Does anyone know what is inside the # 6-5906 Sound Activation Button for Railsounds? is there just a button, or some kind of circuit?
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Originally Posted by pa:
The sound activation button uses 6 diodes in one direction and
one diode in the other direction to produce the small DC offset
to operate the horn or bell. The transformer button uses one diode
and a resistor to produce the offset. The resistor in the transformer
has the same effect as the 6 diodes in the sound button. There is no
voltage increase in the sound button as there is in the transformer
so operating the sound button will cause the train to slow down.
one diode in the other direction to produce the small DC offset
to operate the horn or bell. The transformer button uses one diode
and a resistor to produce the offset. The resistor in the transformer
has the same effect as the 6 diodes in the sound button. There is no
voltage increase in the sound button as there is in the transformer
so operating the sound button will cause the train to slow down.
thnx rob!
Are these buttons repairable?
Bill
Sure, and you can also roll your own simply. I've created a bell/whistle button with a string of diodes in each direction and just shorting all but one of the diodes in each string produces the offsets in the proper direction for both whistle and bell. Here's the guts of mine.
John & Rob:
That’s a neat replacement John as it controls both functions. My control panel available space is probably too small for that and I need 2 buttons. What’s the size of its footprint?
I need the 2 buttons for bell control only as I’m using the A and D handles of a post-war ZW to run each half of my only mainline that does not have TMCC Powermasters. I need the button to trigger the station announcements on my Railking PS-1 Torpedo and to sound the bell on my Lionel 0-6-0 steam switcher with Railsounds. I also run a post-war 681 on that loop and find that blowing the post-war whistle is easier and more reliable using the 5906 “bell” button than using the ZW whistle button.
Last week I had a derailment which melted down one of the two installed buttons. Not sure why that happened because I have fast-acting fuses installed between each button and the A and D terminals on the ZW but that’s another story.
But even prior to that accident I was having problems because the whistle on the post-war tender, the bell on the 0-6-0 and the bell on the Torpedo were being activated nearly continuously on both halves of the loop. The latter two I can live with but not the post-war whistle blowing constantly due to the voltage drop-off. It looked like both buttons seemed to be sticking in the on position.
Fortunately I had 4 spare buttons and as luck would have it the first two I chose to install as replacements both had the same problem! I then installed the last 2 spare buttons which both work correctly although I did have to reverse the wires on one of them to get it to activate the bell instead of the whistle!
Now I’m out of spares and would like to fix at least 2 of those 3 that are sticking in the on position. Does anyone know if that condition is easily repairable? I have not yet opened one up. In looking at the photo that Rob posted it looks like it’s just a metal contact strip that maybe is bent too much and making continuous contact; or is it something more serious than that?
Bill
WFT:
Long time, no chat! I hope all is well.
The 5906 buttons are fairly simple to fix. The copper contacts inside are normally closed, which bypasses the diode array inside. Pressing the button breaks the bypass, thereby energizing the barrel diodes to activate the bell or whistle.
Therefore, if you have a button which causes constant activation of a bell or whistle, the issue is actually with the switch closing. In this case, a little cleaning/polishing and/or realigning of the contacts are likely all that is necessary.
Hope this helps-
TRW
Originally Posted by PaperTRW:
WFT:
Long time, no chat! I hope all is well.
The 5906 buttons are fairly simple to fix. The copper contacts inside are normally closed, which bypasses the diode array inside. Pressing the button breaks the bypass, thereby energizing the barrel diodes to activate the bell or whistle.
Therefore, if you have a button which causes constant activation of a bell or whistle, the issue is actually with the switch closing. In this case, a little cleaning/polishing and/or realigning of the contacts are likely all that is necessary.
Hope this helps-
TRW
Todd:
Thanks for the info with good news and nice to hear from you!
Bill
Originally Posted by WftTrains:
John & Rob:
That’s a neat replacement John as it controls both functions. My control panel available space is probably too small for that and I need 2 buttons. What’s the size of its footprint?
If you have two buttons on the panel, you don't need any additional footprint. The diode strings can be put most anywhere, even ten feet away! The only reason mine is the size that it is was that that was the little mini-box that I had in my parts drawer.
