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Post by markm on Sept 21, 2019 13:57:13 GMT -5
I picked up one of the Adafruit fruit boards RobA suggested. It's a decent board, about the size of a domino. It doesn't do MP3 just WAV and OGG audio files. It has 11 input triggers for files and looks like a flash drive to my PC. It has different triggering modes and will do everything Robert described and the audio quality is very good. My only complaint is no volume control.
At $25 it's no Dollar Tree item. The ultimate issue is how much your time is worth fiddling around making other things work and how much you enjoy doing that fiddling.
Mark
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Post by Commodore on Sept 30, 2019 6:42:18 GMT -5
Took the dollar tree witches apart. The motion detector and sound module is real small.
Spread a few around the layout. They are perfect audio!
Except they make witch sounds ...rather than whistleblows...
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Post by markm on Sept 30, 2019 12:29:59 GMT -5
Took the dollar tree witches apart. The motion detector and sound module is real small. Spread a few around the layout. They are perfect audio! Except they make witch sounds ...rather than whistleblows... Didn't one of the German kit makers produce a haunted house? Wait a couple of weeks and you'll be able to get one with dogs barking out "Jingle Bells." If you can post an image of the electronics, I might be able to estimate whether they can be reprogrammed. Mark
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Post by Commodore on Oct 11, 2019 6:10:30 GMT -5
Thanks, Mark. ...Been away! Much to do to catch up. There's gotta be a Dollar Tree store near you. Don't avoid going by one. Some of my wealthier friends swear by them. Heck, Hallmark cards are 2 for a dollar there!
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Post by markm on Oct 11, 2019 9:37:24 GMT -5
Actually the nearest Dollar Tree is about an hour drive. But more importantly, Dollar Tree, Big Lots and other similar stores do not ship the same products to all stores. So I probably won't be able to get the same items you did.
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Post by zscalehobo on Oct 11, 2019 14:00:54 GMT -5
Didn't one of the German kit makers produce a haunted house? Mark Vollmer 49679
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2019 16:31:46 GMT -5
Sorry, this thread is running absolutely out of modelling context ; I could never understand why Vollmer made a haunted house in Z (in this scale it's all the way too small to be used as what it is, a rather "kitsch" thing for some kids) and on the other side "real" structures in Z are withdrawn from the catalog ... Such things like the haunted house are absolutely not suitable for a model railroad, it can just be a joke for a Halloween diorama. Most modellers want the best possible realism, even if perfection can never be achieved, and not a new version of DISNEYLAND on their layout ! Dear kit makers, give us real structures, and don't waste Your time with such things ! PS : Mark, I think Your referring to dogs barking "Jingle Bells" was a kind of (ironical) provocation against the Vollmer model, like my post ? Maybe You rembered the version created around 1955 with magnetic tape and adhesive ?
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Post by zscalehobo on Oct 11, 2019 16:51:09 GMT -5
Sorry, this thread is running absolutely out of modelling context ; I can't understand why Vollmer made a haunted house in Z ... it can just be a joke for a Halloween diorama. Most modellers want best possible realism, even if perfection can never be achieved, and not a new version of DISNEYLAND ! Dear kit makers, give us real structures, and don't waste Your time with such things ! You tell 'em! Although Susanne Vollmer has cashed out and the old factory is now leveled due to expansion for the Porsche Stuttgart factory. So not sure she will get this message. Viessmann now has the molds and this was just the same made in 1980s #9530 farm house shot in orange plastic instead of tan. Added in a few spiders and ghosts and you have a new item. 😂 I agree on your criticism of Vollmer's ancient releases and I would say that we are starting to see realistic structures in Z (see Archistories ... especially Goldtree Station and the recent REA warehouse). Good stuff is already here with more on the way!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2019 17:00:38 GMT -5
Don't forget Kibri (by Viessmann, too) ... Their factory #36770 is perfect for an US layout, and it looks like ... the REA warehouse !
