My FIL is building a train layout for our family, he’s amazing with miniatures and its looking great!
He knows nothing about ading sound to the layout, and we have some environmental sounds we would like triggered when the train goes past. (animal sounds when passing the animals, town sounds when passing the town etc.) We have the mp3 files of the sounds we want, but aren’t having any luck figuring out what to buy to make this work the way we want. The two online resources we found (Soundtraxx was one) both said their sound devices were not able to load in custom sounds and had no environmental sounds.
Any ideas of where to look? Honestly I don’t even know the vocabulary to do a proper google search.
(PS the train layout is N scale, old west mine train.)
Take a look at the sound effect products of Innovative Train Technology of West Hills, CA. They make sound modules for a wide variety of effects. I bought their “sawmill” sound and concealed the entire circuitry, speaker, and battery within a false floor of my HO sawmill. Mine is activated by a slide switch on the side of the sawmill, but their installation sheet included wiring diagrams for activation by magnetic sensor, mercury motion switch, or DCC. They were also good to work with when I initially couldn’t get mine to work right (due to my wiring error). I’m not sure if their components can be re-programed with sounds from another source, or perhaps purchase of one of their units would be instructive on just what is required.
This stuff looks all pre-recorded, but I didn’t make an exhaustive search among the choices. I did notice they have an IR trigger module that might be useful.
People have reported success using the small recordable modules found in greeting cards, toys, etc using a trigger module and some amplification, if ncessary for customized sound effects.
For playback, I substituted the play button with a magnetic reed switch between the rails. A small magnet on the bottom of a few random cars would trigger the playback as they passed over the reed switch.
Rather archaic by today’s technological standards, but it was simple and effective.
Infrared motion detectors can be used to trigger sound effects modules from ITT.
We have several of them around our HO scale club layout, with the sensors installed in 1/2 inch PVC pipe caps that are flush with the fascia so nothing is sticking out into the aisle.
A toggle switch mounted in a separate PVC cap is alongside the IR motion sensor so the units can be turned off when no visitors are present.
I used the GLOLAB digital infrared motion detector module.
A similar sensor could be mounted along side the track or even between the rails so it is triggered by the passing train.