Annie Speaker???

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

I recently installed a Rx, on/off switch, and charging jack from RCS Australia, a 12v, 2000Mah NiMh battery pack from All-Battery, a couple of LEDs for headlight and rearlight, and a MyLocoSounds sound board in my 4-6-0.  It sound is pretty good, but I do have a question.

Should I enlarge the slots cut in the bottom of the tender to allow more sound and less vibration?  The slots appear to be done by the molding process and I was thinking maybe running my Dremel thru them a few times to let more sound out.  Good idea or bad?

I placed a plastic cover (it's was actually a cut down plastic hamburger press/mold).  It's not air tight, just sitting over the speaker with some electrical tape holding it in place.  Should I run a bead of hot glue around it to make it air tight and secure?  This may be where the vibration is coming from.

The 12v battery provides plenty of power for the engine, I haven't run any tests to see how long it will run on a full charge though.

BobD.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi, SAL Fan,

One possibility is with the enclosure you made from the burger plastic not being airtight.   If the press mold enclosure is the thin plastic type, rather than the pressed foam that could also be oscillating in some way.   Another possibility is that the speaker retainer screws are not tight.  Anything you installed in the tender should be firmly attached in some way.   I use Phoenix sound in my Annie tender and since the tender is tight do not use an enclosure at all since the tender itself acts as the enclosure.  My sound volume when on high has no vibration at all.  You should get decent volume without cutting the slots bigger.  I set up my tender shell so the coal load is removable to make it easy to change batteries.  The first time I did it I worried that it might cause problems with the sound, but I kept it tight enough and all went well.  I have 4 Annies set up this way use no enclosure in any of them and have no vibrations and plenty of volume.  The whistle sound was so good and loud that the cows on my neighbors farm all crowded along the adjoining fence to see what as going on!!

Anyway just some thoughts which I hope might be helpful. 

Good luck,

Loco Bill

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

Thanks Bill!

I believe the hamburger press thingie is loose enough to cause the vibration, just not sure if I want to hot glue it down or use something else to seal it in place.  Maybe a bead of caulk would be better and easier to remove.

BobD.

[Joe Zullo]

You do not need the speaker enclosure. As Bill said, the tender itself is the enclosure! 

[Loco Bill Canelos]

SAL fan,

Try it without the enclosure and see how it sounds . If the vibration goes away you will know for sure the vibration came from your homemade enclosure.  As far as volume goes I do not know the MYLocoSound well enough to give advice about it, other than to make sure it is turned up all the way.

If you must try your homemade enclosure I would suggest hot glue in a thin bead.  It seems to peel off most surfaces without too much trouble.

Bill

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

The sound is louder/better with the hamburger press enclosure on, just need to secure it in place.

With MyLocoSounds, I can change the pitch and volume using the remote I got with it.

BobD.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Do what works for you!  That is all that matters.  Maybe an adjustment of the "Pitch" will reduce vibration.

Bill