>> THE REPLICANT << Experimental 'Steamy & Gasoliney' Sound-System - D.C.C. Electrical & Sound - Model Railroad Forums

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>> THE REPLICANT << Experimental 'Steamy & Gasoliney' Sound-System

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Posted: Wed Oct 12th, 2016 08:07 pm

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Herb Kephart
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Bob--
''Being smug about it" could be easily taken as an insult--and while I could have phrased it better, it wasn't meant to be one.

And I realize that to someone like your self it makes perfect sense, it is very frustrating to someone who is trying to decipher what is meant.

Impossible often. Just about the time that I learned (if I haven't forgotten) the symbol for a PNP transistor--there are nine new things that get thrown in the mix.

So I just hack away at my card and posterboard with an Exacto knife. even then, I learn new words right along---when the part starts to turn red.

Hemoglobin Herb

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Posted: Wed Oct 12th, 2016 10:50 pm

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slateworks
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Hi Si - as it's on the same subject, I've recently hooked up an ambient sound system to my On30 Updah Creek layout using one of these £2.00 MP3 players and some redundant computer speakers (the sort with a built in amp) which were stripped of their cases and the internals set into the underside of the foam baseboard.

001 by slateworks, on Flickr

Connection is a piece of cake with a supplied three wire ribbon cable for connection to the speaker's "in" socket and a supplied power wire connected to a 9V DC regulated supply. Recordings have been made as WAV. files onto SD cards and are from various free "atmosphere" sound file construction sites and as I wanted a Country Music Festival also, filched from suitable tracks found on YouTube.

The whole thing, volume, track selection and a choice of five pre-set tones from the player's built-in graphic equaliser is controlled from the supplied remote. In fact, I've installed two players (at that price you can't go wrong!), the second one playing through a £1.80 amp connected to two ordinary 40mm round speakers. The speakers do need a pre-amp of some sort as you can't just connect the player direct.

d (4) by slateworks, on Flickr

Great fun for a home layout and I made a very amateurish video to demonstrate a bit of the sounds. The music's a full track so you may want to close it before the end!

http://youtu.be/K9iWtg5aYqQ

Last edited on Wed Oct 12th, 2016 10:53 pm by slateworks

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Doug

Posted: Wed Oct 12th, 2016 11:02 pm

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Si.
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Hi Doug

BRAVO !!

This is exactly the kinda thing I'm getting at.

I should really Post my full ideas on the whole caboodle...
...I will soon.
It involves a kinda 'crossover' splitting Bass from Treble.
But NOT at the 'typical' 3000 Hz of a Hi-Fi speaker.
More like around 100 Hz or so.

Doug, that $2 MP3 player looks AWESOME !!
I like the fact that it has a proper external PSU connection.
The one I ordered doesn't, it has an internal LiPo battery.
I would much prefer a decent PSU, sans the battery.

I have not seen this type of packaging in my searches.

Thanks Doug !
This is why starting crazy threads is worth doing !!

:moose:

Si.

Just found the general type
With the search term 'MP3 module remote' or 'panel mount' etc.

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Posted: Thu Oct 13th, 2016 12:51 am

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slateworks
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Hi Si. Yes, this is the one I bought a couple of but I made a mistake with the price - it was £3.00 not £2.00!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162114882488?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Hate to think what that would be in dollar terms today with the pound shrinking like it is but still pretty cheap.

The ones you found have the addition of Bluetooth which mine doesn't and possibly an on-board amp so may be connectable direct to speakers. I did try to get more info from a couple of sellers but they weren't at all forthcoming so I may just buy one to find out for myself.

Last edited on Thu Oct 13th, 2016 12:55 am by slateworks

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Doug

Posted: Thu Oct 13th, 2016 01:43 am

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Si.
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" I made a mistake with the price - it was £3.00 not £2.00! "

Hi Doug

YOU TRYIN' TO BANKRUPT MY RAILROAD ?? !!

I swear I only had £0.50p a week pocket-money, back in the '70s !!
Don't worry, I can deal with the 50% inflation.
I'll save-up an extra week or two !!

Thanks again Doug !
I have now seen the 3W-amp versions, Bluetooth & screen-less versions ... PHEW !!
All good stuff !
Panel-mounting, with external-power, is def. the way forward !!

I'm gonna reconsider my specs. for the project...
...& order one of the panel-mount MP3 players to experiment with.

3W-amp looks interesting.
Remote-control less so, as would control ALL players unselectively...
...could blank off IR receiver though.
Mmm...

Good news !!

Posted: Thu Oct 13th, 2016 03:13 am

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slateworks
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Hi Si - I simply mounted mine into Updah's hardboard (masonite?) fascia with the rest of the gubbins behind.

e (1) by slateworks, on Flickr

e (3) by slateworks, on Flickr

Pretty straightforward and easy to get at. The right hand player has two pairs of speakers available, one pair under the town main street where the stage is and the other pair under the town's sawmill. The central switch is a four pole, double throw, centre off switch which allows me to route the sound to either pair according to whether I'm playing sawmill or concert or just crowd sounds with choices of tracks available on the same SD card.

Last edited on Thu Oct 13th, 2016 03:17 am by slateworks

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Doug

Posted: Sat Oct 15th, 2016 12:53 am

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Si.
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Hi Doug

I checked out all the panel-mounted MP3-players I could find.
If you have a specific question on one you've looked at, I could probably answer it.

Broadly speaking, they either come WITH or WITHOUT built-in amplifiers.

Yours, which are kinda 'the car version', as you know, don't have built-in amplifiers.

The versions advertised as having 3W+3W amplifiers, all seem to be based around a pair of 8002B digital-amplifier chips.
They output 3 Watts @ <10% distortion, probably around 1 Watt @ <0.1% distortion.
Not too bad, all things considered.

If the built-in amplifier is not required, a 'normal' line-level output can be taken from Pin-4 of the chip (I think).
The 3 Watt 'digital-output' of these models, CAN NOT be fed into a regular sound-mixer, SMOKE will result.
This is due to the fact that the digital-amplifier output has no 'real earth' connection.
Taking a wire from Pin-4, for feeding into any regular line-level audio-gear, should work fine though.

I looked at all the options & took a punt at this one below.
Including remote-control & wiring-looms, inc. P&P, it cost me £2.02p !!
Further units, sans remote-control, could probably be haggled-down to maybe £1.50p each ??
I am thinking that >> THE REPLICANT << might well use 8 or more of these units.

What I liked about this one is :-

It has the 3W+3W built-in amplifier.
It has a very-small front-panel area, perfect for a cluster of 8 or more, in an A.B.S box.
All 'hidden' functions, without buttons, are accessible using the remote-control, ie. E.Q. settings, Repeat-mode, Track forward/backward, Volume up/down etc.
Since it doesn't have a built-in F.M-Radio, the screen for this, is not needed.
Access to the 1/2 dozen Tracks one might have on the SD-Card, is simply done 'screenless' using the remote-control.

:!: