I seem to make a habit of buying electronics to "use later" only to find that when later finally comes around, the company that made the device is out of business, or the current employees have no records and no knowledge of the "what did you say you have?"
Two cases in point, I have a Hooter and Tooter made by QSI Industries. They were designed to replace the battery operated horn or relay controlled whistle in post war Lionel and maybe some other brands. All you did was remove the whistle and horn units and associated relays, and install the QSI product with double side tape or screw it to a relay bracket, hook up one wire to the roller pickup and one to ground. Done. The Hooter/Tooter would be triggered by the same DC overlay from the transformer whistle button that triggered the originals and use track power to blow the horn or whistle. They also had bell capabilities if you had a sourceof reverse polarity DC.
The other device is a Switch controller made by Train America Studios. This was designed to respond to the serial output from a TMCC board to produce a DC offset to trigger a post war horn or whistle. Mike Regan who owned TAS has no memory of the device.
I am trying to use these two devices in two engines which have just had ERR AC Commander boards installed
Bill Lewis ( Boxcar Bill) did the installations. He wired up one TAS board and a Hooter in my converted FM Trainmaster, but it
doesn't work. Bill wired the TAS board to the AC Commander, and the board triggers from the CAB 1, but the DC output is only one of two components needed to operate the Hooter. Once the Hooter is triggered, it also needs track power provided thru the same two wires as the DC offset to blow the horn/whistle. I talked with Bill about this problem and he believes that feeding track power to the two Hooter connections and the DC offset thru the same two wires would result in back feeding track power to the TAS board and the Commander board possibly damaging one or both.
Has anybody ever used either of these products, and if so, have you found them useful in a TMCC environment?
Also, for anybody who has used the Hooter or Tooter, although I have the instructions, I can't seem to adjust the horn and bell.
Anybody who can explain this, much thanks in advance.
