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I want to send a signal through the DC power lines used in railway compartments.

Can you please help me to do that, or provide some documents or links?

W5VO
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  • The idea is pretty simple - Add an AC waveform to the DC, and filter out the DC on the other end. However, this assumes that you have a clean signal, which should be the case for digital electronics, but may not be the case for your railway. Can you post an oscilloscope trace of the power lines while the train is running? It might be noisy due to the motors, or PWM from your controller. (Also, you mean *model* railway *components*, right?) – Kevin Vermeer Sep 24 '10 at 15:12
  • @Kevin: He asked about "power lines used in railway *compartments*", so no, it has nothing to do with model railroads unless the question is really badly worded. – Olin Lathrop Jan 17 '13 at 20:21
  • The railroad may not appreciate you adding what is essentially noise onto their power line. What if everyone on the train did this? The communication would probably be useless, and at best none of the devices it was intended to power would misbehave. This does not sound like a good idea unless you are the railroad. If so, you really should clarify. – Olin Lathrop Jan 17 '13 at 20:23

2 Answers2

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Take a look at Power line communication principles to start.

Community
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Kortuk
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  • Also take a look at http://chiphacker.com/questions/1654/injecting-a-communication-signal-over-dc-power-supply-lines. I don't think that this is a duplicate of either question, though. – Kevin Vermeer Sep 24 '10 at 15:05
  • I let others decide duplicate. I was trying to be helpful. I think it is not a duplicate if he adds a bit more information. – Kortuk Sep 24 '10 at 17:06
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For model railways the predominant standard is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Command_Control

joeforker
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