Hey everyone! I'm an 18-year-old from Argentina, and I'm currently in my final year of technical high school. For my final project called PROTORP, I'm working on developing railway safety systems, specifically Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and Automatic Train Stop (ATS) systems. The goal is to enhance efficiency and safety in the railway sector.
Here's a quick overview of how it works: the ATS system will automatically stop the train if it misses a warning signal, while the ATP will help control the speed and distance between trains to prevent collisions. For my project, I also need to create a scale model that includes signals, track switches, and a mimic system to simulate real-life operations.
I have a detailed plan on how each part should function and the components I'm going to use, but I'm struggling with the programming aspect. I have some experience with HTML, CSS, and JS from past projects, but this is a whole different ballgame! Plus, I'm running behind schedule because the company supplying our components hasn't delivered yet, and I'm not getting much collaboration from a teammate.
I'm looking for assistance with coding for each component separately, as well as the overall integration code. If anyone can help, share tutorials, or suggest simulators to use while I wait for the actual components, I would really appreciate it! Sorry if my request is a bit overwhelming; I'm just really anxious to get this project on track. Thanks so much!
1 Answer
First things first, you should start with some basic programming. Try writing a simple console app using Python or C#. Get comfortable displaying output, reading from, and writing to text files. Bonus if you can make it send and receive data online!
Once you’re up to speed on that, you can adapt your program to simulate one of the physical devices for your project. Use text files to manage instructions and simulate the device's behavior.
Then, create a program to send data to these simulated devices and process their responses. When your real components arrive, you’ll just need to adjust your program to work with them instead! You got this!
Can you break down some of the steps you suggested? I’m not sure which part to start with first.