A Command Controlled K-Line Plymouth Switcher With Sound

Nice!  Could the bell cable be the antenna?

@MartyE posted:

Nice!  Could the bell cable be the antenna?

I thought of that Marty, but it's so short that I was afraid I'd have issues with the TMCC signal.  The handrails are four or five times as much antenna, a much better bet.

I also thought the bell cord was the antenna. Pretty cool project! I bet it's a blast to zip around the layout.

Awesome GRJ

I've been contemplating doing that with my Plymouth.

What sound card did you use?

Nothing available really sounds like a Caterpillar engine to me ( which is one reason I haven't decided to do the project yet)

@BillYo414 posted:

I also thought the bell cord was the antenna. Pretty cool project! I bet it's a blast to zip around the layout.

It's good for a couple of boxcars, that's about it's limit going up the grades.  On the level track, it will haul half a dozen modern boxcars with low rolling resistance.

@John1361 posted:

Awesome GRJ

I've been contemplating doing that with my Plymouth.

What sound card did you use?

Nothing available really sounds like a Caterpillar engine to me ( which is one reason I haven't decided to do the project yet)

I used the Gasoline powered doodlebug ERR board, it's the closest thing to a small engine like this would have.  There are very limited options available.  I decided that sound that wasn't totally prototypical was way better than no sound.  I didn't want to do this without sound, that just adds a whole dimension!

I used the same sounds in my K-Line Speeder command upgrade.

very cool John. Gives me more projects to add to the list......Love to see a picture of the innards.

The grab bars on these are metal, had you considered just attaching a wire to them? Not sure if they would take solder though.

Oh... and where's the swinging bell...

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

very cool John. Gives me more projects to add to the list......Love to see a picture of the innards.

Well, I thought of the innards after I put it together.  After that exercise, I didn't feel like taking it apart again!

I will say the layout is pretty simple.  The MC2 is under the hood mounted to the top with foam tape.  I used the MC2 with the two incandescent light outputs so I could use all the existing lights.  I added a connector in addition to the MC2 connectors so that I could separate the hood from the rest of the body for maintenance.

The RSC is in the cab, it neatly fits behind the plastic cab shield if you take the plastic carrier off the board.  I managed to cram a small speaker in behind it and use the rear window opening as the grille opening.  The running lights were wired in series and directly to track power.

@RSJB18 posted:

The grab bars on these are metal, had you considered just attaching a wire to them? Not sure if they would take solder though.

The problem is the hangers are also metal, so they shorted them to the diecast chassis.  I needed some insulation in order for the handrails to work.

@RSJB18 posted:

Oh... and where's the swinging bell...

I got your swingin' bell!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, I thought of the innards after I put it together.  After that exercise, I didn't feel like taking it apart again!

I will say the layout is pretty simple.  The MC2 is under the hood mounted to the top with foam tape.  I used the MC2 with the two incandescent light outputs so I could use all the existing lights.  I added a connector in addition to the MC2 connectors so that I could separate the hood from the rest of the body for maintenance.

The RSC is in the cab, it neatly fits behind the plastic cab shield if you take the plastic carrier off the board.  I managed to cram a small speaker in behind it and use the rear window opening as the grille opening.  The running lights were wired in series and directly to track power.

The problem is the hangers are also metal, so they shorted them to the diecast chassis.  I needed some insulation in order for the handrails to work.

I got your swingin' bell!

Thanks John.....

thought you'd appreciate the bell comment (made with tongue firmly planted in cheek)

@RSJB18 posted:

Thanks John.....

thought you'd appreciate the bell comment (made with tongue firmly planted in cheek)

I was pretty sure you weren't serious.

Amazing work as always, John!

You set the bar very high and make it fun to try to reach it!

I just love seeing how you can surgically insert the electronics in these small units!

Thanks for sharing!

Stan

Very, very nice.

Small units deserve to be able to do what the bigger ones can do.

Mike

Thanks, guys.  I do love the small motorized units, and having sound gives them a whole new dimension.

Nice work John.  It really does sound good too.

Hi nice job John and love the sound effects and lighting really cool!

Alan

Very nice John.  So Pat's smoke unit wasn't needed? 

Nice, now to two-rail one of those critters.

@coach joe posted:

Very nice John.  So Pat's smoke unit wasn't needed?

Nope, I was going to have to sacrifice the smoke unit anyway.  I'm thinking of trying to stuff a MiniCommander2 in one of my other ones and keeping the smoke unit, that would be cool.  However, I think the MC2 is just a bit too tall for the cab, which might doom that option to failure.

Great project John. Glad you were able to get it done and share it with us! The sound is great and you can really see the improved motion right away! Nice! Terry

Outstanding!!!!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Nope, I was going to have to sacrifice the smoke unit anyway.  I'm thinking of trying to stuff a MiniCommander2 in one of my other ones and keeping the smoke unit, that would be cool.  However, I think the MC2 is just a bit too tall for the cab, which might doom that option to failure.

John, do you know of a smaller smoke unit that might work and free up space?  I've been considering this upgrade on my Strasburg Plymouth, and always enjoyed the smoke output.

@PSM posted:

John, do you know of a smaller smoke unit that might work and free up space?  I've been considering this upgrade on my Strasburg Plymouth, and always enjoyed the smoke output.

