DCC-EX Tri-Throttle

I’ve decided to build a mimic panel for my layout which would need to include a throttle capable of controlling multiple trains concurrently.

After seeing various different throttle projects and ideas shared in the DCC-EX team’s Discord server, and building one of the team’s hand held WiFi/WiThrottle based controllers, I decided to go with some mouse wheel rotary encoders for throttle control, a standard 4 x 3 keypad for input duties, and a 1.3” SPI OLED display for output. This will connect to my EX-CommandStation via serial cable as it will be fixed to the side of my layout, although I will likely add support for an ESP32 and WiFi at a later date.

Warning

This project was formerly called “dcc-ex-serial-throttle” but has been renamed as DCCEXTriThrottle is more appropriate. It also previously used slide potentiometers for input, hence the photos being out of date rather than showing mouse wheel rotary encoders.

The microcontroller is in the process of being moved to an STMicroelectronics Bluepill rather than the Nano as it was running out of memory.

This project is undergoing a major re-write and therefore I have temporarily removed all documentation until the new direction is at least useable.

Front view Rear view

There is also a quick and dirty video available on YouTube.