Way back in March (I think) I bought an Arduino to add some flash to this train layout. I played with it for a few days, said "This is going to be cool" and went back to riding my bike.
The problem is that, while the software is obviously going to be easy the mechanics of the assembly isn't - not for me, anyway.
For example, I need to run 8 (up to 16, really) white LEDs out onto the layout, and maybe 4 tri-colors. Took me 2 hours to set up the soldering iron and make a single LED+wire-harness. A lot of that was "find all the junk and get it in one place" time, but still.
Sigh.
Still, I did take that single tri-color, rig it into the layout, drop a house on it and then wrote a bit of code that plays a tune on a piezo buzzer while making the LED twinkle. Next step is to add a pair of shift registers so that I can drive more lights and learn whether or not the Arduino can drive 16 LEDs all at once. Then move the whole thing from the breadboard to a more permanent installation.
As before, the hard part will actually be finding a way to neatly wire everything together in a moderately durable manner. I've got some cedar grilling planks, I'll use one as the base for the assembly, rather than trying to build it all into an enclosure.
I've also bought some 4-wire ribbon cable at "The Shack" (no Fry's on this coast!) and I ordered the various odds and ends you can't get around here; some terminal blocks, some stand offs, proto boards, headers, et cetera. I figure I'll solder male headers to one end of each ribbon cable to interface with the Arduino, tack 'em down to the plank and screw them into the terminal blocks. The other side of the blocks will be where the LED cables will connect. I figure I'll find some rubber grommets at the hardware store and just use those to hold the LEDs in place on the layout.
Do you think it will work? Including the Arduino and the parts from Jameco, I'm already well over $100 for the parts, so don't tell Sue.