Model Scenery Tutorials

A Comprenshive Modeler's And Model Railroader's Guide

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How To Make The Ultimate Model Railroad Level Crossing With Gates, Lights, Bells

Draft – Update in Progress

An Advanced Level Crossing

An easy to install level crossing kit that allows you to

Features

  • Gate speed, gate open and close angles, and warning light flash rates  plus delay between bells ringing and gates closing easily adjustable via potentiometers
  • Protects 1, 2 or 3 tracks
  • Track is protected regardless of directions of trains on that track.
  • Gates stay closed as long as a train is on any track in the protected area.
  • Bells start ringing as soon as a train enters the protected area.
  • Works with 2 or 4 gates
  • Works with 2 or 4 warning lights

For Flashing Lights And Bells Only

If you wish to have no gates but  only flashing lights with bells,   Go here.

The Control Circuit

level crossing circuit board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advantages Of This System

  • You can choose to have 1, 2 or 3 tracks, in any orientation. in the protected area.
  • You can choose to have 2 to 4 flashing crossbucks plus as many other flashing lights as you wis.
  • You can choose to have 2 to 4 operating  gates
  • This system uses  a unique code. The crossing will remain active as long as any track in the protected area is occupied.
  • You can adjust gate speed, gate angles, flash rates and the bells/light delay using potentiomers conveniently placed on the board.
  • Screw terminal connectors make for easy setup.
  • The circuit board is extensively labeled.
  • Full instructions are included.
  • We give you unlimited free help.

 

 

You can get what you need in one place here.

Assembly

The screw terminals come to you in 2 pin segments. They are designed to be joined together.  Join them using the slots on each side. So join them as necessary to fit the lengths needed by the circuit board.

The Arduino board comes without pins.  Cut pin headers to proper lengths and solder them in place.

The pins on the DFPlayer and Arduino board (now with pins you just soldered on) connect to the circuit board via Dupont pin sockets. Cut the pin sockets to length and insert the pins into the sockets.

The sockets will be soldered to the circuit board.  With the pins or the DFPlayer and and Arduino board inserted, you can be sure that the pin sockets will be vertical when soldered to the board.

Now add all the elements to the board and solder in place.

Operation

All terminal connections a potentiometers are labeled.

LED Entrance – connect the wires for crossbuck flashing lights that are on the sides  where traffic enters the protected area.  C is cathode and A is anode.

Led Exit – connect the wires for crossbuck flashing lights that are on the sides  where traffic leaves the protected area.  C is cathode and A is anode.

The IR sensors are arranged by track.  Sensors are labeled E for East and W for West. T1E is for track 1 sensor  East. Others are similarly labeled. The + and – terminals match the terminals on the sensor.

Note how we place the sensors and sensor bodies. Read this 

The Entrance gates operate as one.  The Exit gates operate as one. There are connection points for two of each. If you only want to use Entrance gates, ignore the Exit gate connections.  The C connects to the Control pin on the servo.

Spkr+ and Spkr- are connected to the + and – terminals of the speaker.

The unit is connected to a 5 volt power supply.

Load the audio of your choice on the SD card.  How to do that is here.

Now it is time to adjust everything. There are 7 potentiometers on the board for doing just that.

GEOA – Entrance gate open angle.  Defaulted to 45 degrees.

GECA –  Entrance gate close angle. Defaulted to 0 degrees.

GLOA  – Exit gate open angle. Defaulted to 45 degrees

GLCA – Exit gate close angle. Defaulted to 0 degrees.

GDLY – The delay time between the train entering the protected area and the gates start to close. Defaulted to 1500 ms

BLRT – The flash rate of the warning lights. Defaulted to 400 ms

GSPD – The gate opening and closing speed.  Defaulted to 30.

Testing

Before you attach the servo arms to the gate mechanisms, you should attach them to the servos as you guess they should be.

Trigger a train entering and leaving the crossing and watch the arm rotation.  Reset the arms as necessary to where your current guess is that they should be.

Connect the servos to the gate mechanisms.  Trigger a train entering and leaving. Change the angles as necessary by adjusting potentiometer settings.

Along the way, you can use the other potentiomters to fine tune your level crossing.

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