Basic Hardware

Hardware falls into three main categories, as expanded on below.

Electronics

Controller

• To be confirmed

Receiver

• ESP32 WROOM-32 (or similar)
• A custom PCB with slots for add-on boards

Servo Driver

• A small PCB which physically plugs into the receiver
• A servo driver chip/dev board (e.g. A4988, DRV8825, or similar)
• An optional relay (e.g. for frog polarity on points)
• An input 74x595 serial buffer
• An output 7x595 serial buffer

DCC/LCC Module (future expansion)

• A module which physically plugs into the receiver
• Opto-isolator to allow DCC input
• Appropriate LCC input hardware

Micro Linear Motion Actuators

• i.e. the tiny little stepper motors, as pictured on the cover of this book
• A tiny PCB to convert the FCB connection into something a little more robust (JST XH)

Enclosures and fittings

• Some kind of box for the receiver, which allows for the various modules to be installed & contacts accessed
• Vertical & horizontal mounting options for the tiny stepper motors
  • Also some way of fitting wire, etc. to them. i.e. to connect to signals, points, and so on.

Railway Bits

Primarily, this will consist of "Howie Did It" articles demonstrating how points and signals from various manufacturers, and of various vintages, may be converted to use Batwing's micro-linear-actuators.

The initial focus of this project is on:

• Points (switches), with frog polarity switching
• Semaphore signals

In the future, other things could be added (wagon hoists... water stand pipes... I dunno, "things").