Fastrack Grade Crossing Volume

I agree with the three position switch. Great idea. All sounds including engines can get on ones nerves. Just listen to some of the videos posted. I mostly run at the lowest possible setting and there are times all is silent. 

A resistor in series with the speaker should not hurt the audio circuit. However, I think you're starting a little high in the resistance level. I think a 2 ohm resistor would be plenty. Maybe some of the electronic wiz's will chime in. 

George

I put some tape over the holes where the sound comes out. Helps.

I agree with George.  I have the MTH Mel’s Diner which has no volume control.  Following a post by Dale Manquen, I added a 10 ohm reostat which cut the volume down to a acceptable level.

Unlike Mel’s, there is no room for a reostat so you will need to use a resistor.  You’ll have to experiment on ohm rating but a would guess somewhere between your 2 ohm and, maybe, 12 ohm.

One of the electronics gurus on the forum may have a much better answer.

Good luck.

Danr posted:

I agree with George.  I have the MTH Mel’s Diner which has no volume control.  Following a post by Dale Manquen, I added a 10 ohm reostat which cut the volume down to a acceptable level.

Unlike Mel’s, there is no room for a reostat so you will need to use a resistor.  You’ll have to experiment on ohm rating but a would guess somewhere between your 2 ohm and, maybe, 12 ohm.

One of the electronics gurus on the forum may have a much better answer.

Good luck.

You could put a two conductor wire on the crossing and mount the potentiometer under the layout...or somewhere.

Thanks guys,  all great replies. Looks like I'll be experimenting with some resistors. If anyone does have a solution please post it up. I'll post up my results when I get to the point.

Happy New Year!

After spending the morning yesterday I finally was able to figure out wat value to add in series with the speaker to decrease the volume.

I started off working on the flasher crossing (6-12052) I simply removed the red wire from the speaker and attached another one to it to get it extended.

Using clip leads I connected two 15 ohm resistors in parallel. The value was 7.4 ohms. There was no noticeable difference in the volume.

So I moved up the resistance I went to 180 ohms and this sounded a bit on the low side, so I went to the next lower resistor, at 150 ohms. A bit louder, but still comfortable. So I tried a 120 ohm, no noticeable difference from the 150 ohm. Then I realized that what I found comfortable was in a quite room with no rolling stock. I took the crossing out to the Christmas layout and gave it a shot. TOOOO quite. I need to raise the volume a bunch. After it was all said and done I settled on a 15 ohm resistor in series with the 8 ohm speaker. Its loud enough to hear the bell over the rolling stock passing over the crossing.

The first video is with the 15 ohm resistor and the second one is the way it came from the factory. Its hard to tell between the two videos but there is a noticeable difference.

After I got everything all buttoned up.

I tried doing the exact same thing to my crossing with the gates (6-12062) and the 15 ohm resistor was making the volume too quite. There mush have been an engineering change to the board at some time. I just put it back to the way it was from the factory.