NPC music car improvements?

C and O Keith pointed me to this tip last year when I had some bad words for the annoying volume of the boxcar. Place a piece of packaging tape over (under?) the hole for the speaker. I placed two pieces and that muffled the music to where it can be heard over the train, but not over the TV.

 

When I run the train at out modular club's layout, I remove the tape and full volume is restored.

 

I don't run the car enough to get excited about modifying it any more than that.

 

J White

 

Place a piece of packaging tape over (under?) the hole for the speaker.

 

Yeah, I can see that.  I covered the hole with my finger so I could listen to the whole cycle of songs.

 

 

Does every version of the Christmas music boxcar play the same sequence in the same electronic notes?  I have the 2002 version, (Sounds of the Season) and even then thought that electronics have come further than the car's music. 

With MP3 technology, an entire library of real music could be loaded into a chip. Real instrumentals of these same songs would be nice.  Has anyone ever upgraded their car?  

First three tunes are: Rudolph, Oh Come All Ye, Frosty, ...

The IC sound chip is packaged on the bottom of the pc board in the picture.

Notice that it'll be easy to try a different speaker -- it has a plug to the board output.

  --Joe

A upgraded car sounds like a good idea. I wonder if it would be possible to use one of the ERR co. TMCC kits to trigger MP3 music. Maybe stored on a USB memory stick so you could open the car door and pull the stick to add/change music. Then use Cab1/2 to change tracks.

 Needs someone with more electronics knowledge than I.

 

Regards

Nick