There's no smoke unit that fits in there with the MiniCommander 2 board, it takes up the entire length of the hood.  I was looking at a couple of the HO smoke units, but when I went to fitting the electronics, I realized that was a fool's errand.

I may do another one with the MC2 in the cab if I can hog out enough material to make it fit.  Then I could keep the smoke unit but I wouldn't have sound.

Absolutely beautiful work.  Love the sound.  Congrats John.

John

Hey John,

How do you get the Horn/Bell to work?  I've installed several MiniCommanders and all I get is the motor sounds.  Is there a programming step I missed?

Thanks in advance.

The sounds are very nice . The train cars on the other track show the size difference which i think is neat.

Thanks for sharing your video .

@C&O Allan posted:

How do you get the Horn/Bell to work?  I've installed several MiniCommanders and all I get is the motor sounds.  Is there a programming step I missed?

The ERR MiniCommander 2 has no sounds, but I used the full RailSounds Commander with the gas powered sound set for the sounds. The trick was getting the RSC board and speaker in the space available in the cab behind the engineers.

I'm not sure what you're installing, but I don't know of any command controlled sound board that won't give you basic horn/bell functionality.

Gotcha.  It does have a full Railsound board that I thought I wired correctly.  So did you just wire the sound board without connecting it to the minicommander or is there any connection needed?  I thought the railsound board would need a serial notification as to when the horn button was triggered - does the railsounds board work without the board connection if running in Command Mode?

I forgot to say I upgraded an AtlasO SW9.

@C&O Allan posted:

Gotcha.  It does have a full Railsound board that I thought I wired correctly.  So did you just wire the sound board without connecting it to the minicommander or is there any connection needed?  I thought the railsound board would need a serial notification as to when the horn button was triggered - does the railsounds board work without the board connection if running in Command Mode?

For any command control of a sound board, you must tie in the serial data stream.  For the MiniCommander 2, the two leads are Common and the Feature - RS Data leads, see below.  If you don't connect the serial data, you just get conventional operation with the transformer controls.

Nice work John. In the aviation industry you would be our go-to avionics guy for sure.

Brad

@B rad posted:

Nice work John. In the aviation industry you would be our go-to avionics guy for sure.

Funny thing, for a long time I was a go-to guy in avionics!

John,

After shoehorning a CC and RSC into the camelback, this project looks even tighter. I need to get a few mini commanders not with smoke I see.

@Ron_S posted:

After shoehorning a CC and RSC into the camelback, this project looks even tighter. I need to get a few mini commanders not with smoke I see.

The Camelback is child's play compared to this one.  I have the MTH Camelback that I have the CC, RSC, and also fan driven smoke and the S-C and C-G installed.  It's my York demo that I put on my test stand at the booth.

Smoke was not possible with this one as the MC2 had to go where the huge smoke unit lived.

Gee thanks John,  It was excedrin headache #124 doing the camelback, one of the plymouths will have to be when I feel like David going after Goliath.

The Plymouth was actually easier than my K-Line Speeder, that one I had to do bodywork with Styrene sheet to expand the equipment cavity, then have the whole thing painted.  The Plymouth just needed interior work, no modifications of the body.

Here's a little video before I got the engineers seated, I had to come up with seats and appropriate figures.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Funny thing, for a long time I was a go-to guy in avionics!

That is funny. I did 18 years at Timco/Haeco (mostly Boeing but some Douglas and Airbus) and now in my 11th year at Honda Aircraft Company. A&P in the earlier days but QC since 2001.

BTW, love the command speeder too.

Brad

@B rad posted:

That is funny. I did 18 years at Timco/Haeco (mostly Boeing but some Douglas and Airbus) and now in my 11th year at Honda Aircraft Company. A&P in the earlier days but QC since 2001.

BTW, love the command speeder too.

Brad

Wow, Honda.  I was working on a software consulting contract for a lithium battery for the Honda Jet at EaglePicher.  However, the company didn't believe us when we told them they could never get FAA certification of their design due to the way it was developed.  I never did hear the end of the story, but I know it never made it onto the airplane.

Most of my time was as an independent software consultant doing fuel systems and cockpit avionics for Smith's Industries.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Wow, Honda.  I was working on a software consulting contract for a lithium battery for the Honda Jet at EaglePicher.  However, the company didn't believe us when we told them they could never get FAA certification of their design due to the way it was developed.  I never did hear the end of the story, but I know it never made it onto the airplane.

Most of my time was as an independent software consultant doing fuel systems and cockpit avionics for Smith's Industries.

I knew there were some battery issues years ago but don't remember the details. All was resolved though. Certs went through.

Seems that with having trains, some avionics and  software capabilities would really come in handy. I'm dreading when one of mine breaks 😄

@B rad posted:

I knew there were some battery issues years ago but don't remember the details. All was resolved though. Certs went through.

Seems that with having trains, some avionics and  software capabilities would really come in handy. I'm dreading when one of mine breaks 😄

Pretty sure that the solution to the battery issues was not using the lithium battery!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

There's no smoke unit that fits in there with the MiniCommander 2 board, it takes up the entire length of the hood.  I was looking at a couple of the HO smoke units, but when I went to fitting the electronics, I realized that was a fool's errand.

I may do another one with the MC2 in the cab if I can hog out enough material to make it fit.  Then I could keep the smoke unit but I wouldn't have sound.

Thanks.  Looks like it's moot anyways (for me at least); I just checked the ERR site and the Mini Commander has been discontinued permanently.