Direct electronics vendor challenge!

[FauxMako]

Maybe I'm missing something, but the first company you linked to, digisound sound module for rc cars v8 big block engine, on their brochure says that they'll put any sound you want on their setup for $5 more. See http://www.ramrcandramtrack.com/ramsys1_27_09.pdf

Quoted from the PDF:
Custom Sound Service
The sounds listed above are in stock at all times. We are well aware that there are many other sounds that an individual modeler may want. Our tapes, collected over the past 5 years, may contain the sound. You may supply the sound on your own standard audio cassett tape or you may choose to record your own voice for conducter calls or have our voice record your script. Any custom recording is the cost of the digital device, $39.95, plus $5.00 for the custom chcip and $6.00 for return U.P.S. Call RAM for further details.



But, like others have said, good quality sound reproduction means power and a good quality speaker. A teeny .5" speaker is going to sound like crap no matter how good the original recording is. A good portion of the "V8 sound" you are looking for isn't sound at all its pressure and you can't generate any pressure with the equivalent of a super tweeter.

Personally, it's a cool gimmick. One that I know would get on my nerves real quick. I'm sure that after about 5 minutes I'd turn it off and never turn it back on again.

Throw an iPod Nano and a portable speaker in your rig and let it rip, once the novelty wears off at least you'll still have an iPod Nano and a portable speaker.

 

[cogfounder]

and tell me, what amp and speaker system are you referring to?

$50 leaves no profit for something like this at a high quality. No one will buy it if the it sounds like shit, and a good small speaker that can sound like a throaty v8 isn't cheap...at least from the little i researched this awhile back.

If you want to chicken out, losikid, thats fine.
Nobody will blame you.... your not exactly RC-Walmart,
are you?

Go look at the new ARDE kits at Radio Shack.

They got 9V-10 watt kits that might change your attitude....

 

[cogfounder]

Maybe I'm missing something, but the first company you linked to, digisound sound module for rc cars v8 big block engine, on their brochure says that they'll put any sound you want on their setup for $5 more. See http://www.ramrcandramtrack.com/ramsys1_27_09.pdf

Quoted from the PDF:
Custom Sound Service
The sounds listed above are in stock at all times. We are well aware that there are many other sounds that an individual modeler may want. Our tapes, collected over the past 5 years, may contain the sound. You may supply the sound on your own standard audio cassett tape or you may choose to record your own voice for conducter calls or have our voice record your script. Any custom recording is the cost of the digital device, $39.95, plus $5.00 for the custom chcip and $6.00 for return U.P.S. Call RAM for further details.



But, like others have said, good quality sound reproduction means power and a good quality speaker. A teeny .5" speaker is going to sound like crap no matter how good the original recording is. A good portion of the "V8 sound" you are looking for isn't sound at all its pressure and you can't generate any pressure with the equivalent of a super tweeter.

Personally, it's a cool gimmick. One that I know would get on my nerves real quick. I'm sure that after about 5 minutes I'd turn it off and never turn it back on again.

Throw an iPod Nano and a portable speaker in your rig and let it rip, once the novelty wears off at least you'll still have an iPod Nano and a portable speaker.

I guess we aint talking to you then,
your tossing in 500 buck nano bullshit, so go fly bud....

This idea is for the rest of us "poor" folks

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

This idea is for the rest of us "poor" folks

Poor or not, you can't beat physics. Maybe we need something that doesn't use a speaker...

 

[cogfounder]

I dont know how else to put it folks.

I, and many others are the guys spending the money.

This is what we want and wish to spend.

If nobody in the USA/CAN can engineer such a thing,
than its BOW to GB for a hundred and ten bucks
plus shipping.

How sad.............. at least its not China...

 

[losikid]

If you want to chicken out, losikid, thats fine.
Nobody will blame you.... your not exactly RC-Walmart,
are you?

Go look at the new ARDE kits at Radio Shack.

They got 9V-10 watt kits that might change your attitude....

Alright, i hope someone else helps you out...i've got other projects to work on.

I've got an idea, go get one of those birthday cards where you can record a message, record the sound of v8 and put the on/off actuator on a servo. There's a $5 solution "thumbsup"

 

[cogfounder]

Poor or not, you can't beat physics. Maybe we need something that doesn't use a speaker...

