Large Scale Central

Making my EV sound like a GP9

I bought a Hyundai Kona EV (electric vehicle) back in February. It came equipped with what Hyundai calls a virtual engine sound system (VESS). It makes an cartoon spaceship sound at low speed to alert pedestrians. It’s pretty annoying, so I immediately unplugged it, but it gave me an idea. I wanted to make the car sound like a locomotive instead. I tapped into the appropriate CAN bus and spent a good deal of time mapping the various messages.

Eventually, I yanked the VESS to work out how to operate it on the bench. Here’s a little video of that effort:

I figured the easiest way to generate the locomotive soundtrack would be to use an off-the-shelf sound module and build a CAN to DCC converter. I chose the Phoenix P8 because of its single-ended logic level DCC input.

I first tried using a basic Arduino to do the conversation, but it was nowhere near fast enough. I moved to a Teensy 3.6, which has CAN built in, and it is plenty fast.

Here’s the setup. It’s just the Teensy, the P8, and a buck converter to power the Teensy. The red and black wires are spliced into the CAN bus in the car.

Today, I got everything into the car to test it out on the road, and it works really well. Very smooth.

Right now, the DCC speed packets are generated from the vehicle speed data. However, I will experiment with using the actual power going to the motor instead, as this should correlate better with the load on the prime mover. I can also tie the regenerative braking in the car to the dynamic brake sound. I also plan to have manual triggers for the bell and horn. And of course I can load any Phoenix file into it to experiment with other locomotives.

The Teensy has a lot more horsepower than the P8, and I have an audio module for it. Eventually, I’d like to have it generate the sound itself, but this was a good first step.

That is awesome. Now just to get the airhorn programmed into the car horn.

LMAO !!! You really need a HOBBY Eric !!

Really cool Eric! I’d love to see folks reactions in a parking lot when you start er up!

That’s funny! I used to play a diesel sound CD in my car. Of course it didn’t match speed at all like your set up. Way cool!

Pretty neat, but I would sure be tempted to program a steam sound in that Phoenix…maybe a Shay? (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

That’s great, Eric! Sounds just like a real GP9. Looking forward to hearing the Leslie or Nathan P5 Airhorn! Maybe hook up an external speaker now so everybody can hear you comin’! (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

That is classic… You should mount real horns …

I watch a car show and occasionally they do work on a new car , and they use a phrase that comes to mind here

”warranty successfully voided” !!! Good job , hope some day to see it in person!

Sean McGillicuddy said:

That is classic… You should mount real horns …

But real horns would push that little thing backwards!

Very Nice Eric.

But, when you blast the air horns, people do get out of your way. I had air horns on my Mazda 323 back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. It saved me from a few accidents from people changing lanes without looking. One lady put her land yacht up onto the sidewalk when I blasted the air horns. Then she looked as I put putted by in my little Mazda…

John Caughey said:

Sean McGillicuddy said:

That is classic… You should mount real horns …

But real horns would push that little thing backwards!

It weighs around 4000 pounds with me in it, so I think I’d be ok. Batteries are heavy!

Eric Reuter said:

John Caughey said:

Sean McGillicuddy said:

That is classic… You should mount real horns …

But real horns would push that little thing backwards!

It weighs around 4000 pounds with me in it, so I think I’d be ok. Batteries are heavy!

Then Go for it! Slap these Leslie S-5T 's on it!

Related image

David Maynard said:

But, when you blast the air horns, people do get out of your way. I had air horns on my Mazda 323 back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. It saved me from a few accidents from people changing lanes without looking. One lady put her land yacht up onto the sidewalk when I blasted the air horns. Then she looked as I put putted by in my little Mazda…

Yeah, the only thing you gotta worry about is giving somebody a heart attack. Those suckers are LOUD!

John Caughey said:

Eric Reuter said:

John Caughey said:

Sean McGillicuddy said:

That is classic… You should mount real horns …

But real horns would push that little thing backwards!

It weighs around 4000 pounds with me in it, so I think I’d be ok. Batteries are heavy!

Then Go for it! Slap these Leslie S-5T 's on it!

Related image

You would need a trailer to house the reserve tank needed to hold the air volume used for just one crossing signal (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)There are guys doing this with roof mounted tanks - seen it on Youtube. So loud they are actually dangerous when mounted in close proximity to humans! Standing in front of a loco the majority of the sound pressure goes over your head.

Michael Kirrene said:

David Maynard said:

But, when you blast the air horns, people do get out of your way. I had air horns on my Mazda 323 back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. It saved me from a few accidents from people changing lanes without looking. One lady put her land yacht up onto the sidewalk when I blasted the air horns. Then she looked as I put putted by in my little Mazda…

Yeah, the only thing you gotta worry about is giving somebody a heart attack. Those suckers are LOUD!

Yea, I was actually using 2 tractor trailer type air horns. But when my cheep 12 volt compressor went tango uniform, I removed them from the car. There were bolted to a support in the engine compartment, facing out through the radiator.

As for heart attack, probably not. But, I only blow my horn to keep me from getting hurt from someone else’s stupid driver tricks.

Just go with one like this … Truck horn

All I’m suggesting is get something unexpected … they will already be wondering WTF …

An other exsample … Simple Truck Horn These come complete …just mount under the hood down would be ok …

That’s kind of what I had, but the cheep air compressor died after a few years.

Not sure about all states, but I do know that some states, even possessing air horns with the decibel capability of a 5 chime is illegal.

Ok, everyone calm down. The P8 has a horn sound.