HO Exhibition Layout Build

Hi Everyone,

No pics to share this time but hope to have some over the next week or so as I just finished building a static grass applicator using an electronic fly swat and a wire strainer - there's something very satisfying about making tools like this yourself. Now I can crack on with some scenery .

Ian

 

Toto wrote:

Thanks Toto. I couldn't have got the backscene right without a couple of Gormo's videos.

Ian

 

ianvolvo46 wrote:

Thanks Ian.

 

Hi everybody,

As promised I have some pics to share of the grass put down with my home made static grass applicator. I have also painted the hard standing black to represent a tarred surface - I will dry brush this with a couple of shades of grey to make it look a bit more weathered.

Until next time,

Ian

 

Gary wrote:

Thanks Gary. There will be some grass along the side of the track but it will thin out under the trees - probably just have some ground foam, undergrowth and some crushed up dead leaves. Most of the trees you see there will be in the background with some hand made ones in front.

Ian

 

ianvolvo46 wrote:

Hmmm... Maybe the goat will be eating some of the grass under the trees.

Ian

 

Hi again!

I forgot to mention earlier that today I also picked up a kit from Jaycar to make a "Multi Message Voice Recorder". The plan for this is to record a few generic diesel horns and steam whistles each of which will be operated by a push button mounted on the facia with the sound coming from a speaker hidden in the small grey building in the middle of the scene. I hope to have this built and tested over the next fortnight or so.

Ian

Attached files

 

Hi Everyone.

I had some time free when I got home from work today so decided to start on the sound recorder kit. I got some of the larger parts fitted to the board then found I was missing one resistor - much swearing! I thought it might be good to re-read the instructions and found that the missing part was only required for recording via the microphone circuit. I looked more closely at the circuit diagram and realised that I should be able to leave the whole microphone circuit out and record the horn sounds via line level from the pc which should give a clearer sound with no microphone hiss - problem solved! The only issue now is that it is almost time for bed so I will have to wait until tomorrow evening to do more work on this. Hopefully I'll have this finished in a couple of days and be able to share the results with you all.

Ian

 

SMR CHRIS wrote:

I just need my beauty sleep, Chris. Other wise, how will I maintain my 'ageless good looks'?

Another update on the audio project.

I finished work on the circuit board tonight. Tomorrow night I hope to do some testing to see that it all works and workout what other bits and pieces I need to get to finish it off. There is one resistor that changes the quality and length of recording if it's value is decreased so I have to experiment with some different resistors to see which gives the best balance between quality and time. I hope to have more to report over the next few days.

Ian

Attached files

 

Hi Everyone.

Well, I finished that recorder kit today and it does what it says on the box but not well enough to use on a layout. I couldn't get it to work with my modified line level input so had to build it with the electret mic as per the kit. It's not too bad for voice but diesel horn sounds are very muffled so this will be consigned to the shelf pending a project it might work for in the future. Oh well, you live and learn.

I've only got a couple of more days off between now and xmas so probably won't have anymore updates until then.

Ian

 

paul_l wrote:

Thanks for your PC suggestion Paul. I did some thinking and research and realised I cound do what I wanted with Arduino for about $60 + amplified speaker but then I had a 'eureka' moment!
I found an Android app for making a custom 'soundboard' on my phone. The app let's me have as many or as fewer buttons on screen as I want and I can assign any sound file to them so I can use good quality MP3 files. Seeing as I didn't want to have my phone tied up when operating the layout, I bought a small pre-paid mobile phone on sale for $29 which runs on Android so that will run the app and fit in a custom made holder on the front of the layout and be connected to a small amplified speaker hidden inside a building.
An added bonus of this is that I can put a bluetooth speaker in a freight wagon coupled behind the loco and have mobile sound on any layout. I will also be able to install the JMRI app to use this phone as a wireless throttle on DCC nights at my local club. Why didn't I think of this in the beginning!

Ian

 

Toto wrote:

It would work well for automated station announcements on a passenger line - their supposed to be muffled and hard to understand. There could be a reed switch between the rails and one passenger car in each rake have a magnet to trigger it as it passes - "The next train on platform 1 goes to....(voice becomes impossible to understand)"

Ian