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SUMMARY:Experience using Linux to control the Southern California Railroad
  Museum's signal garden. - Steve Oualline
DTSTART;TZID=US/Central:20261107T150000
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DTSTAMP:20260930T133619Z
UID:pretalx-txlf2026-U9C3Q8@pretalx.com
DESCRIPTION:The Southern California Railroad Museum is one of the biggest 
 transportation museums in the United States.  One major feature of this mu
 seum is its Signal Garden.  This allows guest to press a button and see si
 gnals work.  \n\nBehind the scene is a Linux Raspberry PI controller.  Thi
 s talk discusses how the 100 year old railroad signals are interfaced with
  the PI and the unique challenges that had to be overcome.  For example\, 
 the "Wig-Wag" signals use two huge electromagnets which are continually tu
 rned on and off.  Any time you turn off a big coil\, you get a huge EMP wh
 ich will fry unprotected machinery.  Additionally there is the problem wit
 h dealing with systems that are over 100 years old for which the documenta
 tion was lost sometime in the 1930's.\n\nThe signal garden presents some u
 nique challenges.  Such as the time I started to upgrade the computer\, op
 ened the cabinet\, saw the black widow making a nest on the main logic boa
 rd\, slammed the door shut and got some spray to debug the computer.
LOCATION:Big Tex
URL:https://pretalx.com/txlf2026/talk/U9C3Q8/
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