On Board sound(Update)

[BARC 1]

In my other hobby I used to supply onboard sound systems for RC tanks, so I am floating the idea for slot cars as well. I am putting together a protoype that I will use myself, because regardless of what the market wants, I want one. Wife is unhappy as she has had to listen to Maybach, Continental Radials, and Big Block Ford motors roaring in the basement as I built files for tank models. Last night I built a Porsche 917 file and was testing it, so she was thrilled. :angry-tappingfoot:

Anyway this will be built to work with a Carrera digital car and the concept also be used in analog as a stationary track side system. Onboard could be possible in analog but you would need to have a small lithium battery in the car, or a good self-charging capacitor to provide constant power to the sound board. Engine revs are synchronized with the car and you have down shifting blurps as well. I built the file so it has smooth transitions and customized with the reality that full throttle times are very short and the sound bytes have to be accessed many times in a typical slot car lap.

I read Fly did something onboard, but it must have failed as I have heard nothing about it since I got back into slot cars last year. Not sure of the sound quality or how reactive it was to throttle inputs. Not done right I can see it being only a novelty.

I am a Porsche guy so the 917 was must do for me, but I will build Ferrari, Ford, and most likely a Generic NASCAR as well.

As I mentioned I am doing this for my own needs, but thought I would ask to see if there is any interest from others. I will post a YOU tube video once I get it done. I am waiting on the prototype slot car control module to be delivered, and it is in the mail so I should be able to have this up and running before Christmas. I will spend a bit of time building sound files so when I do the video I can show a few different samples.

The sound boards themselves are programmable and the user can upload different files into each board, and change them at will. Kind of a novelty thing and probably more appealing to times when you are running on your own. More then two running at a time might be quite a racket.

I have customized all the sound files in both in RC and Bruces software as well, as sound is kind of my second hobby regardless of what the first one is.


Cheers


Dan

[proxieken]

:banana-dance:

I will buy them!

I wanted these for some time, and it will add to the fun for me.

[lancelotalove]

I think it would be cool hearing the throttle move up as you increase speed and can maybe hear shifts, but a switch to turn it off if you need to hear the car for tuning purposes. I do not know anyone with the fly car with sound chip. Here is a link for a fly car with sound chip: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111994974128?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

[BARC 1]

[Beast Lee]

Very kOoL Dan...

[vonsirius]

:music-rockout:
Cool!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Am I correct to infer that unlike the model armor, railroads and other applications, this sound module will only make sound through the speakers for the track that already exists, usually for timing computers? I have never seen the little speakers that go in HO locomotive tenders, so I don't know if there is a disadvantage to mounting them in a slot car, other than weight. Either way, I am definitely interested, and my hope is that it will be popular enough to allow for a low price of production.

[Modlerbob]

You may be on to something but I doubt that I would spend the money. The track Mate system has an option to replace the sound made when a lap is counted from a ding to a number of engine noises varying in length. There is no gear change sound just the roar of a big V-8 passing by. On my track a lap is completed in about 5.5 to 6.0 seconds, not much time for gear changes as it takes no more than a second to run down any of the straights. My track has four lanes and after a short time a car crosses the lap counter every second or two. I tried using it one time during a race and after the first heat everyone wanted it switched off. It sounded very realistic but when I think about it the loud noise is one part of a real race that I could do without. It was a cute little accessory but the novelty wore off very fast.

[glasshorsevh]

This all sounds very cool and I too would be interested. The old "Grand Prix Legends" video game (I still play on occasion) had a boatload of engine sounds that you could download for the various cars that were modeled for it. It would be cool if some of those could be utilized for some real variety.

Val...

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Good idea, horse. I wonder if its legal?

Bob, there are thousands of guys in your corner on this one. "Got old fast" is right. That same sound, over and over. Once, just for fun, I left the sound effect on for a 50 lap sprint on 3 lanes. I was hearing it ringing in my ears for days.

[BARC 1]

This can be used onboard a 132 car or can be installed trackside. In the example the sound is being played through a 3" speaker which of course will not fit in a car.. However I do have some smaller speakers that do not a bad job for onboard sound. Once my onboard module shows up I will be sure to do a video of the car and the onboard speaker.

I have modifed the timing software files, but find they just don't cut it other then to signal the completion of a lap. The car racing by with the doppler effect is usually playing about the time you have started your turn on the first corner and is not very convincing.

The sound produced from this card is totally variable and instant based on the throttle position so you don't get any idea there is anything fixed or repeated playing, unless you let the car sit in the pit and idle for 20 seconds.

I already have a lot of sound sets from actual cars, and am just starting to carve them up for on board sound manipulation. I expect they are better then the old video games of the past. I used to have that game you speak of. Long gone now. A lot of games go to a great deal of effort to protect their sounds from being copied.

Volume is totally adjustable, and of course you can turn it off if you don't want it. This is a quality sound card and the sound architecture is very good, resulting in a pretty good effect. Because of the nature of slot car racing I purposely built this file with that in mind. For the time it takes a Porsche 917 to spool through all its gears, most people would have a few laps in. I approached this a little differently and assumed on most tracks full throttle would only be on for a couple of seconds at most. The down shift mode is controlled by letting off on the controller, so you can manually produce shifts if you wanted to. If you had a straight that took over 2 seconds to travel there is a top gear shift that would play. There is no point building a sound file that represents racing on a 12 mile circuit. If you want it to sound real you need to be aware of that, This sound file is more representative of a 917 on a short twisty track rather then LeMans. The file has been built to allow the user to simulate gear changes if you really wanted to, but left on its own it is more like running around in 2nd and 3rd.

As I mentioned this is something I want to do for myself and I have access to the technology to produce this, So I am going ahead with it regardless. If others are interested once they hear it they can PM more for more details. This will not be a commercial project unless a huge demand is seen.

I agree with what most has been said about the cons of a sound system. However done right, I think the experience for the solo laps will add to the enjoyment of racing a model car.


Cheers


Dan

[buspor63]

That's very interesting...makes you think. I think I would want the sound module in the car, but wouldn't want to have to had it to all my cars. That brings it back to permanent speakers sounding up to six cars, it might be too much for me.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Can you imagine the drag racing guys? They'd need earplugs. Jalopy sound might be a real hoot. Starting with the LeMans cars is a good idea, particularly since it seems like the hardest to get right to me. More range, many different characteristics- you really did a great job on that.

[goosenapper]

[proxieken]

Just my opinion here. While it would be cool to have the sound come from the car, there is no way I can modify all my cars. However, I can plug in a small PC type speaker system to each controller. If the device plugs between the controller and the black box, with a small headphone jack coming out of it, it seems that would work best. I think I have at least several of these old PC speaker set-ups stored in boxes from all the computers I have owned. Each person could adjust their own volume, or turn if off if needed.

I am not sure how you could select what type of sound was used. Perhaps have a selection of 8 or so and the user could select it? Please make at least one of them the good old V8 muscle car. I brought this up some time ago when I came across the sound racer for your real car- viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11651

So my efforts seemed not feasible but if you can make it work I would be quite happy. I never did find any more info on the guys who had one working.