Command Controlled Clown Handcar

Ingenious! 

Awesome,

I have one of those lionel halloween pumpkin-head handcars--methinks I could add a trailer car like you have and stack some caskets on it or something to hide a mini commander. Cool idea!

Fun project John!  Very cool!

Screaming clowns. that had to be heck of a noise.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I took a brief break from fixing and upgrading other folks stuff to do this little project I've been sitting on for months. This is a K-Line set that screamed out for command, so today it got it.

 No lights, I have to figure something creative I could do, maybe a lantern sitting on top of the boxes.

How about one (or more) of those 3 color slow flashing LEDs that are used in garden ornaments?

I have some if you are so inclined.

Lou N

Not a bad idea Lou, and I happen to have some of those in my LED box!  I think we have a winner for the lighting!   Too bad I don't have a neat looking lantern to put them in.

I've thought about some sounds, maybe I could fit one of the little greeting card sound modules in.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Not a bad idea Lou, and I happen to have some of those in my LED box!  I think we have a winner for the lighting!   Too bad I don't have a neat looking lantern to put them in.

I've thought about some sounds, maybe I could fit one of the little greeting card sound modules in.

Look here............

http://www.ozarkminiatures.com...ew.asp?idproduct=329

This is Ozark Miniatures.  They make castings for G scale.  A switch lantern may do the trick.

Lou N

Need to replace those clowns with Pennywise and Capt. Spaulding........

Lou, that lantern looks like a solid chunk with jewels.

However, I'll take a run through the PSC catalog and see if I can come up with something that I could mod for the task.

To just add a little color, I could use those LED's something like this on all the plain sides of the crates.  This is totally whimsical, I just want to add some light for interest.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Lou, that lantern looks like a solid chunk with jewels.

However, I'll take a run through the PSC catalog and see if I can come up with something that I could mod for the task.

FYI:  The ones I have were not solid. So unless they changed you should be able to use these.

Lou N

Interesting, I guess the picture is not representative of the product.  How large are they?

I can't wait to see it in person one day!

It will look great to have them chasing the wiener mobile around trying to score the lunch of a lifetime.

-Greg

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Interesting, I guess the picture is not representative of the product.  How large are they?

Since I am at work I will guess ~3/4"

Well, thinking that the roasted peanuts are warm and need some kind of heat to roast them, a flickering fire effect and an added propane tank could be cool too.

Greg Houser posted:

I can't wait to see it in person one day!

It will look great to have them chasing the wiener mobile around trying to score the lunch of a lifetime.

That would be a big lunch!

mwb posted:

Need to replace those clowns with Pennywise and Capt. Spaulding........

John, you might have inspired mwb to add them to his townsite scenes.......   maybe that Edgar Allan Poe-ish house?  https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...-house-for-lemasters

Clowns. Creepy.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I took a brief break from fixing and upgrading other folks stuff to do this little project I've been sitting on for months. This is a K-Line set that screamed out for command, so today it got it.

It was a simple conversion, I just ripped the boxes off the handcar and wired it up with an ERR Mini Commander 2. I hogged out the insides of the boxes and JB-Weld connected them, and then glued them to the base of the car the same way. No lights, I have to figure something creative I could do, maybe a lantern sitting on top of the boxes.



Since the little K-Line powered units are notorious for stalling on switches, etc. and this one happened to have two traction tires (for what reason I can't imagine!), I grabbed a second K-Line chassis with rollers to spread the connection around. That also gives me six wheels on the track with the four center rollers. My torture test of slow running through my gauntlet of three close switches didn't cause any problems, so I think that licked the issue.

I saw your Oscar meyer wiener car at York that was awesome I bet this one is another great idea

fl9turbo2 posted:

I saw your Oscar meyer wiener car at York that was awesome I bet this one is another great idea

Thanks, I'm always on the lookout for stuff like this that I can convert to command for modular shows.  I try to show the kids the  frivolous side of model railroading.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

To just add a little color, I could use those LED's something like this on all the plain sides of the crates.  This is totally whimsical, I just want to add some light for interest.

