Large Scale Central

A Bell and Whistle Module?

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

When to blow the whistle and ring the bell is fascinating stuff and is now being discussed in the Operations forum and reading that sparked an idea.

What I want, and who knows maybe someone already makes it, is a single stand alone module that I can slip into a cab of a steamer or diesel and be able to ring the bell and toot the whistle when I want to and have it controlled through a key fob. This module will be as small as possible much like a LGB sound module, electronics, speaker and battery all in one unit.
I know with DCC and other systems this can be done but those are all expensive investments. Sounds can also be triggered through track magnets and reed switches but those lack variety.

Wouldn’t it be neat if there was such a stand alone unit which doesn’t need to be wired into the loco so it could be easily placed into one then another, controlled by a pocket key fob that would allow us to ring the bell or toot the whistle when we want to.

That would be cool.

#2

battery, receiver, speaker, antenna? Usually the problem would be that the speaker needs an enclosure, and usually it has to be built into the chassis or body to get any size speaker at all.

Small enough to fit into the cab is small… not much room for battery or speaker… what, a 2" cube?

Now, if you put a speaker into every loco, and then left a connector in the cab, which also provided power, then all you need is the receiver, and a 4 pin connector… that could work for the cab of a steamer… and if you have a diesel with opening doors, you might find one that could slip in the doorway.

Greg

#3

I have set up the Aristo 27 mhz 55474 receiver for the open collector outputs (D and E) to do the bell and whistle on one of sean McGillicuddy’s engines.

#4

error…

#5

Todd,

Here is a setup I used to trigger bell and whistle in my C-19. The unit generally costs less than $10 each and many of them are available on Ebay.

The unit consisis of a 2-button keyfob and relay card. It uses a 23A, 12v. battery like the ones used for garage door openers (available at Radio Shack). The size of the relay is pretty small but you would have to see if it’s small enough to fit in your space. If you want, I can get you the dimensions.

Below is a photo of my C-19 installation in the tender. The entire sound unit, consists (from left to right) of sound switch controls, Phoenix card, small battery holder, and relay. It was all mounted on the side of the tender.

Hope this helps.

Doc Watson

#6

This sounds like the wireless equivalent of the old USAT Optional Control Box that I am currently struggling with. It has a card to mount on the sound card that replaces reed switches. The box goes to the track voltage through a small transformer. It has 3 buttons for Diesel Horn, Diesel Bell, and Cab Talk.

I’ll let you know what I think of it as soon as I can get it working.

#7

Lou Luczu said: I’ll let you know what I think of it as soon as I can get it working.

Don’t give up Lou, Dan is looking it over!

#8

Interesting stuff, but definitely not as small as Todd asked… and won’t fit in the cab of a steamer, even without the speaker.

But things can be squoze if you work on it… (squoze is squeezed and squished past participle ha ha)

Greg

#9

Oh cool. I could use them to trigger my Sierras. :slight_smile:

Just what I need, another project. :frowning:

#10

Dan Pierce said:

I have set up the Aristo 27 mhz 55474 receiver for the open collector outputs (D and E) to do the bell and whistle on one of sean McGillicuddy’s engines.

My Aristo C-16 (old version) has a cab-mounted bell/whistle module. It’s from a Radio Shack ‘talking greeting card’, where you get to record something and trigger it to play back by opening the card. It has a little speaker built in.

I ripped the electronics out, recorded an EBT whistle and bell [one sound file - not selectable] and figured out where on the pcb it triggered the playback. I hooked that into my Aristo 5490 mini-receiver on one of the momentary TX buttons - ‘B’ I think.

It’s not exactly loud - but that was years ago. I figure you could find a card nowadays with quite a loud sound option.

(Why a key fob - why not an option on the TX that controls the loco?)