Welcome to the home of Lew’s Duino Gear ™, Intelligent Electronics designed for Model Railroads, and the home of LCOS — the Layout Control Operating System. Our products empower you to build a complete, semi-automated control system for model railroad layouts of any size or scale.
LCOS Products are arriving soon!
Product News & Updates
duinoNodes: the I/O Boards You Didn’t Know You Need
If you are using Arduino technologies on your layout, no doubt you have run into the big limitations of all Arduino boards: too few digital input/output ports with relatively low current handling limits. Even the MEGA with its 53 pins can only run 10 output pins at full power (@ maximum continuous power of 20 mA per port) at any given time, because of the 200 mA limit on board current handling capacity!
What if you:
- Need more output ports than your boards can provide?
- Need to handle more current than any port or the board can manage?
- Need to run relays, small motors or other inductive devices?
- Need to read more digital inputs than there are available ports?
Lew’s Duino Gear duinoNodes solve those problems and more! Every model railroading hobbyist working with Arduino microcontrollers needs these boards! Find out more here.
Plug & Play Layout Control is Coming Soon!
LCOS , the first complete Plug & Play layout control system, is arriving in the fourth quarter 2021!
Using standardized Layout Control Nodes that communicate wirelessly across a Layout Control Mesh Network, you can electronically enhance your layout with turnout control (most motor types), working signals, animated crossings, other animated objects, a main control panel with unlimited sub-panels, plus extensive lighting.
Installing a Layout Control Node is as simple as mounting it where you need it based on the objects it has to control, then powering it up and running the Configurator App to find and configure the node.
What Can You Do With LCOS?
With LCOS on our Layout Control Nodes you can automate and control any device on your layout, from turnout motors and power relays to signals, crossings, lighting and animated objects.
And it works with any layout using any locomotive control system. DCC? Of course! DC? YES!
Here are some Key Features and Capabilities of Lew’s Duino Gear ™ LCOS layout control products::
- Create control panels with buttons, switches and status/feedback indicators
- Track trains with block occupancy sensors (DC/DCC only) .
- Run all common turnout motors, including stall motor, single coil, twin coil and servos. Supports frog and reversing relays.
- Automate Signals according to block occupancy and turnout positions.
- Automate Crossing Gates .
- Automate Reversing relays
- Create extensive Layout lighting
- Run active layout animations
- Run a variable ratio fast clock for both layout time display and layout automation, such as lighting control. Driven by the fast clock signal, your layout can dynamically respond to time changes from day to night and back again.
- The Configurator app runs on any Windows PC (an available USB port is required), and works with you to make setup amazingly easy.
- Compatible with all locomotive control systems.
- The best part: you don’t have to be an electrical engineer or computer programmer to use our system!