Hi here’s a short video of the phaeton rail motor I’ve been working on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA8TlqugwLQ It needs a bit of running in then I can load the sound file on to the ESU Loksound chip in the hood. Once that’s done I will add decals and some weathering.
Jerry
Spiffy!..
looks nice. what scale is it?
is it a kit?
Is that a hubley model? What drive did you put in it?
Hi sorry I’ve been out all day at a local train meet. Yes it is a Hubley kit at 1:20 scale. the motor and gear box came from MSC Models http://www.mscmodels.co.uk/welcome.htm I put a few photos of the construction at http://www.largescalecentral.com/albums/view/11848 (Phaeton Railmotor Album)
Jerry
Great job!
What did you use for the front truck?
Is it track powered?
Hi Ray I’m not sure who made the front truck, it came out of the scrap box. ( when ever I get the chance I collect bits and pieces that might came in handy ) It is track powered DCC with an ESU Loksound chip. For pick ups I’ve used LGB ones cut down and screwed to the front and back of the truck, with another on cut down and screw between the rear wheels. I’ll take some photos of the underneath and post them later.
Jerry
I was hoping to put sound in my railbus but I couldn’t find a small enough sound unit that would work with R/C.
Nice! I’ve got two similar projects on the bench right now; a Model T railcar, and a Model A “Goose” patterned after RGS Goose #2.
Jerry, if you’re not going to be using the headlights from your kit, might I avail myself of them? The Model A I bought off of ebay was “as is,” which didn’t include the headlights.
Ray, for my Goose, I’m going to use an HO-scale Tsunami with the Airwire “Convertr” control. The “Convertr” is sized for HO installations, so I’d imagine it’d be pretty simple to hide in your Model T.
Later,
K
Hi Kevin, sorry I’ve stuck the head lights in with some industrial super glue ( the same stuff I used to glue the body together)
Regards Jerry
No worries, Jerry. I came up with “plan B.”
Later,
K
Kevin, will that sound setup work with regular R/C?
Define “regular R/C.” If you’ve got Airwire controllers, then yes. The Convertr will work with Airwire. The Tsunami–unfortunately–is DCC only, though, so you can’t use it with non-DCC systems like the Revolution, Tony’s stuff, etc.
Later,
K
I mean the kind of R/C used in some toy cars – on, off, speed control.
Ray: have you considered G-Scale Graphics Critter control Plus or the control system that Dave Bodnar made, it has some cool features. I think it is listed in Trainelectronics.com but I could be wrong.
Dan S.
Unfortunately, the Tsunami won’t work with generic R/C stuff. Technically speaking, it will–to a point–because the DCC decoder by default will work on analog DC, and you can feed the motor voltage into the inputs and get sound out of it. You won’t be able to actually control the sound, though. You’d be limited to whatever the “automatic” bell and whistles are.
Why did I think you were running Airwire on your railroad?
Later,
K
Kevin Strong said:
Unfortunately, the Tsunami won’t work with generic R/C stuff. Technically speaking, it will–to a point–because the DCC decoder by default will work on analog DC, and you can feed the motor voltage into the inputs and get sound out of it. You won’t be able to actually control the sound, though. You’d be limited to whatever the “automatic” bell and whistles are.
That’s good enough for me! Any sound would be better than nothing.
Currently I have a mix of control/power systems…
I used toy car R/C in my railcar because it was small enough, and simple enough. On my RS-3 I use the Aristocraft Revo for control, with track power. My Ten Wheeler is still pure track power/control until I get around to installing a Revo receiver in it.
The fly in that ointment, now that I think of it, is that you’re going to have to send the board 5 volts or so (I don’t know what the minimum is) before it will power up to make the sounds. I recall there being a circuit that you can put between the sound system and the motor that will basically cut out 5 volts, so that the sound comes on when the motor starts to turn.
I’ll do some playing around when I get mine.
Later,
K
Kevin: I would be interested in knowing more about that circuit myself as I would also like the sound to shut down when my engine is not moving. I have been using a mix of sound devices for my sound system in my 1:20.3 scale Bachman Spectrum 2-6-0 and 4-4-0. They consist of Old Modeltronics Chuff and Compresser units wired to the wheel cam that the engine came with. The Bell and whistle are digital recordings stored on digital sound modules I got from electronics123. These are very small and hold 20 seconds of sound, and I have one for the bell and one for the whistle. I am currently working on building a small audio mixer that will allow me to mix the chuff, bell and whistle into one output, so I will have a polyphonic sound system. The Chuff runs all the time when the engine is in motion and the compressor automatically kicks in when the engine is stopped. The bell and whistle are activated using the joystick on my RC transmitter through outputs on the G-Scale Graphics Rail Boss Plus controller which powers the engine as well as the lighting systems.
The only issue I have is that a lot of the time the engine stops with the wipers across the cam and I get a constant hissings sound. I think the 5V circuit would solve that problem.
Oh and all of this stuff including the 3" speaker, R/C receiver and homemade 4 Cell Li-Ion Battery pack all fit in a Bachmann tender. with the stock coal load covering it all.
Dan S.
Kevin Strong said:
The fly in that ointment, now that I think of it, is that you’re going to have to send the board 5 volts or so (I don’t know what the minimum is) before it will power up to make the sounds. I recall there being a circuit that you can put between the sound system and the motor that will basically cut out 5 volts, so that the sound comes on when the motor starts to turn.
I’ll do some playing around when I get mine.
Later,
K
Oh crud. That really is a problem then, since my railbus is powered by a 4.8v battery.