), with an Arduino Mega running a state machine that co-ordinates the network of single purpose Arduinos, and "routes" to outside networks - over LoRA, over Wifi, over other communications links, as required.
It has multiple methods of determining its location, UHF RFID, Bluetooth iBeacons, GPS, even UWB in a later revision.
I've spent the last few years reverse engineering both historical and contemporary radio train control systems, MetroNet, CountryNet, DTRS, and the NTCS (via the ICE radio). While my components are current generation, my design philosophy is that of 1980s and 1990s embedded computing systems, and I've also reverse engineered the ABB MICAS computers on the Variotrams, and the Mitsubishi "chopper" gate controllers and monitor units. In fact, I'm quite well known in the rail industry to be able to reverse engineer systems that "institutional memory" has long forgotten.
When I told my niece she'll be able to drive her train by remote control, I surely wasn't kidding!