Case Studies

Ongakukan renovated the Railway Museum’s 209 and 211 series train simulators with Contec’s F&eIT remote I/O, connecting all cab equipment to the control computer over a single Ethernet cable.

Overview

The Railway Museum in Omiya-ku, Saitama City, opened on October 14, 2007, to mark the 20th anniversary of East Japan Railway Company. It took over four driving simulators from a transportation museum that closed in 2006: the 200 series Shinkansen, the Yamanote Line 205 series, the Keihin-Tohoku Line 209 series and the Tokaido Line 211 series. Ongakukan Co., Ltd. renovated the 209 and 211 series simulators using Contec’s F&eIT controller modules.

Challenge

Simulators must reproduce train behavior from car performance, gradients, curves and running resistance, so the control computer’s performance was a priority and its expansion slots could not be spared for I/O. The cab uses real railway-standard handles, pedals, speedometers and pressure gauges, with many thick wires carrying analog and digital signals.

Solution

The F&eIT system, an Ethernet-based, wire-saving remote I/O system, collects signals with ultra-small I/O devices in the cab, and a compact CPU module converts them to Ethernet, so all cab I/O reaches the computer over one cable. Cabling stayed simple even after a motion mechanism was added.

The April 2009 renovation replaced computer graphics with real footage recorded about 2 m from the driver’s seat, shown on three 60-inch screens: 23.2 km of the Keihin-Tohoku Line from Omiya to Tabata and 41 km of the Takasaki Line from Omiya to Kagohara.

Results

Eleven simulators with F&eIT have been delivered since 2009, two at the Railway Museum. CEO Minoru Mukaiya said simulators need a response of 1/60 second or faster so notch signals and the horn respond instantly; conventional wire-saving systems could not reach that speed, but F&eIT does, with factory-automation stability.

Contec products used

• F&eIT remote I/O system

Originally published by Contec Co., Ltd. at contec.com.