New to everything - computers and N scale. I want to fit bell sounds to a crossing without having a mechanical bell. Does anyone know of a circuit which will simulate the sounds of a crossing bell - preferably something I can build myself rather than a proprietary unit. This is my first question to the forum and I hope I’ve done it right. denovan
I don’t know of a specific circuit that will do bell sounds but there are lots of sound circuit boards that will make various sounds, including bells. Why not just digitally record a real crossing bell and use that if that’s the only sound you need? GL
You can certainly get a sound chip from Radio Shack with enough information to enable you to record a sound to it, and then play it back at your leisure.
However, at the recent World’s Greatest Hobby show, I overheard a discussion on this topic at the Digitrax booth. The rep said that it is possible to get a sound decoder for a crossing from another company (he didn’t say which), so that you can either trigger it manually or rig it to a detection scheme.
You might try getting one of those small voice-message-recording greeting cards (do they even still make those?) from Hallmark, and take out the voice-recording bit–these have two switches, one to record a message and one to play. Go stand near a crossing guard until a train comes by and hit the “record” button, and wire the “play” button to two photocells, one on either side of the crossing, so whenever a train goes over a photocell (one in either direction) the recording will play.
I just typed a message thanking jughart and Jetrock for therir replies,but forgot to add Surfstud. I am so new to this - computers- that I lost the reply - so here goes again. Have not heard of the voice recorder card although here in Ausrtralia we DO have ones that play ‘Jingle Bells’ - but they are only on sale at Xmas. Also we do not have many crossings with bells. Great ideas though. I did have a ‘chip on board’ which had bells, crossing sounds, chuff, etc but blew it up with wrong connections. I don’t use DCC but could anything from that be adapted to work such as the bells sound from a loco. Surely there is a simple circuirt using a 555 timer and /or some other IC which could give suitable sound. The forums are great and interesting.
Just realised that it is only 9.26 pm on Tuesday here in Australia so I hope I didn’t wake anyone up. denovan.
Try this web site. They have many sounds and a crossing is one of them. http://www.ittsound.com/
You will need a speaker and some way to detect when the train is at the crossing.
For what it’s worth - I had a cheap (no longer functioning, and now discarded) alarm clock, made in the shape of a steam loco, which had a nice crosing bell sound as the start of its alarm sequence. I’m sure it was on a chip, but never dissected the corpse to find out.
Interestingly enough,
TYCO of all companies had a rather nice grade gate crossing with bell. The bell was a little small so it made a higher pitch than a standard crossing, but highly effective none the less.
It worked by pressure. As the train went over the grade crossing, it pressed down on lever which released a coil spring loaded arm that causes a swinging hammer to strike the bell back and forth (similar to a clock pendulum)
Here are to more DIY type sites with crossing bells.
The 1st is the Hallmark Greeting Card one.
http://www.hobby.se/Rutger/2demo3.html
Tne 2nd is one of many more DIY circuits.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/xBellRinger.html
Good Luck
John
You might try a google search for velleman kits. Velleman is a european company that makes test equipment and electronic kits for educational purposes.
They have a Sound generator kit (SG1M) that includes four train sounds. One of the sounds is a crossing bell. If you maintain a swich closure on the 3rd channel you will get a continous bell sound. I have used this board to help animate a crossing gate with flashing lights.
The kit can be obtained from several sources. Try www.circuitspecialists.com they have the kit listed for $ 9.95 US. In Austrialia try *** Smith Electronics.
Hope this is some help.
Gaundyboss
This sounds interesting. But I’m confused by the product description at the site; is it ready to work out of the box, or do you need to add further parts ?
The SG1M is two circuit boards that must be soldered together. Included is a speaker, 4 push button switches, a transistor and a resistor that must soldered to the mother board. If memeroy serves there is also a battery holder for 2 AA batteries. There is no enclosure.
The kit can be powered by any DC voltage from 3 to 6v. I would suggest a 5V supply to provide power - probably would need one for the gate motor and flashing lights anyway. I used a basic stamp to trigger the bell flash leds on the crossbuck and the gate arm, a tortoise switch motor to move gate arm up and down.
Thanks for all the replies, especially to Gaundyboss and jonny.5. I don’t think the Hallmark item is available here but the SG1M was, a while ago, from a small company in Sydney. In fact this was the COB I blew up. *** Smith Electronics has a 10 note selectable doorbell kit which might do the job with a bit of fiddling and I’ll get one next time I’m in Sydney or Brisbane. Thanks again. The forums are excellent.
Bill: If you haven’t got the info you originally asked for (build my own circuit for croosing bel l sound) I would recommend Peter J Thorne’s Electroncis for Model Railroaders (that’s close to the title. You may not be able to get that easilly in OZ, so email me if that’s the case and we can work on it. His detection circuit uses reed switches and magnets on the train for a trigger. The bell circuit , and flashing crossing circuit are not difficult to build, I did it, and I’m stricktly a "Tab A in Slot B " kind of a guy! [:D]
I have furnished a flashing cross buck and bell at a crossing on an N-Trak module. They work great and fasinate the public. The detection circuit is a TRAK-DTT by Dallee Electronics (www.Dallee.com). The Bell module and the cross bucks are from Iron Penquin Electronics (www.ipe.com). A small speaker from most any source is also required. I also have a “wall wart” power supply for low voltage DC for the electronics.
Basically, the tracks are electrically isolated on both ends of the module. The feeder wires from the bus passing through the module run through a sensor coil on the TRAK-DTT enroute to the tracks on the module. When current to the locos on the module is detected it triggers the relay to change states turning on the light & bell sound. After it was fired up, I adjusted the time out so that the longest trains were covered by the lights/bells. This works with DC/analog and DCC power.
I didn’t see Radio Shack or Edmund Scientific in your replies (did I miss ttem?)
The reference to 555 chip brought back many nice memories.[?] [?]
Only covertly [:D] The Peter Thorne circuits use 555s. Really easy to build. Fond memories shared.[tup]
I’ve got two of these and neither is loud enough. How did you do it?
Der hasn’t posted it 2 years, my advice is to start a new thread