A portable stop/go controller for the Intellibox and Rocrail.

LocoNet | Master Switch

I use an Intellibox Classic, and it still works well. The part that always disappointed me is how flimsy the buttons feel.

Normally I drive through Rocrail, so I rarely touch the Intellibox itself. The buttons I use most are the red and green Stop/Go keys in the top-right corner under the logo. Those send the LocoNet OPC_GPON and OPC_GPOFF commands.

After finding a nice enclosure at a local thrift store, I had an idea to solve this. I built a portable master switch so I can trigger Stop/Go from anywhere around the layout, limited only by cable length.

Build Gallery

The enclosure as I found it at the thrift store.

Added a red and green LED.

Using the CGA DB9 LocoNet standard by Peter Giling from Modelspoor Groep Venlo.

An Arduino Pro Mini is used as the controller, together with Peter’s LocoNet CGA50 LNet IO interface design.

The interface PCB is pressure-fit; I added hot glue for extra security.

Ready for firmware.

The code is available on GitHub if you want to build one yourself.