I have 2 caboose that have been rewired for DCC and using TCS FL4 accessory decoders. That give me four functions in each decoder. One is a Hartland and the other is a Bachmann, both 4 wheel.
Both now have LED lighting.
What other functions would make sense to connect using DCC?
Dennis in Tennessee
Sound : crew chatter
Smoke : wood stove
Dennis
You could wire the cupola with LEDs separate from the crew area and have different lights come on in the different areas as desired.
Wire a figure standing on the rear deck holding a lantern that could be turned on and off.
Automatic uncoupler
Generator noise depending on the era you model
Toilet flush sound
Snoring from a sleeping crew member
Figure in the cupola or on deck animated to wave his arm
Model some crew members playing poker. Turn out the lights and have some bright flashes in conjunction with the sound of gun fire and then a slumped figure ejected from the side of the caboose…Okay maybe this one is a little to much but life is rough on the Cibola. Of course if you did it there would be gun fire in model railroading.
Model some crew members playing poker. Turn out the lights and have some bright flashes in conjunction with the sound of gun fire and then a slumped figure ejected from the side of the caboose…
Oh my! I didn’t know you were that kind of violent.
Boomer expressed all my ideas, and then some.
Neat problem, Dennis!
Member formerly known as Boomer K. said:
Toilet flush sound
You got flushing toilets on your caboose? F-A-N-C-Y!!! 
Seriously, interior lights and marker lamps would be natural for two of the outputs. If you’re good with fiber optics, you could do a figure on the platform with a cigarette in his mouth. I don’t remember offhand if the FL4 allows programmable lighting patterns (strobes, etc.) but if it does, I would think a very slow beacon type of light pattern would simulate a slow drag on a cigarette. (Then, your challenge becomes routing some smoke from the smoke unit in the stove through a micro tube so your brakeman exhales smoke between drags.)
Later,
K
I saw an animated figure with a man sitting lifting a coffee cup and it came with its own electronics and did not need DCC but could be turned on and off with DCC. Trainli had several different animated characters and another was a man using a pick.
Kevin Strong said:
Member formerly known as Boomer K. said:
Toilet flush sound
You got flushing toilets on your caboose? F-A-N-C-Y!!!
Seriously, interior lights and marker lamps would be natural for two of the outputs. If you’re good with fiber optics, you could do a figure on the platform with a cigarette in his mouth. I don’t remember offhand if the FL4 allows programmable lighting patterns (strobes, etc.) but if it does, I would think a very slow beacon type of light pattern would simulate a slow drag on a cigarette. (Then, your challenge becomes routing some smoke from the smoke unit in the stove through a micro tube so your brakeman exhales smoke between drags.)
Later,
K
Yes the FL4 does give me all the standard TCS Function option the regular decoders have, you can even customize them if you want, so the strobe or slow beacon would work.
I would love to put some animation of some type and will look into that.
Keep the ideas coming.
Dennis in Tennessee
Dan Pierce said:
I saw an animated figure with a man sitting lifting a coffee cup and it came with its own electronics and did not need DCC but could be turned on and off with DCC. Trainli had several different animated characters and another was a man using a pick.
I could not find that on the Trainli website, can you help locate it?
i like this video on animation, not for a caboose but WOW.
the original question was about a TCS FL4, a 4 output lighting controller.
You could put an inexpensive ho sound decoder.
You could modify the sound so that you use a random chuff trigger and the firebox light in the cigarette… trigger the chuff, and you pulse the fan for the smoke, and the light glows brighter (firebox lights get brighter with a chuff from the increased draw)…
The servo output could move the hand… lastly various user sounds looped in for chatter or even a cough…
(I’d pick a Zimo HO unit, has all of these features)
Greg
Like some of your ideas.
The three circuits that I will do now is:
1. To split the LED lights into 2 circuits.
2. Marker Lamps
3. Get a smoke unit for the stove, and run it off of a small relay. The variable smoke will be a problem, if I could find a very small way to move air then the smoke would look more realistic.
Want to do some kind of animated person later.
Thanks for all the suggestions
Greg Elmassian said:
the original question was about a TCS FL4, a 4 output lighting controller.
You could put an inexpensive ho sound decoder.
You could modify the sound so that you use a random chuff trigger and the firebox light in the cigarette… trigger the chuff, and you pulse the fan for the smoke, and the light glows brighter (firebox lights get brighter with a chuff from the increased draw)…
The servo output could move the hand… lastly various user sounds looped in for chatter or even a cough…
(I’d pick a Zimo HO unit, has all of these features)
Greg
There are small 1.5 volt motors out there that could be used to run a fan. They are sometimes marketed as cell phone vibrating motors.
Dennis, find some battery power guys that have Aristo or USA Trains locos… get the fan driven smoke units for cheap… they are not using them… I prefer the USAT one, since it is all metal. You can turn down the voltage supplied a bit to slow the smoke output, and the fan power is cool.
Some battery guy out there has these just sitting on a shelf.
Greg
Dennis, call Trainli and ask about these.
Also, why use a relay, a smoke unit can be driven directly by some decoders. Also you could use the 75451 IC which has 2 separate open collector outputs that can sync 200ma at up to 28 volts!! I helped a friend do this with a revolution to increase drive currents and no resistors needed for incandescent lights plus high current drive on function keys without the expensive ‘smoke’ board.
Dan Pierce said:
Dennis, call Trainli and ask about these.
Also, why use a relay, a smoke unit can be driven directly by some decoders. Also you could use the 75451 IC which has 2 separate open collector outputs that can sync 200ma at up to 28 volts!! I helped a friend do this with a revolution to increase drive currents and no resistors needed for incandescent lights plus high current drive on function keys without the expensive ‘smoke’ board.
Just got back from a 3 week trip to Canada.
Dan: Thanks, I will look at using the 75451 chip. I do have some small relays also that work fine for the Bachmann smoke units.
Dennis, I think you already know this, but for the others reading this thread, be sure to put a “snubbing diode” across the relay coil, to prevent back emf from the relay from damaging the decoder function output.
Looking forwards to all the stuff you are going to do…
Regards, Greg
To make wiring easier, I buy relays with the diode built in. These are in series with the coil and I know Greg prefers a diode across the coil to short out the bemf instead of mine just blocking the bemf.
I’d have to think a bit to really see if there is any effective difference. The natural inclination as an engineer is to dissipate the BEMF by passing it through the relay coil, but blocking it should be fine as long as the reverse voltage rating of the diode is high enough, which should be easy.
Greg