Finally connect the active chime speaker lead to the soundcard H2 terminal and test that the horn or whistle work when you press the transmitter button. In our chime unit there were two chime settings. One sounded the horn/whistle for five seconds and the other for ten.
Batteries are needed to allow the soundcard to work and the horn or whistle to be sounded when the loco is static or moving slowly. We need to supply at least eight volts to the soundcard and the manufacturer's stated voltage to the chime unit.
We used two battery holders with slots for four AA rechargeable batteries side by side and a built in on/off switch. These were attached under the loco tender using double sided tape. They were connected in series so that 4.8 volts went to the chime unit and 9.6 volts to the soundcard. The wiring diagram is shown at the bottom of this page.
Purchase a wireless door chime from your local hardware or consumer electronics store. The things to look for are:
- The chime unit battery voltage needs to be between 4.5 and 6 volts.
- The range needs to suit the size of your railway. The one we bought had a 30 metre range.
- If the salesperson will let you open the chime unit, check that the electronics board is small enough to fit.
- Make sure that the unit has a selectable frequency or code. This will let you control the horns or whistles on multiple locos simultaneously.
Install the batteries in both the transmitter and the chime unit and check that it chimes when the button is pressed.
Open the chime unit and detach the two wires from the speaker. Take your multi-meter and switch it to low DC voltage mode. Put the negative probe on the (black) negative wire coming from the chime batteries. Put the positive probe onto one of the speaker leads. Press the chime button and look for a voltage in the range 4.5 to 6 volts. If nothing happens then check the other speaker lead. We are going to use whichever speaker lead outputs the voltage. The other speaker lead will not be used and can be cut off.
A typical wireless door chime is shown alongside.
The hand held transmitter on the left has a pushbutton which will be used to sound the horn or whistle.
The chime unit contains the electronics board which will be installed in the loco. The outer case of the chime unit, the batteries and the speaker will all be discarded.
The steps the implement a remote control in a DC track powered loco are listed below:
If you are using DCC or a radio control unit then operating your loco horns and whistles by remote control is usually easy. Your hand held controller will have a button or lever which can be used to sound the horn or whistle whenever you wish.
However, many garden railways are track powered using simple DC controllers and have no means of sounding the horn or whistle. The solution is to use a wireless door chime from your local hardware or consumer electronics store. This page shows you how it is done.
