Indoor Test of Grade Crossing Signals
I decided to test the newly wired grade crossing signals for our small garden railroad here on our living room coffee table. This way, if I happened to encounter a problem, I could figure out what is wrong without all the variables of installing it outdoors. Doing this test in a controlled environment is the best option. I have a few circuit boards in this configuration that I should explain... First, the power is sourced from four AA rechargeable batteries in the black case pictured at right. From there, the power goes to a voltage regulator. I need the voltage to be a steady 3.0 volts for the new LED bulbs in the grade crossing signals. This voltage regulator can be set to a wide range of output voltages but I need 3.0 volts so that is what I set it to. The output terminals on the regulator circuit board run to a large momentary push button switch. The kids can easily access this big button and hold it down to keep the grade crossing si...