Shame on you!

Christ, my 4 inch RAM SPEAKER V-8 unit aint that bad.

Wanna bet the Chinese and Japs dont piss around
about what CANT be done, but forge forward and make
things happen?

No wonder we are so far behind,
that EVERYTHING we buy is made in XXX,
but never USA.

Im sick of this, and Im right about it too.
Americans ARE lazy fooks, punked by foreign
mass production...........

 

[losikid]

If nobody in the USA/CAN can engineer such a thing,
than its BOW to GB for a hundred and ten bucks
plus shipping..

You expect a usa engineered product be half the price of a foreign product? What world are you living in?

And the issue isn't being able to engineer it, its not hard to design this. The issue is making it sound good and work seamless so its actually realistic and yet be under your $50 price tag. Especially when were talking less than 100 units a year. 1000's of units need to be sold to each year to obtain wholesale pricing on parts and get stuff custom manufactured at affordable cost

 

[cogfounder]

You expect a usa engineered product be half the price of a foreign product? What world are you living in?

And the issue isn't being able to engineer it, its not hard to design this. The issue is making it sound good and work seamless so its actually realistic and yet be under your $50 price tag. Especially when were talking less than 100 units a year. 1000's of units need to be sold to each year to obtain wholesale pricing on parts and get stuff custom manufactured at affordable cost

OK, thats fair enough.
I had a business too. I understand what your saying.
And its still bullshit. Trust me, I retired at 35, and I am A LOT OLDER now.

I haven't worked in at least 15 years because I set my business model up reasonably well.

Ya dont need to make a million bucks on every unit you sell,
you just need to market it properly, and charge a reasonable fee. (!)
NOT TRY TO PUT YOUR KID THROUGH SCHOOL with every damn sale!

..........Like a lot of start-ups do now, and I won't state names,
but just about EVERY ONE!

How much do you need to charge to make things like this happen?

Haven't you pocketed enough to try something new like this yet?

Does it scare you to even try?

I'm not going to lie, it would scare me to try this,
but I am good at guessing market share, and I say its a WINNING bet.

Look at all the "Stars" that said they want the product?

Those are guys like me, who spend 10 grand a year on this stuff,
or are you going to shoot me down, and ask for reciepts like
the last time I sad that?

Dude, your cool, but you have NO CLUE!

 

[Tzi]

Ok... lets calm down a bit and talk details on this thing....

You can buy mp3 decoding chips, and wav decoding chips dirt cheap...thats the easy bit.... but what do you have to do to the sound to make it follow the RPM. I'm not talking about signal detection, or anything like that... I mean the actual sound. How do you make it "REV"?
Overlapping sounds is a possibility, but you'd need a few different recorded RPM's to flow seamlessly without having "steps"
If you stretch or compress the duration of the Audio file to speed it up, pitch will shift too.
I read somewhere about changing the sample frequency to increase the speed... anyone know about that ?

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

Look at all the "Stars" that said they want the product?

Those are guys like me, who spend 10 grand a year on this stuff

:lmao:


I surely hope you aren't including me in your high roller group. I doubt if I've spent more than $300 all year on crawler stuff. Doubt if I'll double that figure by years end...

 

[cogfounder]

I am as calm as a clam.

Not long ago, somebody joked around about making a
SoundRacer V8 work with an electric rc car.

Shonkey and his brother:Shonky and the SoundRacer V8- YouTube

made me want to buy one, and I did. $45 shipped, in state, paid tax.
so call it 35 bucks.

This unit needs a base voltage out of the cigarette lighter outlet,
then reads the ripple current from acceleration output
of the alternators increased current/voltage to indicate
the higher RPM as seen in the video.

You plug it in, just like an ESC, and it beeps for idle, gas it, and HIGH rpm.
(as high as you are willing to go at a curb anyway)

There is even a direct sound hack output that by-passes the FM radio
output of this units intended purpose:

SoundRacer

NOW GUYS, PLEASE, I'm not trying to be a prick on these electronics
forums, but FCS. Somebody here can hack this!

