I need to have to a louder level of sound output from a Digitrax Sound Bug. I have loaded a custom sound project into the sound bug for a Bachmann Gordon Engine. I am using the supplied 1.1 inch 8 ohm speaker but the sound level of the whistle is just barely audible - chuff volume is also low. Has anyone added aonther stage of amplification for more sound power?
(The amp circuit needs to be as small as possible as space is limited)
Thank-you
Dave Moore
Medina Railroad Tech (Gaundyboss)
Do you have an enclosure with air space sealing up one side of the speaker?
without an enclosure, there will be almost zero sound output from the raw speaker.
Have you adjusted the CVs for the individual volume settings for whistle and chuff, as well as the overall volume level CV? They're all specified in the manual.
Did you test the volume level of each sound while you had the Soundloader program running on your computer? If they were all right on the computer, then I'd imagine you need to adjust the CVs to bring them up. If they were very soft to begin with, though, you need to modify the individual files.
Unfortunately, I don't think Soundloader allows you to extract the .wav files from the sound project, so you'll need another source for the files.
An SFX004 should put out plenty of volume. The SFX0416, on the other hand, has very little output power and there's not much you can do about it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Gentlemen,
Thank-you for your replies - I had already tried all of your suggestions. The unit is to used in a public display with over a hundred patrons and the source (Engine) is behind a pane of glass. This is not going to used on a home layout where back ground sound can be controlled. The max volume from the built in amp is just not enough - as Tim Allen says - MORE POWER. Unfortuneately I can't locate my Binford Catalog.
I had a previous project with this brand of decoder - the car has two bass reflex speakers mounted in enclosers - max volume with both recording and playback - you can't hear it unless the room is empty - then you can hear it 30' away. But with a crowd you have to be within a couple of feet - which most patrons will be unable to to acheive.
Just to be clear - the room is 34' wide by 220' long with the layout 204' long with 400' main lines. We have a Digitraxx HO Demo Engine - can't hear it either.
I was hoping someone had solved this problem already - or knew of a commerical product.
I don't think any locomotive installed speaker will satisfy your requirements. Possibly you need to look in your Binford catalg for one of those Surroundtraxx units where the speakers are mounted under the railroad. See: http://www.soundtraxx.com/surround/
For the setup you're describing, you might be able to use a pair of self-powered computer speakers mounted outside the enclosure containing the locomotive and a small microphone inside the enclosure. The volume control on the computer speakers would allow you to adjust it to fit the situation.
Lee
Lee 1234Back in the late 80s early 90s I went to a train show in a mall and there was a demo for an external sound system. The guy had a little shelf layout and a pair of column speakers that were at least 3 feet tall. He could shake that whole little mall. Can anybody remember the name of that system?
I think it was probably a PFM (Pacific fast Mail).
The Surroundtraxx unit I linked to above can probably do the same thing, but that would bear investigation.
You could feed the speaker outputs of a regular sound decoder into the line-level inputs of a big amplifier and speaker setup. It wouldn't follow the train around but with a couple of rock band amp stacks you could probably blow the windows out of any houses in a 5 mile radius.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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