RC engine sound simulator, how to install in 3yo kids rideable toy?

[KewlCousin]

So my cousins kids 3 year old birthday is coming up and, as I have a reputation for doing, I’m trying to come up with the most awesome present I can think of for the little guy. Ever since he saw my Jeep he’s been obsessed, so much that he’s having a Jeep themed birthday party. He has the John Deere rideable tractor with a trailer attached that’s his favorite toy. I began to think how cool would it be to make that thing sound like it’s got some big V8 so I started looking for engine sound simulators. All the ones I’ve found are plug and play for RC cars, and one or two for actual vehicles but those will be too loud and expensive to justify...wrong fit. The RC setup would be perfect. I’m hoping someone can give me an idea of what it would take to wire one of these into his tractor. I’ve got a fairly substantial mechanical background with electric unfortunately being my weaker side but I’m still vastly more proficient than most are a with it. His party is in a few weeks so I’m trying to figure out if this is viable or if I need to start thinking in another direction. Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[PETERDECO]

Welcome to the forum. I did something similar at work for different sound effects. It plugs into your computer headphone jack and records 20 seconds of sound from a wav file. Perhaps you can use something shown in this link and simply record race car sounds from the internet with the microphone next to the speaker. These modules are all over ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264482674769?hash=item3d94655851:g:mmMAAOSw4c9dkcxm

 

[Bluejets]

Simple enough for an off-the-shelf unit as used in r/c but as you have already found, expensive.
Get a servo tester and mechanically connect to the throttle pedal, signal from this goes to the r/c input on the sound unit.
Most of the simple diy ones are basically like hitting on a tin can with a matchstick and rather disappointing.
Arduino micro with an sd card and an amplifier, code and how to on the internet, most of the parts come as "modules" off Ebay etc.for a couple of dollars each.
Some are better with an stm32 micro as it has more computing power and speed.
The latter can be found here.......
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDIYGuy999/videos

Overkill for a 3 year old though......more for the second cousin.

 

[KewlCousin]

Thanks for the quick replies! The circuit boards look a bit beyond my speed. The main reason I thought the RC sound modules would be ideal is that they hook to the throttle controls so you get an idle sound and a revving engine in sync with throttle application. I’m wondering if I could just splice the controller into the ride on gas pedal wiring. And the power end into a standard RC car battery. If so how would I test which wire does what? The photos of the unit I was looking at looks like it had 3 wires that were suppose to hook to the throttle (servo?...is that the right word?)
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s tons of nuance I’m missing here as I’m mainly a mechanical guy. Not sure if hooking RC electronics to a toy that runs on a 12v battery could cause problems? I’m sure some of you guys can tell me a dozen reasons why this might not work out, and I’m all ears. But I’m hoping I’m just overthinking this and it’s not that complicated.

 

[Bluejets]

As I already said, the input would be an rc signal. You can get an rc signal from a $2 servo tester with the pot mechanically linked to your existing throttle.This signal is a pwm signal, not a voltage level.
Therein is the 3 wires, 4.8v positive, negative and signal wire. The latter from the servo tester will give the 1.5ms for idle, 1.0 ms for full reverse and 2ms for full forward speed plus anywhere in between those signal levels corresponding to speed.
If your supply is 12v then you will need a buck converter between the battery and your servo tester, set it to around 5v should be fine. These are also a $2 device from Ebay etc.

 

[KewlCousin]

Wow, thanks. Most of that is foreign to me so it seems like I need to do some more research on these components and how they work, but it sounds like what I’d need.

 

[Bluejets]

Probably the easiest solution for you is to get an off-the-shelf bluetooth amplifier speaker.
Mate of mine did it with one of his diesel locos as an easy fix for the horn.
Some have done it in miniature on small electric trains as well.
See if I can find a link........

Try this for an idea for starters........

 

[Audioguru]

Will your kid wear headphones to prevent your neighbors from hearing the noise?

 

[Bluejets]

Will your kid wear headphones to prevent your neighbors from hearing the noise?

Come on....they're not THAT loud.

 

[Audioguru]

You might make the sound level too loud.
Formulas One race cars this year will have a sound system to make their little V6 hybrid engine sound like a huge V12.