Ideas needed

[Edmunds]

Hi all, I am interested in having a bell ringing when the level crossing gate closes on my HO scale railroad. The crossing is automatic from Viesmann and is DCC computer controlled. I understand, I could set up a loco sound decoder with the loudspeaker in the crossing-guard house at the crossing and install my own .wav bell ring file and get it played by activating a function from my computer, but it sounds like a lot of money and an overkill to just get a silly bell ringing sound. I could also go the hard way and try to build a miniature electronic bell (with solenoid contacts), but that I cannot find good super small parts for it easily. Neither of this is easy and thus I'm thinking maybe someone has heard of an easier solution. I have a similar thing from Faller for my church bells (Item No. 180642) for an example, and that works nicely. I can do some electronics myself as long as it is not rocket science and super-advanced C programming to get the file onto the chip :). Thanks and best regards, Edmunds from Latvia

[Texas Zepher]

Edmunds

I am interested in having a bell ringing when the level crossing gate closes on my HO scale railroad. The crossing is automatic from Viesmann and is DCC computer controlled.

How is the train "sensed" to activate the crossing gate?

http://ittproducts.com/hqpage_2008.htm

[MisterBeasley]

This unit from Bakatronics might do the job:

http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=690

It is a small box with Push-to-Record and Push-to-Playback buttons.  It's a kit, so I'd imagine it would be easy to put your own control button on for playback.  Just record the sound you want.  $7.99 seems like a reasonable price.

Other people have suggested getting one of those record-your-own-message greeting cards.  That's going to have the same type of circuitry.  Instead of "Happy Saint Smithens Day, Mom!" you can record the bell of your choice.

[Edmunds]

MisterBeasley

This unit from Bakatronics might do the job:

http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=690

Thank you very much. I placed an order for two. Now just remains to wait while the shipment reaches Latvia. BR,

[Edmunds]

Texas Zepher

How is the train "sensed" to activate the crossing gate?

http://ittproducts.com/hqpage_2008.htm

Thank you very much for the hint. The train is not actually sensed for the crossing. I am running Rocomotion software (a striped down version of the expensive Train Controller). This means I'm following the requirements of the software when it comes to train detection on the layout. The layout has a number of blocks with three sensing devices each. First, there is the overall current sensing. This allows the software to see if the block is available or occupied. Then, at both ends of each block, around 7cm from the end there is a reed contact, which is activated by magnets under locomotives and allows stopping the train before entering the next block in both directions. At the same time, the first reed contact of the block that the train reaches, always acts as a "start to break" indicator if the next block is occupied. This setup, while a bit of a nightmare to wire, gives you perfectly prototypical train stopping at reds at all times. Running trains is route based - if a train needs to go from station A to station B, the computer would figure out a route, set all the turnouts, set the signals and would let you run the train or run it on its own depending on what you want. This means that the level crossing only needs to be a turnout to be closed and opened automatically when there is a rote passes through it. This means the bell will also need to be activated by a relay on the same address. BR,