How to play a song through my train

I remember MTH having this capability quite a while back, probably from their first control system. I think you could plug-in a CD player into their infrared lockon and play through the tender. Anybody else remember more detail?

This was covered I believe in a previous thread where it was suggested a mini blue tooth rechargeable speaker could be fitted in a box car.......I purchased one from Amazon and it works pretty good.  Just pair it with your iphone, select your song and your in business. Hope this helps.

-Pete

It's a standard feature of all MTH PS2 and PS3 engines when run under DCS. It's called ProtoCast.

One method would be to place a rechargeable MP3 player with speaker within the boxcar itself.  The song would be stored in MP3 format on a flash memory card that plugs into the player.  About $6 total out-of-pocket.

You will get better sound if you cut a hole in the boxcar (probably on the floor) for the speaker to project out.   There are many variants of these low-cost MP3 players.  I've used this particular version though I've dis-assembled it for better access to features and mounting.  For example if you want to run off of track-voltage you'll probably want to dis-assemble a unit so you don't have to mess with re-charging the battery after every operating session. 

Here's the carcass of the above MP3 player showing how it will fit in a typical O-gauge boxcar.  There are i's to dot and t's to cross which can be explored further if this is something you'd like to pursue.

There are several companies who sell sound modules that can store music and can be wired to run off track voltage.

Email GunrunnerJohn. He has a wiener mobile that plays "I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner" on loop. 

Oh and if you're doing this on a passenger line, I'd suggest the baggage car unless you're running mixed. ��

Dear Friends,

Thank you all for your great suggestions!  I will combine several and have my Illinois Central singing all the way from Chicago to New Orleans.  Interestingly, I went to elementary school with Nora Guthrie, sister to Arlo Guthrie, whose recording of the City of New Orleans is my favorite.

Arthur

Whatever you end up doing, please post your results as your application is a recurring topic here on OGR. 

I found a "free" download of the Guthrie rendition and loaded it onto a microSD card as shown above.  I loaded the .MP3 file onto a $1 microSD flash card shown above the penny:

Here's a short video showing the above MP3 player - albeit dis-assembled and mounted separately to operate on 14V AC accessory voltage as a layout accessory sound module. 

Note if installing one of these "digital" widgets into rolling stock using track voltage (instead of the unused recharge-able battery shown in blue in the photo above), you must be mindful of power glitches or intermittent loss of track voltage from dirty wheels, going over switches, etc.  Some electronic widgets can deal with it but one can imagine scenarios where power interruptions "resets" the digital electronics and the software must re-initialize which can cause an audio hiccups - for example to re-establish a wireless Bluetooth link if you go with the wireless transmit-receive method.

Hmm. Now that I hear it I think I'll use this as my "demo" song in future demonstrations of how to use these low-cost MP3 widgets for rolling stock or layout sound accessories!  I've previously used Love Train by the O'Jays. 

Arthur L. Robin posted:

Dear Friends,

Thank you all for your great suggestions!  I will combine several and have my Illinois Central singing all the way from Chicago to New Orleans.  Interestingly, I went to elementary school with Nora Guthrie, sister to Arlo Guthrie, whose recording of the City of New Orleans is my favorite.

Arthur

 

Arthur,

I was going to contact you with a solution that would work perfectly for your request but you don't have an email contact address listed in your profile.

I have a good volume, quality sound, no-bluetooth-required, drop-in-install, simple solution that I put together a few month back and have available.  You can email me at the email address: ogaugetrainguy@gmail.com

ps... you could put all 17 minutes of Alice's Restaurant on it if you wanted, more than one tune, sound effects, etc.

stan2004 posted:

Whatever you end up doing, please post your results as your application is a recurring topic here on OGR. 

 

Questions for Stan2004:  I checked out the bay and found a bluetooth variant of this.  It has an led light though and I wouldn't want a light inside any car.  Have you ever used the bluetooth version of this?  Is the light easy to disable?  

Lastly, would you mind posting part number and source for the regulator?

I don't know why I've never seen posts on this topic before but I really like this idea.  The bluetooth would be perfect as I use a bluetooth enabled device to control my layout.  It could do double duty streaming audio and running the DCS app.  

Last year for Christmas, I picked up a Lionel Silver Bells set.  Silver Bells was my wife's grandmother's favorite Christmas song so it is also one of her favorites.  Unfortunately, the Silver Bells set does not play Silver Bells...  This would be a perfect fix for that.

Tony

Here's another source video if it helps from Erics Trains

bluetooth module

Tony_V posted:

 

Questions for Stan2004:  I checked out the bay and found a bluetooth variant of this.  It has an led light though and I wouldn't want a light inside any car.  Have you ever used the bluetooth version of this?  Is the light easy to disable?  

Lastly, would you mind posting part number and source for the regulator?

I have not used a Bluetooth version.  I have removed the LED from the MP3 players - I recall one had a multi-color LED that cycled through different colors as it played which got old pretty quickly!  The tiny players, and I suspect a tiny Bluetooth version would have a surface-mounted LED which might be a hassle to un-solder (as opposed to some socketed LED that you simply pull out).  If such is the case I think a piece of black electrical tape would do the trick!

As shown, this is a track-side layout sound player powered from fixed AC accessory voltage.  Here is the "parts list" I had posted with the OGR thread showing the regulator.

Again, what you see above is NOT a rolling-stock version.  If you are considering an AC track powered version there are additional considerations dealing with battery charging/management, intermittent power issues, interference with DCS signal (as it appears you're using DCS), etc.  If you pursue this, when you identify specific components or capabilities, I suggest posting in the Electrical Forum where I can give more specific suggestions...but be ready to fire up the soldering iron!

TedW posted:

Here's another source video if it helps from Erics Trains

bluetooth module

And rather than the $10 price he mentions, it's on sale now.  My local HD has 50 in stock...

Note that you can get a similar-sized MP3 version if you don't want to go the wireless route.  I've written up this one too in other OGR threads.  The relevant pieces are shown below.  So with memory card, this would be about $3 out-of-pocket.

stan2004 posted:

TedW posted:

Here's another source video if it helps from Erics Trains

bluetooth module

And rather than the $10 price he mentions, it's on sale now.  My local HD has 50 in stock...

Note that you can get a similar-sized MP3 version if you don't want to go the wireless route.  I've written up this one too in other OGR threads.  The relevant pieces are shown below.  So with memory card, this would be about $3 out-of-pocket.

I have such a hard time duplicating your search criteria. Today, I wrote it down, then entered the heading exactly and got the link!!   Had to have black, $ buck 56 shipped. How can ya beat that?