[OT from cottage renovations]
[selected images crossposted to texture]

here's where it all happened: 

( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

a certain large yellow western railroad leaves me alternately amused and annoyed, confused and confounded, over its preference for transaction- rather than state-based protocols for its control system.  compared to reasonable protocols (i.e., ATCS, with basic features such as error checking and a decent address scheme ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

the ATCS Monitor allows one to pick up control system data packets by radio and interpret their contents ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

not all of the recent distractions have been work related, nor even local.

last month's run out to Santa Barbara provided a bit of exposure to the SCS-128 protocol.  the gear then went N to Roseville where it has found  a good  an excellent home ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

so what the heck has been going on the past few days?

previously in this space I've written about this notion I've had of the potential use of railroad signal data as telemetry ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

I haven't posted anything in this space for a couple of days.  here's why.

there's nothing like a good long dive through some data to get (and keep) one's mind off everything else for a couple of days.  Perl has become tool-of-choice for this stuff.  I often wonder how it never got classified in with all those   ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]
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listening on the road channel a couple of days ago, an EB CSX freight was calling the AU dispatcher to report that the EAS at Derwood was dropping to red but then coming back to green while he was approaching ( Read more... )

[OT from cottage renovations]

whatever else I am supposed to be getting done mostly isn't.  here's why ...

( Read more... )