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I like to watch your work! Very nice.
A master craftsman great work
Beauty Alex. Does the north pole go up or down? 
Pete
U DA MAN ALEX!!!!! Great job.
Awesome job Alex! 🔔
Wow!! I'm somewhere between flat-out impressed and jealous. Great job......!!
Very cool Alex, is there nothing you can't do?
Alex
Beautiful work as always. 👍
John
Alex, nice work, but didn't it already have one? 
So You know we are going to ask if we can peek under the skirt and see how you actuated the bell and what board we would need to do the same thing... say to my K4? or Y3?
Keep up the good work Alex.
The VL Hudson has the swinging bell, so I suspect he's replacing a missing bell. In order to install one on something that doesn't have it, you'd have to not only install the electromagnet under the bell, but have the electronics that outputs when the bell is active and pulses the coil back and forth. In other words, probably not going to happen without a LOT of work. 
OTOH, having a real brass bell for my H10 would be nice, that looks like a way to have one.
You can buy the mechanism along with the driver board. Reprograming the RCMC is another matter.
Not being able to install your own decoders and program them into your handheld like you can with DCC is the bane of both Legacy and DCS.
Pete
Nice going, Alex. Looks great!
John
Hello all thank you for the nice comments.
This is the Vision Line Hudson 6-11209 which already has a swinging bell and mechanism built in. The original bell was broken, so i took a standard bell drilled it out and installed a magnet in it . Lionel no longer has the original bell in stock, so i made one. I wish i was able to manufacture my own swinging bell system LOL 
. Just showing how to make a "swinging bell" and only a bell LOL
J daddy John i will shoot a video in the morning on how the VL hudson bell system works
Thanks, Alex
Brilliant work Alex.... I hear this new service now comes standard on all your full train upgrades!! 😂
Alex, you could build this.
Source for micro gearmotors.
https://www.pololu.com/product/2359
Search youtube for more videos by Laurie Mclean to see what you can do with these.
Pete
Pete, the method that Lionel uses works pretty well, and is very simple, just a coil under the shell.
I know that John. I have the engine as well as the parts. This is another approach that anyone could build for under 20 bucks, plus fit in just about any engine.
Pete
I'm not sure I follow you Pete. This is easily more complicated than the simple electromagnet coil, and you still have the same issue of synchronizing the bell to the sound, right? What I like about the electromagnet is if you have the typical bell that swings, you just need to do the Alex special on your bell and stick the coil under it on the inside of the shell. No cosmetic changes at all, no holes to drill in the shell for the actuator, etc.
John, do it your way if you want. Whats shown in the video requires drilling two holes. One in the flywheel for a crankpin and the other in the cab front for the rope pull. Regardless of mechanism used the problem of activating it is the same. You can do it the expensive way and buy an RCMC for an engine that has this feature or you can design your own system. The former requires a Legacy upgrade, the latter can be made to work for any engine.
Pete
Pete, you're still confusing me. How does changing the mechanism of moving the bell change the fact that you still need to activate it with the bell audio? With the gear motor, how are you managing to synchronize the bell to the audio without buying the same RCMC? I'm all ears if you have a simple solution!
VL HUDSON swinging bell system video
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Norton posted:Alex, you could build this.
Source for micro gearmotors.
https://www.pololu.com/product/2359
Search youtube for more videos by Laurie Mclean to see what you can do with these.
Pete
Pete
That’s so cool and not to difficult
Alex
Thanks Alex for a peak behind the curtain. I didn't know the VL Hudson came with a swinging bell. Question is can you buy the RCMC board at Lionel and add the feature for other engines.
The RCMC does not control the swinging bell. Adding the Bell controller PCB, coil, and bell with magnet will work. The Bell controller does all the work of syncing the sounds and control of the bell. It goes in the serial chain, RCMC->Bell controller-> IR link to Railsounds.
Simple to add.
Jon, will the bell controller work with TMCC code or only with Legacy?
Pete
Jon, THANKS! I didn't realize you could do that!
Norton posted:Jon, will the bell controller work with TMCC code or only with Legacy?
Pete
I second this question. I have a PRSL E6 (6-28706) I'd love to add the swinging bell to.
Legacy only
gunrunnerjohn posted:Jon, THANKS! I didn't realize you could do that!
I figured it would make you excited.
SantaFeFan posted:The RCMC does not control the swinging bell. Adding the Bell controller PCB, coil, and bell with magnet will work. The Bell controller does all the work of syncing the sounds and control of the bell. It goes in the serial chain, RCMC->Bell controller-> IR link to Railsounds.
Simple to add.
Thanks Jon for the great news !!!!
I'm glad i posted this thread about a bell and magnet LOL , it possibly opened a new door for adding a swinging bell to an engine that doesn't have it.
Okay so the race begins... who's going to tackle this first! LOL 
I can't I'm up to my neck with repair and upgrades.
Thanks, Alex
SantaFeFan posted:gunrunnerjohn posted:Jon, THANKS! I didn't realize you could do that!
I figured it would make you excited.
I may have to try adding a swinging bell to one of my Legacy steamers. I just have to pick a victim. 
Alex M posted:SantaFeFan posted:The RCMC does not control the swinging bell. Adding the Bell controller PCB, coil, and bell with magnet will work. The Bell controller does all the work of syncing the sounds and control of the bell. It goes in the serial chain, RCMC->Bell controller-> IR link to Railsounds.
Simple to add.
Thanks Jon for the great news !!!!
I'm glad i posted this thread about a bell and magnet LOL , it possibly opened a new door for adding a swinging bell to an engine that doesn't have it.
Okay so the race begins... who's going to tackle this first! LOL
Thanks, Alex
I wonder if you can do this with the modular board Legacy engines?
Trainlover9943 posted:I wonder if you can do this with the modular board Legacy engines?
I don't see a reason why not. The Legacy serial data stream will be the same, that's what the bell control board is looking at.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Trainlover9943 posted:I wonder if you can do this with the modular board Legacy engines?
I don't see a reason why not. The Legacy serial data stream will be the same, that's what the bell control board is looking at.
Cool. I just wish worked for TMCC.
Trainlover9943 posted:Cool. I just wish worked for TMCC.
It would if you used an RCDR to drive it but now the cost is adding up.
Pete
Norton posted:Trainlover9943 posted:Cool. I just wish worked for TMCC.
It would if you used an RCDR to drive it but now the cost is adding up.
Pete
True. The engine I'd do this with only had the TMCC motherboard currently. Could I just pull that and put in the RCDR to get the swinging bell?
You would need an RCDR, Bell driver board and the bell coil assuming you went with the bell with magnet. So not only does it raise the cost it also takes up more real estate inside the engine.
Pete
Norton posted:You would need an RCDR, Bell driver board and the bell coil assuming you went with the bell with magnet. So not only does it raise the cost it also takes up more real estate inside the engine.
Pete
Ah. I may have to look into this because it would be cool to have the swinging bell. The engine I'd be doing is number 6-28706. I currently don't have a motor drive board in it either so I'd use the CCM. Would the two be compatible?
