Rail road crossing bell sounds

The bell quit permanently? I've had one for few years. When I first installed it . The bell sound would "cut out" after 20 or 30 seconds of operation.

With the help of some knowledgeable forum members.  I came to the conclusion that the speaker was receiving too much voltage and overheating the circuitry. Even though I only had 10v going to the unit, and MTH gives no specifications.

Ultimately, I  added a buck converter and reduced the speaker voltage to 5v and it has operated flawlessly ever since.

Sorry for my ignorance but what is a buck converter and we’re would I buy one?

Ebay:  Buck Converter   AC from your transformer goes on the input side, and you have adjustable DC output via the little flathead screw on the output side.

The speaker works fine on DC, I believe somewhere on the circuitry it was indicated it ran on 5v DC.

You'll need a voltmeter with a DC setting to set the voltage, but it works like a charm.

I have a second buck converter powering a couple of Lionel 9v battery sound systems that were boxcar take outs that I use to add sounds to the layout. One plays Halloween sounds and the other Christmas music, powered right from my transformer.

Awesome got it thank you so much!! Learn something new every day!! Have a great night!!

When you look for a buck converter make sure you pick one that is AC to DC.

Thank you also when I connect the speaker I also have the two signals connected to the speaker also. Then all of that is connected to a track side inferred device. Which is a loinel 153ir. How would I wire all that together? Please and thank you for the information.

Wiring of flashers and 153IR is not affected.  The "buck converter" is spliced into the 2 wires going to the bell module.

If you are willing to wait for free shipping from Asia, above shows one for $3,

But as asked earlier does your bell work at all?

RickO described a behavior where the bell stops working from overheating after it runs for a while in this OGR thread.  MSRP for the MTH 30-11014 is $70 which includes the flashers.  It's not clear if you can buy JUST the bell module.  There are other crossing bell sound modules if you can't buy the MTH bell separately at a reasonable cost.  By reasonable, I'd say no more than $25 for a plug-and-play module.  If you're a DIY'er with time on your hands, there have been OGR discussions on making a bell module for around $5 using an MP3 sound module.

If you don't have a handy source of a lower voltage, momentarily attach the 2 wires from the bell module to a 9V battery (either polarity OK) to see if it comes to life.

wow thank you for all of the information. I did try to get it to come back to life but no luck. But I just found one on eBay and purchased it. Must been meant to be for me!!! Thank you

Just hooked up the buck converted and all is good!! Thank you so much and it got to me from China in less than a week!!

Another satisfied customer!

I don't think MTH will be updating their catalog any time soon (!) but anyone searching on 30-11014 on OGR should stumble on this thread...

Hello again everyone I'm using 3 of the MTH Crossing Flashers  W/ sounds can I install just 1of the Buck Converters for all 3 signals or do I need to install 1 at each crossing Signal? Thanks for the help.

Do your 3 flashers (w/sound) operate independently?  And what activates them?

And from someone who has one of these, do the flashers also operate from 5V DC?  Or if they require a higher voltage what is it?  And can it be DC?

I run all my MTH signals on DC: crossing gates, cantilever, traffic lights, and crossbucks.

I only have one set of signals with the speaker. I have one buck converter for those. I am not sure if you can operate more than one set per buck converter. I also have a set of Mth 262 signals with the crossing gates. I haven’t set up but wondering if I should put a buck converter on them? If anyone knows please chime in!!!

Hi stan2004 I have 3 different sets of these crossing signals on different parts of my railroad. Right now I'm using a transformer to power them. They are all wired separately and they are activated by using Z-Stuff DZ-1070 & DZ-1075 sensors. I can purchase 3 of the Buck Converters of I need to. I wired like MTH advised from their directions on the box. Thanks for your help.

Gary

This issue is with the speaker electronics overheating causing the bell sound to cut out. So the buck converter is only wired to the speaker.

The lights on the crossbucks don't seem to have issues.

@Gary Marsh posted:

... I have 3 different sets of these crossing signals on different parts of my railroad. Right now I'm using a transformer to power them. They are all wired separately and they are activated by using Z-Stuff DZ-1070 & DZ-1075 sensors. I can purchase 3 of the Buck Converters of I need to. I wired like MTH advised from their directions on the box.

At "only" $3 each (free shipping from Asia), to your point the closest exit may indeed be to just splice a Buck Converter into each bell module as diagrammed earlier.  We know this works.

But to your initial question, is there a way to lower/adjust the operating voltage just once and share that conversion amongst your 3 (or more if you expand) crossing signals/bells?  I'm sure this can be done with some research and trial-and-error; and, yes, I get that the "error" part is a wet blanket. This would involve confirming the operating voltage range of the crossing signals  - whether they operate on AC or DC (apparently they do per John H comment above).  There is an issue with sharing the AC and DC common going thru a DZ-1075 which might dictate using a different method of lowering the voltage such as the AC diode-dropping method (instead of a buck-converter).  And then there's the issue of what kind of AC transformer you have (pure-sine or a chopped-sine).  So it can get awfully tedious for what on face seems like a simple problem!