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johnrm174 edited this page Aug 17, 2024 · 7 revisions

model-railway-signalling

A DCC model railway signalling application written in Python, enabling automated and interlocked layout signalling schemes to be designed and configured via the UI without the need to write any code. The application is primarily intended for the Raspberry Pi, but will also run on other platforms (albeit without some of the Raspberry-Pi specific interfacing functions).

  • Enables layout schematics to be created with signals, points, track sections and block instruments.
  • Supports most types of UK colour light signals, semaphore signals, and ground signals.
  • Interfaces with the Pi-SPROG DCC command station to drive the signals and points out on the layout.
  • Uses the Raspberry Pi GPIO inputs to provide train detection in support of signalling automation.
  • Incorporates MQTT networking to allow multiple signalling applications to be linked for larger layouts.
  • Provides a Public API to support custom layout control interfaces.

Example Screenshot

Configured / pre-installed systems are now available to purchase from: https://www.model-railway-signalling.co.uk/ The website also included a number of user guides that can be downloaded (in PDF format).

My youTube channel also has a number of videos demonstrating the use of the application: https://www.youtube.com/@DCCModelRailwaySignalling

What's new for Release 4.5.0:

  • Schematic Route Buttons Feature:

    • 'One click' select/deselect of routes, changing all points and signals as required
    • Point and signal changes can be instantaneous or sequenced with a user-specified time delay
    • Once successfully set up, routes can be highlighted on the schematic in user-defined colours
    • Automatic clear-down of highlighting if routes are invalidated (e.g. point or signal changes)
    • Track-sensors can be used to automatically de-select routes when the trains have cleared the routes
    • Interlocking is preserved - If a route isn't possible the button will be disabled (with a tooltip)

  • Removed constraint on interlocking with conflicting signals - more than 4 signals can now be specified

Example Screenshot2

Bug reports and feedback is welcome and appreciated:

  • What aspects are intuitive? What aspects aren't?
  • What aspects do you particularly like?
  • What aspects particularly irritate you?
  • What new features would you like to see?

email: [email protected] (if reporting bugs then please attach the sig file, application logs and any relevant screenshots)

Installing the application

For a first time installation use:

$ python3 -m pip install model-railway-signals

When installing the application on later versions of python you may get the following error:

error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
    create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
    Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
    sure you have python3-full installed.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
    it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
    virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.

    See /usr/share/doc/python3.11/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.

To overcome this, remove the 'EXTERNALLY-MANAGED' file from the default python installation and then re-attempt the install:

$ sudo mv /usr/lib/python3.11/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED /usr/lib/python3.11/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED.old
$ python3 -m pip install model-railway-signals

To upgrade to the latest version use:

$ python3 -m pip install --upgrade model-railway-signals

If you want to use Block Instruments with full sound enabled (bell rings and telegraph key sounds) then you will also need to install the 'simpleaudio' package. Note that for Windows it has a dependency on Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater (so you will need to ensure Visual Studio 2015 is installed first). If 'simpleaudio' is not installed then the software will still function correctly (just without sound).

$ python3 -m pip install simpleaudio

Note that if you are running on a later version of Python you may need to install libasound2 before the simpleaudio pip install will work.

$ sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev

Running the application

The python package should be run as a module (note underscores):

$ python3 -m model_railway_signals

If required, a layout schematic can be loaded at startup:

$ python3 -m model_railway_signals -f layout_file.sig

If required, the logging level can be specified at startup (ERROR, WARNING, INFO or DEBUG)

$ python3 -m model_railway_signals -f layout_file.sig -l DEBUG

Application documentation, can be found in the 'user_guide' folder: https://github.com/johnrm174/model-railway-signalling/tree/main/user_guide

Some example layout configuration files can be found in the 'configuration_examples' folder: https://github.com/johnrm174/model-railway-signalling/tree/main/configuration_examples

My youTube channel also has a number of videos demonstrating the use of the application: https://www.youtube.com/@DCCModelRailwaySignalling

And finally, a top tip for running the application on the latest Debian Bookworm release which uses Wayland as the GUI backend rather than X11 (which was the backend for previous Debian releases). I found that with Wayland, the Tkinter GUI performance was terrible for some reason (not just my application - python/Tkinter performance in general) - and that was running on a Raspberry Pi 5 which I would have expected to improve overall performance. Anyway, I found that the fix is to switch the GUI backend of the Raspberry Pi back to X11 - performance of the user interface is now lightning quick!

To change the backend - Run "sudo raspi-config", select 'Advanced Options' then 'Wayland' and select X11.

An additional benifit was that some of the other applications I use (such as the kazam video capture software) will now work as normal on the Raspberry Pi 5.

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