STEbus-based Hardware for a Model Railway Control System

Abstract

This report describes STEbus-based hardware that has been acquired and constructed to provide the basis for a system to control a model railway. The equipment in use may be divided into three basic functional areas: the model railway equipment itself, a computing facility, and special purpose STEbus boards which transform the low power digital logic of the computer(s) into the higher powered analogue signals which drive the train motors (i.e. interfacing circuitry between the other two system components). This main purpose of this report is to document the two types of board which make up the interfacing circuitry, both of which were locally designed and produced. In order to understand fully the design and operation of these boards, the nature of the other parts of the system will first be described.