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Post by markm on Oct 11, 2019 17:15:50 GMT -5
Alberich, Perhaps the kit makers are producing such kits because the train makers produce things like: I'm not a big fan of such fantasy items, but there must be a market somewhere since they keep getting made. I've been expecting someone to produce a glow in the dark train for Halloween. As for the barking dogs, it was a real recording a number of years back that perhaps France has been blessed not hearing it: It became a Christmas "classic" here, used on TV, radio, cards and decorations, many of which are sold at Dollar Tree. Argggg! Fair warning: I am a collector of bad novelty Christmas songs such as "Green Chri$tma$" "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" and "The Chipmunk Christmas Song." Mark
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2019 17:54:32 GMT -5
We heard "The Barking Dogs" in France too, in my youth ... A few years ago a Japanese guy made the same, but with cats and digitally instead of using tape. Todays every sound processing prog (Audacity ... ) allows such "copy-paste" jokes. And now, let's go back to trains !
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Post by rvn2001 on Oct 11, 2019 20:29:29 GMT -5
I know someone who has this haunted house on a layout inside a humidor. The layout was built with great care and attention to detail. I installed the fire-replicating LEDs at their request. It doesn't have all of the accessories shown in the photo and it doesn't have any smoke. It gets a lot of attention at train shows. There's a place for everything. Marklin made a glow-in-the-dark Halloween car...... It occasionally runs on the humidor layout.
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Post by zscalehobo on Oct 12, 2019 11:03:05 GMT -5
Most modellers want the best possible realism, even if perfection can never be achieved ,,, Dear kit makers, give us real structures, and don't waste Your time with such things ! How could I forget Animek Models' Beetlejuice house kit (AM-1014) ... another Haunted House in Z scale with much more realism. Just don't say his name three times.
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Post by tjdreams on Oct 12, 2019 14:05:19 GMT -5
Maybe its just me but I fail to undersdtand whats wrong with a manufacture making and selling a model of a so-called Haunted House.? Every year their are hundreds of houses that are turned into "Haunted Houses" for Holloween. They are very real buildings/ houses/ Mansions. And people make tons of money transforming these places into haunted attractions. So why not make and sell a model of one if you can profit from it? I personaly have gone to several of these places, my favorit is a place called Darkwood Manor in Luray Virgina. Every year myself and several frends would make the 4 hour drive, Camp out at George Washington National Forest, Go 4 wheeling during the day then hit severral of the local haunted attractions in the evening and end the night hanging out around the campfire telling Ghost Stories. All around good times and good memories for me. That being said i have both the Vollmer Haunted House and the Archistories Maitland Mansion and plan to have both models on my layout. So can someone please explain to me what is wrong with a company making and selling a model of a Haunted House? Or someone having a model of a haunted house on theit layout? and just because they didn't make a model of the building or house you wanted is not a reason. David
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2019 2:03:34 GMT -5
To David : I have all the buildings I needed (Shapeways and other 3D-printing modellers on the Bay "are good for You") ; and I "customized" some Faller and Kibri houses (look at my farm) ; but I am sorry for the German modellers that Viessmann gives and gave up (**Auslauf**) some kits and sets ... And it seems that the "haunted house" is no longer available, too (but You can modify item #49531 ... as Vollmer did themselves) ! The Maitland house is not shown "haunted", the kit is of an absolutely realistic house that could really exist (I won't build it, because I don't use lasercuts) ... But please don't put "Beetlejuice-Gulliver" beside on the layout ! Animek sells various houses shown in movies (Field of dreams, Dorothy's house, etc), they don't bother me. But it should be rather difficult for them to build Griswold's Christmas house, with all the lights ... And for myself I could not put a haunted house on my layout, the season is not autumn (Halloween ! ) but spring, to show flowers on some trees. To demonstrate that I am not an opponent of a DISCREET measure of jokes : the name of a restaurant will be "Boar's Nest", inspired by "The Dukes of Hazzard" (in fact, this name exists still todays on some restaurants), and on my gravel plant and construction company office, a part of the name is "ACME" : Beep-beep !
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