Driver Display Unit (DDU) using Railware/Scheron/HasslerRail Rico004 MVB/MICAS interface for WAP Series Electric Locomotive: A Prototype
Running GUI on sample hardware Sample GUI showing DDU interface for WAP Series Locomotive Driver Display Units are used in Locomotives to provide HMI for operating the locomotives. Various realtime sensor information of the locomotive/train are presented in user friendly interface on an LCD screen on an SBC. The WAP Series locomotives use a variant of the MultiFunction Vehicular Bus (MVB) called MICAS. It is a master/slave realtime bus operating in the locomotive and beyond and can work over long distances (~4kms). Information is exchanged over the bus in the form of process data and messages. It supports connection via wire or fiber. There was a need to implement a Driver Interface while being interfaced to the MVB/MICAS. The design also had to be kept similar to existing products so as to retain locopilot familiarity and also provide similar features. Just as a fun exercise, an oscilloscope was used to dump traffic on the MVB from an available setup and manually validated...