# Question about LGB F7 horn and bell



## alx19881 (Sep 23, 2017)

Does anyone know if there is any way that the horn and the bell on an LGB F7 can be triggered without using the sound magnets? Like, can the horn and the bell be programmed into the sound board, so that they will sound at random times when the engine is running?


----------



## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

Many of the sounds play automatically when starting and stopping. They can be triggered at any time with a DCC system connected to the rail.


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You could make an inexpensive circuit with a dual 555 timer instead of the reed switches, although making them random is a bit more tricky.

There a number of "555" circuits on the web, and several people who design circuits with them on this forum.

Greg - 748


----------



## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

The DCC capability of many F7 locos need a decoder added as only the newest F7's have the built in decoders, and only work with DCC control. But this does not answer the original question of random playing of the sounds, but helps understand the DCC option.


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Dan, are all the F7's that have factory sound, equipped the reeds to trigger bell and whistle?

Thanks, 

Greg - 742


----------



## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, yes. All the F7B units from LGB have bell and whistle sensors and the axle sensor for speed.
The newer digital (MTS/DCC) board (I saw this in the Blue Sante Fe 20586) did not have super caps but did have a socket for the Super cap module LGB sold for the6500x (part 65011) series sound units.


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Looking deeper into a good solution, I'd buy a small microprocessor, like an Arduino, and then you could write a simple program to randomly trigger the sounds. It also would not be too difficult to monitor the track voltage and only ring the bell when going slow.

Likewise you could sense changes in speed to trigger the horn.

To do this with simpler hardware would be a tiny bit cheaper, but probably more complicated and not "tunable". With hardware, you would use a 555 timer and a pseudo-random generator ic times two for the bell and horn.

There's lots of forums where you could get help in the programming.

Greg - 730


----------

