[CMOTD]

One thing lacking from our favourite toy is the sound of a real engine. There have been a few attempts over the years with a distinct lack of success but is it time to take a fresh look at it? Previously it relied on an external source to provide the sounds with the twin auto screams of the 60s, Scalextric Sound Track in the 70s and speakers built into hand throttles in the 80s. Fly also had a few cars with some fairly rubbish onboard sound.

However, the model train world has been fully geared up with this for many years and the range of sounds that their locos can emit is mind boggling. DCC sound chips are widely available and virtually every 00 gauge loco comes with the facility to fit sound. I have even seen N gauge locos fitted with it and they are tiny! If you can fit sound chips and miniature speakers into one of those then a 1/32 slot car should be a doddle. It is increasingly being fitted into R/C cars as well so the technology for the engine sounds already exists. Digital slot cars must be a prime candidate for experimentation I would have thought.


Apart from the technical aspect of making sound chips work in slot cars there are some downsides to the idea though:
1) It is bloody expensive! Sound chips and speakers for trains come in at about a £100 a pop fully fitted.

2) Locos don't have a gearbox but cars do. Changing gear sounds six times in the length of the average home circuit straight could be a bit tricky!

3) Toy trains don't normally crash. Making a system robust enough to withstand slot car accidents may also be difficult.

All this is just idle musing on my part but I would be interested in your opinions on the subject, especially from our resident electronic experts. After you have finished making chips the size of a pinhead perhaps you could turn your thoughts sound-wards.

[BAracer]

A piece of card being flicked by the pinion gear should sort you out.

It worked on my bike when I were a kid.

[woodcote]

The accurate gear change sounds might be tricky, but the rest really isn’t. 

Scalextric already have a variety of car engine sound files in their Spark Plug dongle. Normally, the dongle plugs into a Scalextric powerbase and is controlled via the Spark Plug app... but it’s very possible to wire the circuit board into a car, rig the track power to full power and you’d have a Trans-Am slot car making V8 noises - corresponding to throttle input - and a squeal of brakes every time you touch the brake button on the app screen. The downside (for now) is you’d use a phone or tablet instead of a controller.

In the dongle, the speaker is a little weedy, in a car it might not be much better. However, those speakers for locos aren’t too expensive. Wiring one to the Spark Plug board would probably improve the sounds and - with trial and error - the volume too. You do want the V8 sound to be loud...

Yep, it’s on my increasingly long to-do list.

But if Scalextric can put all that in a £15 dongle, a cheap in-car sound chip has to be feasible? Especially from a company that has already developed the technology for their trains - the Hornby TTS DCC + sound decoders cost about £40, which is a lot less than the top-end £100+ versions.

I guess a lot of people wouldn’t be interested, but a lot would be. Beats providing the sounds of the cars myself... as I have been for near on 50 years.

[Nonfractal]

Trains are slow. 
Lots of time for sound effects.

How long would a slot car straight have to be to get through all of the gears ? Very long.
Typical straights are less than 3 seconds so getting through a fist full of gears ,up and down , does not seem to be something that would sound right at all and would be very distracting for a grid full (4 or more) cars 

For sound effects to work, the sound would have to come FROM the cars.
Even if that were mastered, getting the engine Doppler effect would be very difficult. 

The whine and whisper of the real electrical and mechanical components of a slot car are fine for me.


Alan

[Mazda]

Aurora tried it in the 70s with the magnasonic sound box on some of the AFX cars. The trouble was that not only did it slow the cars down but it sounded more like a demented wasp than a race car.

[Top Down]

The whine and whisper of the real electrical and mechanical components of a slot car are fine for me.

For me too.

However, perhaps they need to do this for 1:1 electric cars - or maybe someone already has?

[Scuderia_Turini]

How long would a slot car straight have to be to get through all of the gears ? Very long.
Typical straights are less than 3 seconds so getting through a fist full of gears ,up and down , does not seem to be something that would sound right at all and would be very distracting for a grid full (4 or more) cars 
...
Alan

This is exactly why it will not work, as well as the cost increase to include a decent quality speaker system into cars. Try making appropriate sounds as you drive a slot car around. Accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake, screach, etc, etc. 
The rapid motion of the car over the short running distances outruns the sound effects.

I am sure that if Scalextric could realistically add sound they would have by now in order to compete with virtual-racing games.
To my knowledge, Scalextric have produced three sound-effect systems and all have were five-minute wonders and now long been forgotten:  Sound-Tank, Supersound, and Mega Sound (may have got the names wrong).

Leo

[Gordon Steadman]

Possible - no doubt.
Desirable - not in the least.

[JasonB]

Beats providing the sounds of the cars myself... as I have been for near on 50 years.

If you mean you stand there vocalising "broom, broom, neeyaaaaumm, screech" then I salute you wholeheartedly.

[KensRedZed]

I have too many hobbies. One of them is flying RC aircraft. I have been flying with state of the art brushless electric motors for many years. The gas powered guys are at the opposite end of the hobby. They like to hear the noise of a piston engine. Electric aircraft are silent. It's all good. Everyone gets what they want.

Then one day, an RC retailer and well known member of the RC club walks by the flight line of about 35 guys at an RC event with a flight radio, battery, and a speaker. As he's walking by, he's revving the throttle stick on the RC radio and the sound of a Rolls Royce 12-cylinder engine screams out of the speaker like a WW2 Spitfire was sitting right there.

All the electric aircraft guys ran up to the retailer to buy the system. All the gas guys just dropped their jaws.

It would be hilarious to see an electric car pull up at a light boasting the sound of a 12-cylinder Rolls Royce. Or a Ferrari, or old Corvette engine. Yes?

Everyone on the street would be looking around going "Where the heck is that engine sound coming from?!?" Everyone in the electric car would be laughing. Good electric car commercial yes? Please send royalties to, KensRedZed...