Large Scale Central

Cheap and cheerful whistle

here is a solution for those who wish to add a whistle to their radio controlled locos without going to the expense of a full sound system. I have a couple of Connies and a C21 live steam that need a decent chime whistle, the Connies have basic chuff and obviously the C21 has it’s own.

Anyway TalkingProducts.com offer a small, 35x35x35mm sound cube on which you can record up to 20secs of sound complete with it’s own speaker, cost around £10. This runs off it’s own batteries and has a simple push on push off switch.

Anyway now for the conversion, disassemble the cube, three screws one is under the batteries, one down a hole in the cube and the other is holding the battery cover. Prise the innards out of the cube and the switch cover will fall out but under that is a micro-switch which you need to unsolder. Replace the switch with two fly leads, careful with the polarity, and attach these to a pico type switch, latching or not as to your preference. Connect to Picoswitch to your receiver et Voila!.

Follow the instructions that come with the cube to record your favourite whistle, I did my first one before modifying the unit as it is easier, and job done.

Hope this is useful guys,

Regards David

This sounds fantastic David! I’d love to see a few pictures of your installation.

So would I Randy, however it is a case of ‘don’t try this at home’ at present as I have made a major mistake in the wiring description that I posted. However I have hopefully fixed that and once I have everything charged and working I will update. Those sound cubes are neat anyway as you can record any sound you like and have a different whistle for each loco.

David

Sounds like a cool idea. I’d love to see some “how to” pics of the project as well.

-Kevin

Hopefully I will post some pics before long, the problem has been that I obtained the wrong type of switch, one that uses the power from the receiver which is not what I wanted. I have the right one on it’s way so fingers crossed all will be good. In any case I have got two more sound cubes to hand in anticipation.