"Gold Series" Atlas S-2 ....whaaaaa?

[sirenwerks]

This is why the on-controller sound idea is so appealing to me - no transponder necessary.  The controller, and its speaker, moves with the train by operator, so the front-of-train sounds do too.  If the designer is not hung up on creating a hardware-proprietary system and makes smartphones the centerpiece of the throttle system, upgrading sound delivery would be as simple as getting a new cell phone, rather than swapping out speakers or decoders, etc.

My question would be do cell phones have to be active with a service provider to be used in such a capacity?

[reinhardtjh]

My question would be do cell phones have to be active with a service provider to be used in such a capacity?

I think they probably don't.  Non-active phones can be put in "airplane" mode where the wi-fi is active and the cell transceiver is not.  Currently JMRI and the android Engine Driver and iOS WiiThrottle will work with non-service phones so I assume this sound client could also.

[C855B]

I think they probably don't.  Non-active phones can be put in "airplane" mode where the wi-fi is active and the cell transceiver is not.  Currently JMRI and the android Engine Driver and iOS WiiThrottle will work with non-service phones so I assume this sound client could also.

Oooops... not "airplane mode". That turns off all the RF transmitters including Wi-Fi. But to answer, an iPhone without cell service simply becomes an iPod Touch, and keeps its Wi-Fi capabilities. I have an iPhone 3 that is now a JMRI throttle only, and our son has an iPhone 4 that he cancelled the contract on due to extended time overseas that still works for text messaging via Wi-Fi.

[fredmoehrle]

Having spent half a day at Deshler Oh a couple weeks ago, that noise does not fade in & out!
Coming around the Y into the yard, all of a sudden a car would start to scream, then stop when it was out of a certain radius.
A real low tech way to do it  would be mount a chunk of chalk board slat to the layout, with a long roofing nail hanging from a chain, and the operator could drag the nail head across the slate to get that ear-splitting noise!