Model Railway Forum

teedoubleudee wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:20 pm

Dave S wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:09 pm.
........Can computers activating servos also activate a sound file? Intermittent action of say coliery for shift change and siren going off, or random activation of your circular saw with appropriate noise.....

Absolutely, I have no less than six independent hidden speakers connected to mp3 players driven from microprocessors, some activated by pasing trains, on my modest layout.

Can we see some nice videos? *drool*

daviis wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:05 pm

teedoubleudee wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:20 pm

Dave S wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:09 pm.
........Can computers activating servos also activate a sound file? Intermittent action of say coliery for shift change and siren going off, or random activation of your circular saw with appropriate noise.....

Absolutely, I have no less than six independent hidden speakers connected to mp3 players driven from microprocessors, some activated by pasing trains, on my modest layout.

Can we see some nice videos? *drool*

I don't have any current videos but buried in YouTube you can search for Eastfield Colliery and Eastfield Gas Company.
My current sounds include station announcements for two stations (recordings of my missus), a diesel horn as railcar approaches a level crossing, some noisy industrial maintenance from inside an engine shed and a coal train chuff and screeching brakes synchronised with a train arrival at the gas plant. All of this is fully automatic, no need wasting breath on calling Alexa for help

teedoubleudee wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:20 pm

Dave S wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:09 pm.
........Can computers activating servos also activate a sound file? Intermittent action of say coliery for shift change and siren going off, or random activation of your circular saw with appropriate noise.....

Absolutely, I have no less than six independent hidden speakers connected to mp3 players driven from microprocessors, some activated by pasing trains, on my modest layout.

Most excelent.
I've seen videos with JMRI (I think) scripts for train actions and communicating with servos via arduino boards.
Could that list do a command such as play file xyz.mp3 (from hard drive).
...though as I type that, pc can usually only play 1 file at a time, so would likely need to send that file to a sound mixer. to overlay various other ambient sounds.
Do you know if that method is do-able?

...though WTD's option shows wisdom, but likely only plays US steam trains.

Daviis could play this for mining ambience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnHprUGKF0


Dave

No US locos.

Dave, I did some experimenting a few years back using the PC to play sounds via the headphone socket to hidden speakers using the Hornby Rail Master system which worked fine as RM allowed you to program to play sounds.

I no longer use RM and prefer to use several MPUs to run independently and autonomously. MP3 player modules are cheap and can be controlled simply from an MPU. I don't use Arduino but Picaxe (thank you Tricky Dricky for introducing me to these). You can send simple commands to play a specific track from the onboard micro SD card.

The example picture below shows my coal train shuttle. The four modules from left to right show the Picaxe controller, the MP3 player, track speed and direction relay pcb and the DC controller.

Interesting TTD - actually amazing.
In similar vein, I was able to copy all my CD collection to a finger nail size memory card in my phone.

On RM, do you recall if it only played sounds sequentially or could overlay?
I assume the PU is oversized for job, with the big cooling fins.

TBH I really can't remember how the RM programming worked - it was over 6 years ago! I was just experimenting and built a test oval with hidden passing loop at rear. I had a "full" coal train facing in one direction and an "empty" one facing the other way. One train would pass from left to right, brief delay then other went the other way, brief delay then repeated ad nauseum! Only the front part of the oval was "visible" and I placed a speaker at either end of this. As the train passed it played a stereo track of a passing goods train so the sound followed the train either left to right or right to left. The passing loop point control was via a couple of relays and reed switches and the rest controlled by RM. Just had to hit the start button and it would run for hours if I let it.

Thank-you TDD. Sounds like a fun experiment. I'm getting tired eyes spending hours on anyrail, designing layout with hidden loop and coal depot - yours sounds similar. Maybe coal depots and mines are mandatory for railway modellers.

This looking to be amazing. But noisy turnouts? The Devil, you say! What is the world coming to.

Tried to build an oak tree, too: