The idea of the ARC project came up after I was searching for an easy-to-copy DIY DCC command station for my first digital controlled locomotive (an Arnold BR 111 from Deutsche Bahn, found at my local used-toys dealer). Without having any clue about the age and type of the installed decoder, I decided for a convenient looking DCC command station that I found on the internet. Schematics were simple and easy to reproduce without big effort and the 2×16 text-display looked fine for me. But after I finished building and trying to operate my new loco, I soon realized that the decoder (a Lenz LDE20) was too old (from times before NMRA released the first binding DCC standard) and only had 14 speed steps. And I realized also that a rotary speed knob would be way cooler than just having +/- buttons.
Unwilling of implementing one of the other, more complex DIY schematics that can be found on the web, I decided for project ARC with the goal to create a command station that is very simple to implement, cheap but still powerful. With a modern graphical front-end and only based on off-the-shelf components, ARC took its first steps. Due to my daily work on embedded systems and ARM-Cortex microcontrollers, I found lots of fun in this project. Even being part of the huge family of open DCC command stations – in times of Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Co., ARC is one of the first DCC stations that rely on off-the-shelf development boards.
ā¦ Nevertheless the old LDE20 decoder got replaced by a brand new Doehler & Haass DH10C š
I hope that ARC will also be useful to you and your model railroad and Iām happy if you share your impressions and feedback! If you want to get in contact with me (for questions, ideas, feedback, source code etc.), please send a mail to arc@plauffs.de or use the comments.
Enjoy the ARC project!
Patrick
