Though of another Merry-go-round' to build, with signals, before I flip up the layout.
The Arduino Mega that 'was' the DCC Base Station died. This is the second Arduino Mega to die. Death seems to have come similarly to the first one. Replacement and spare ordered. Monday. Arrived Saturday!
Hard to troubleshoot a new software function when the hardware dies.
As a result added a try/except structure around creating the link between Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Catching the serial error raises a fatal error shutting down the Raspberry Pi and passes it to the Laptop.
Found a new toy to add 'unneeded' functionality. How about Text To Speech (TTS) so the laptop can now talk instead of doing a voice over.
Fixing/adjusting little things waiting for new Arduino.
Data Base on TrainThing laptop died. Of course it was not backed up. And of course no data base to rebuild the Arduino list of sensors (36), list of turnouts (21) and two relays when the new Arduino is installed..
With the layout up to replace the Arduino, troubleshot one of the dwarf signal lights that did not work. Must be getting old. The problem was a cold solder joint. Fixed.
Cleaned the tracks and loco wheels for the first time. Boy did that eliminate one frustration.
Lots of timing issues waiting for turnouts to change. TTS just adds to the problem. But got things working again. Need to do some tweaking on the timing and delays. Great progress.
