Originally Posted by nycboy:
Hm you bring up good topics! First, I read in the topic about "reverse AC" Does this mean that if i Put my train in reverse and it reverse the polarity to the LED lights in the train?
If I understand your question, the LED circuit "sees" the same track voltage whether it's running in fwd or reverse. For example if you just turned your lighted cars around you would change directions but the LED circuit sees the same voltage since the center-rail and the outer-rail voltages have not changed.
Also, What about installing a speaker say on the last car of the train to make it play more realistic sound affects when its turning? Is there a module that you can modify through your computer and it has a speaker built it so then when it gets power it constantly plays that tone? Hope the question is simple to understand, I was thinking about doing this!
Ahh. I see you have a "noisy" mind (a good thing ). There are dozens of after-market "sound" modules with speaker where you record your own sound. These run in the $10-30 range. The selection gets a smaller for ones where you load the sound via a computer. But this latter approach is absolutely the way to go. So this would probably warrant a separate discussion. In short, what I'd do is use an MP3 player with speaker output. These come and go on eBay for maybe $10-20. Some use a USB "stick" others use an SD card, whatever. So you use a sound editor on your PC and make as fancy a sound as you want using a freeware sound editor that can store as MP3. Then shove the sound into the player. Next task is how to trigger it. I like your idea about turning. So here I'd put a sensor (could be as simple as a magnet with some reed switches) that trip when the truck turns some number of degrees relative to the chassis. That would turn on the sound module when the train is on a curve.
Yet another approach is to get a cheap FM transmitter (a few bucks on eBay) and a handheld FM radio with speaker. Your FM transmitter constantly "broadcasts" the turning sound. The FM radio in the desired car is turned on as above with some type of "turn" detector. The advantage of this approach is a single transmitter can service multiple cars where each car only has a cheap FM radio installed.
But going back a bit, anything generating sound in a car would take more power than a few LEDs and hence this is why I recommend the bridge rectifier. That is, you'd need, say, about 1 Watt of audio power to be heard above the wheel noise and other goings on from a subway consist.
Last question, Subway doors. I know MTH produced only about 2 subway modules with manual opening doors. I remember watching a youtube video were some one put a motor in the train to make it automatic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5SDb_B46cDo you think you would know how to do this? If so How would you? This is an interesting project that I would like to try to attempt.
Well, I haven't done subway doors but the video shows it can be done. Of course there's the Lionel Acela with operating doors which might be a source of inspiration if you can get a look at its mechanism. The youtube guy seems to deflect questions when specifically asked how he did it. From what I can tell he uses a rack-and-pinion mechanism which I suspect (based on how he mounted it and its size relative to the task at hand) was hijacked from some other toy or whatever.
In my experience, the best thing is to start with doors that are manually operable in the first place. If you have to carve up a solid molded door and fabricate sliding rails or runners or whatever, that would be too much. Another thing going for you is the doors weigh nothing. This means you can probably use a single mechanism to drive all the doors together. A window curtain mechanism in miniature would probably work for the two door motion. As I see it, the "electronics" side of it is easy. The hard work is the mechanical side.