That looks like a pair of eyes, any way to make a clown face out of it? Maybe light up the nose in red or something like that to add more lights? Have one on each side even. The lantern on top would be good too. Maybe a flashing FRED on the end or something too? The clown face goes with the theme anyway, and yes, your tag line may definitely apply here as well...

I'm late to the party and Greg beat me to it, but my first thought when I saw this was exactly what he posted. Having it chase the wiener mobile or the other way around.

These are pretty cool items, and I bet the kids will really like them too. 

I have figured out how to put sound into it, so that should be cool.  Now I have to find some cool sound tracks to use.  I have a couple of little laptop speakers, and even inside the boxes, those are loud little speakers!  They have an integral baffle, that probably helps with the volume.  With a little MP3 module and of course some support electronics, I think I can have really good sound.

I think I'll add the lights, and I have a lantern coming that will be the headlight.  With all that going on, it should be pretty cool.

Moving along with the clown handcar, I have the sound module boards back.  They fit comfortably in the crates with the TMCC module so we're ready for sound.  Now that I have this module, I have all the pieces that take up space, I can plan the lights around where the modules sit.  The little speaker is amazingly loud for as tiny as it is, and inside the crate, it gets even louder, a nice bonus!

The sound module has the possibility of playing 5 clips of any length.  Since I have the two coupler outputs, the board was designed to take the AC coupler outputs and trigger the first two sound clips.  I have optically isolated AC inputs that trigger those.  The next two sound tracks are triggered by a pair of reed switches on the skirt of the trailing car, a magnet placed along the track will automatically trigger those, I can move the magnets to get the effect desired.  The reed switches are shown below.

I haven't figured out where the last one should be triggered, I may add a hidden push-button to trigger it while it's sitting on a siding.

For the curious, here's the schematic of what's on the board, and I use the BY8001-16P MP3 module to actually generate the sound.  The board provides the power and interface functions for the sound module.  I even took DCS compatibility into account with the choke.

Here's what the layout looks like front and back before mounting the MP3 module.

What an awesome idea John...  looking forward to seeing this completed and trailing the wiener mobile on our club fun run day!

I'm looking forward to having it completed now that I have all the pieces.

WOW JOHN that is gonna be really cool.  Keep on truckin.

Video to follow.

The sound is working, here's a shot of it on the bench after the first test.  Nice and loud, and it fits into the car.

After wiring this one up, I did discover one little issue.  I went overboard trying to save board space and made the connection pads a bit too small.  If I spin any more of these, I'll go with 2mm spacing and larger pads for all the connections.

I just have to get the lights working and my little project should be ready for prime time.

For the 5 sound clips, do the assigned triggers (fr cplr. re cplr, etc.) always play the same clip or are they just random as one of the triggers is activated? At any rate, another neat little board you have come up with. Anxiously awaiting the video!

They play a fixed clip, I have the front coupler (logically) toot a bicycle horn sound, and the rear coupler starts a continuous carousel soundtrack.  The two magnet inputs just sound a bell and a foghorn tone crossing signal.  I haven't decided what goes in for real, but that's just writing the tracks to the micro-SD and popping it in.  The crates are, in a word, stuffed!  There's the speaker, sound module, 12V power for the four color changing LED's on the side, and of course, the ERR Mini Commander 2 for the command control.  The little switch on the right is the PGM/RUN switch.  Not much room for anything else, but I'm going to see if I can have a lantern hanging on the front of the crate for a "headlight".

That's good that the sound clips can be assigned to the specific triggers. Just like the train making folks do it! That will be a very nice project when completed.

That definitely looks like the legendary 10# in the 5# box!! You are getting quite good at fitting all this stuff in small spaces. I'm betting you get that lantern in there some place. 

Since the lantern will be on the outside, all that has to fit inside is the wire from the MC2, I think I can squeeze that in.