What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

Updated 5/21/2022:

Every so often, you have to go backwards to make some forward progress. Here's last week's roundup of activities:

• As you may know, there are 4 furnaces in my Open Hearth model - #11, #12, #13, and #14. The plan is to have each animate a different set of activities in the Open Hearth process. The animations are carried out on an Arduino MEGA 2560 processor running a C program I am writing. To date, I have finished the bulk of the Furnace11 code (at least the logic for invoking the relays) but I'm not particularly happy with it. It’s convoluted. I’m leaving the MP3 player logic until later.
  
• I then moved on to try writing the Furnace13 code which is the most complex. Keeping track of the “{“ and matching “}” (in the C programming language) motivated me to search for a pretty-printer and a way of matching parenthesis. The answer was moving to the 2nd version of the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment). It also has a debugger, which I’ve yet to try.
  
• I got well into the Furnace13 state logic and decided it was becoming too big, too complex, and too unwieldy. There's a lot of potential for logic errors. Looked at YouTube and found a task scheduler tutorial. SchedTask seems to be the correct choice. I am investigating this more fully, but it looks very promising. Using the Task Scheduler will simplify the code, removing most of the state machine logic, improving comprehension, and making it easier to maintain. Using it will allow me to build small, simple functions to perform specific tasks and control their use.
  
• Ordered and received a long (25’) USB A-B cable for programming the Arduino. While it lets me connect my development computer (in the workshop) to the Open Hearth base in the trainroom, I’m thinking that running back and forth is not a great idea. Therefore, I have decided to clean up the table in the workshop, move the OH onto it, and do both the programming and the physical model construction there.
• Before I can move the model, a general clean-up of the workshop will be necessary. The paints have already gone back into their storage area beneath the spray booth. The electrical workbench will get cleared of its track-related components; the OH lighting and Arduino components will be staged there. Open Hearth structural components will go back into the Open Hearth project box until needed.
  

Updated 6/8/2022:

Much effort, small amount of visible progress to report.

The Arduino program is coming along. The use of the scheduler library has made the task much simpler but the bulk of the effort is still ahead of me. With all the routines needed and the complexity of the simulation, I think we are looking a program size of around 1,000 SLOC (source lines of code).

Right now I am in the process of wiring some of the relays and components inside the "Lean-To", which will house all the electronics. Thank goodness for Amazon - my source for many components and hardware fittings.

Lots of progress happens under the layout. Can't see it, but it is there.