Eric's Trains Express - Volume 9

I know I'm heading to Home Depot tomorrow. Thanks for the tip! My kids are going to love this.

Eric...Picked up a couple of the cubes at HD this afternoon. Quick question for you...did you get a charger included with yours? In pushing the on/off button, I'm not seeing a flashing blue light as eluded to in the directions...and in the directions  it says to use a 5volt / 1amp charger...so guessing that is what will need to be done to make them operational? Of course, as luck would have it, a charger with a micro connector is not present in my house right now! 

Eric, that speaker is also sold in Walmart. Not sure about this one, but some do not operate when their charging. Also most phones are only capable of transmitting to only one speaker. I use one in a Lionel cattle car and transmit the sound from a you tube video of several cattle in a coral. They are a lot of fun. They will also fit down into modern diesels that are non-powered. You can use your phones voice recorder to record a real engine then transmit it to your non-powered unit.

Very Nice !!  Thank you

Eric,

First,  thanks for the videos you've made.  Always informative, though sometimes hard on my wallet!

Second, your layout looks fantastic!  What do you use for ballast? It looks just right.

Thanks,

Hal

Great video. Going to Home Depot tomorrow to get a few.

Paul, the ones I purchase included a USB wire in the box from Walmart. Same speaker, same price, $10.00. Are the Home Depot's speakers un-boxed?

PDDMI posted:

Eric...Picked up a couple of the cubes at HD this afternoon. Quick question for you...did you get a charger included with yours? In pushing the on/off button, I'm not seeing a flashing blue light as eluded to in the directions...and in the directions  it says to use a 5volt / 1amp charger...so guessing that is what will need to be done to make them operational? Of course, as luck would have it, a charger with a micro connector is not present in my house right now! 

No, they don't come with a charger. All that's needed is a standard micro usm cable that can be purchased at just about any gas station on the planet.

-Eric

Dave Zucal posted:

Paul, the ones I purchase included a USB wire in the box from Walmart. Same speaker, same price, $10.00. Are the Home Depot's speakers un-boxed?

The ones at Home Depot are unboxed, a lot like the charging cables that are sold at gas stations and drugs stores. They just put them into a clear plastic bin at the checkout counter. I'm sure they're available at other places as well with different configurations and packaging, I just got mine at Home Depot. All that's needed in a micro-usb cable for charging.

-Eric

Thanks Eric. I also used: church bell recordings, crows around a farm field, construction vehicle sounds with the back up beepers, sirens, court house clock tower chimes and dogs barking. All my sounds were recorded with my phone and played with my phone. The only draw back is only one speaker can play at a time. You would need a separate device for each speaker if you want more then one at a time to play.

I wandered around my local Home Depot for a half an hour today and couldn't find it. I'm going to try again tomorrow maybe at a different Home Depot. I might just have to find something online maybe.

Very cool.  Thanks for sharing on your video.

Tom M posted:

I wandered around my local Home Depot for a half an hour today and couldn't find it. I'm going to try again tomorrow maybe at a different Home Depot. I might just have to find something online maybe.

Tom, I had trouble finding them too...they were at one of the checkouts at the closest HD in my area...on the bottom of the rack and in a very nondescript clear plastic container. They had them in 3 or 4 colors. Make sure you have a micro cord for charging...Don't ask me how I know! 

Walmart also has them for the same price, in a box with instructions, and the necessary charging cord, back in the electronics department.

HMS2035 posted:

Eric,

First,  thanks for the videos you've made.  Always informative, though sometimes hard on my wallet!

Second, your layout looks fantastic!  What do you use for ballast? It looks just right.

Thanks,

Hal

Same, I watched a video of his when he went to Legacy station and unboxed some trains. I saw the FEC ES44AC and bought just because of his videos. I do plan on making the videos, especially because I have a good size following on other social media platforms. Just search my name and you'll find it  

The little bluetooth speakers, this one and other similar types, are great for a little easy to use fun. Just popping one in various places can add some fun to the layout, or having a couple and randomly playing various sounds from different locations on your layout during an open house could be fun.  As mentioned by folks above, however most devices can only play to one speaker at a time.  As mentioned in Eric's video it can be a bit of a pain to install these things somewhere as well as they'll need a power source, and access to the pairing button.  (Also, depending on the exact model of the device, it may not be wise to leave them plugged in to a charger all the time.  Some cheap devices have cheap charging circuits that can damage the battery if left charging all the time, and that could lead to fire and such.   I don't know the details on the speaker Eric is using, but it's something to be on the look out for with all cheap electronics.)

A better option for a permanent installation in my opinion would be to use individual MP3 players with built in speakers.  I can't vouch for the audio quality of these devices, but they can be bought for about $6 or $7 on the big auction site.  For those that are a little more handy you can buy MP3 player circuit boards for about two bucks that would work really well inside buildings and such.  

One could place the sound file on the player as well as some number of silent tracks, put the player on shuffle, and cause the sound to come on at random intervals if they wanted.  Or you could add 10 minutes of silence to the end of the sound file , put it on repeat, and have the sound go off every 10 minutes, for example.  

There are lots of other options as well for a more permanent solution, but for just a bit of fun now and then, there is nothing wrong with the bluetooth speakers.  

JGL

There is a great sound editing program you can download for free called Audacity. You can edit your recordings to fade in and out, time out silent gaps, even add another sound track to play along with a track your working. The options are endless and make for a lot of fun.

CCR  nice.........

I searched at my Home Depot for awhile before finding it today.  It was at the service desk up front.  It was in plastic container looking like this...

There is no specific brand name on the speaker cube or in the directions that comes with the cube. 

kjstrains posted:

I searched at my Home Depot for awhile before finding it today.  It was at the service desk up front.  It was in plastic container looking like this...

There is no specific brand name on the speaker cube or in the directions that comes with the cube. 

Thanks for the heads up! As soon as my kids run out of steam at the Playplace, that's my next stop.

Success!