JMRI: how I Operate my Trains Visually

To operate my Railway I use  JMRI that is based on Java 11 and allows to create and mantain a roster of locomotives, to run the trains using embedded throttles, to operate the motor point for the turnouts, to control sensors and Lights and much more. For more info please check the JMRI Project page

In the figure below you can see the current topology of my railway with the Turnouts that I can control by tapping on the red\green circle.

Set-RAilroad JMRI Panel

My JMRI Control Center is composed by:
  1. Windows 10 Laptop with JMRI and Java 11 Installed
  2. Arduino Mega R3 Microcontroller ( by Amazon )
  3. 2 Servo Driver Board PCA9685 (by Amazon ) to control 25 Servos (Sensors as well). You can replace the PCA8685s with Mega Sensor Shield V2.0 (by Amazon ) to drive Servos and Sensors directly from the Arduino Mega) 


With Arduino Mega and 2 PCA9685 Ican drive up to 32 SG909 Servos (by Amazon ).

My JMRI configuration files, Arduino Sketches to control Point Motors and Sensors and Calibration and Servo Sketches are available in my GitHub repository 

You can find help looking on this video by Little Wicket Railway.