Digital Model Trains & Rust: Bare-Metal DCC Command Station on ESP32

We are back, we're ready to rock, and this time we're bridging the gap between Rust and physical hardware! 🚂⚡

🙏 A Huge Thank You to Our Host & Co-Organizer!
A massive shout-out to Kalpa for welcoming us into their space, being super flexible with our scheduling, and making this meetup possible. We’re also thrilled to be co-organizing this event with Italian Embedded—thank you for partnering with us to bring this session to the community! 🦀⚡

🎙️ The Talk: Bare-Metal Embedded Rust

Speaker: Cristiano Chieppa

Digital model trains rely on the DCC and RailCom industry standards for digital signal generation and two-way communication. Combining his passion for railway modeling with Rust, Cristiano built a complete DCC command station running on bare-metal ESP32 hardware to generate DCC wave signals and control model locomotives!

We are super excited to have Cristiano Chieppa—a backend and embedded developer with over 30 years of software engineering experience—leading this session. After decades of managing memory leaks and unsafe code in C++, Cristiano discovered Rust three years ago and never looked back.

Cristiano will walk us through how he integrated the Z21 specification (Roco's UDP communication standard) and the complex RailCom protocol for bidirectional signal feedback.

What you’ll learn:

Driving ESP32 hardware in bare-metal Rust with zero-cost abstractions.
Handling real-time UDP network signals via the Z21 protocol.
Managing complex hardware constraints and memory safety in low-level systems.

🎛️ Live Demo: An on-site demonstration featuring the digital command station and actual model trains in action!

📍 Logistics & Agenda

18:30 – Doors Open & Welcome
18:45 – Talk & Live Demo: Digital Model Trains and Rust (30–45 mins)
19:30 – Q&A & Community Discussion
20:00 – Networking, Pizza & Drinks 🍕🍻
Level: Intermediate
Language: English
Venue: Kalpa
Co-Organizers: Rust Milano & Italian Embedded
Open Source Repo: github.com/cc90202/DCC-esp32
Seats are limited due to room capacity, so grab your spot fast! RSVP now to lock in your seat! 🦀⚡