 

[cogfounder]

:lmao:


I surely hope you aren't including me in your high roller group. I doubt if I've spent more than $300 all year on crawler stuff. Doubt if I'll double that figure by years end...

NAW BUD, but you sure as shift change jumped on the idea of a:

reasonably priced motor sound generator, W/O any bells and whistles???

YOU KNOW its time for this, and guys like us NEED/WANT it BAD!

Money aint nothing, when I got nobody to run with.
Im the baddest mofo on the block, cause nobody here but me........

But I got ALL the $$$$$$$$$$$, so Im da boss on this block, yo!

Sad, but true.

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Ok... lets calm down a bit and talk details on this thing....

You can buy mp3 decoding chips, and wav decoding chips dirt cheap...thats the easy bit.... but what do you have to do to the sound to make it follow the RPM. I'm not talking about signal detection, or anything like that... I mean the actual sound. How do you make it "REV"?
Overlapping sounds is a possibility, but you'd need a few different recorded RPM's to flow seamlessly without having "steps"
If you stretch or compress the duration of the Audio file to speed it up, pitch will shift too.
I read somewhere about changing the sample frequency to increase the speed... anyone know about that ?

I wish I knew more about how to do it. Then again if I did I'd do it myself. :ror:
I don't know if under $50 is realistic, but I'd pay $100 for a quality unit from an RCC vendor.
The Model Sounds inc unit is still a bit big for a scale rig.

 

[cogfounder]

I wish I knew more about how to do it. Then again if I did I'd do it myself. :ror:
I don't know if under $50 is realistic, but I'd pay $100 for a quality unit from an RCC vendor.
The Model Sounds inc unit is still a bit big for a scale rig.

The chip in the SoundRacer is the size of a quarter,
has a bypass direct to output (speaker/amp-spkr)
and costs 35 bucks.

Only reason our USA guys aint doing this is because they
cant make 1000% profit on every unit sold.

Sorry, but the truth hurts sometimes......

 

[Tzi]

If I or someone else could work out how to make a direct input, it would be perfect!
Its not hard to feed it whatever signal it requires from an Atmel or Pic chip.. but its knowing exactly what that is and how to produce it that is the challenge.
I wonder what would happen if you just fed it a PWM signal ?:???:

The turn signals, brake screech, horn and any other momentary sounds are already easy to do. I could release a product tomorrow to do that bit... its the engine sound matching the revs that is the challenge ;-)

 

[Tzi]

for 125ish you may as well buy an existing product...

HobbyKing R/C Hobby Store : TBS Mini Programmable Soundunit

 

[losikid]

If I or someone else could work out how to make a direct input, it would be perfect!
Its not hard to feed it whatever signal it requires from an Atmel or Pic chip.. but its knowing exactly what that is and how to produce it that is the challenge.
I wonder what would happen if you just fed it a PWM signal ?:???:

The turn signals, brake screech, horn and any other momentary sounds are already easy to do. I could release a product tomorrow to do that bit... its the engine sound matching the revs that is the challenge ;-)

Well, it needs to be fed voltage at about 12-14 volts, so micro chip couldn't send a signal directly, it have to switch a fet or something

I don't think pwm would work, it reads the ripple in the voltage...the pulses of power(from the alternator) in a given time frame. It doesn't measure the length(width) of the pulse.

Also comes the question of how to fake the ripple, i'm thinking maybe have a constant 13 volt line going to it, then put a 14 volt line through a fet, and feed ppm into the fet. But i'm not sure how well that work

 

[Tzi]

Some more info on those units on Hobbyking...
Products_E

 

[cogfounder]

If I or someone else could work out how to make a direct input, it would be perfect!
Its not hard to feed it whatever signal it requires from an Atmel or Pic chip.. but its knowing exactly what that is and how to produce it that is the challenge.
I wonder what would happen if you just fed it a PWM signal ?:???:

The turn signals, brake screech, horn and any other momentary sounds are already easy to do. I could release a product tomorrow to do that bit... its the engine sound matching the revs that is the challenge ;-)

Yeah, well.. I dont really want or need all that extra stuff.
I think thats what would keep the costs down too.

Quick link to the idea of how even the soundracer picks up its signal:

RPM-8000  Contact and Sensor-less Automotive - Kraus Telemetry