Electronic horn sounds for R/C boats

Hey Tankbuilder. From one tightfisted curmudgeon  to another, that is the way to go!! I get a great deal of satisfaction in building my own parts and keeping my hard earned dollars in my pocket. I managed to pick up quite a few motors from an "Automotive Supermarket" Called Princess Auto up here in Canada. They are 12 volt motors and they cost me $3 each as opposed to the "Model boat" motors in the hobby shops that can get up to $100. I don't know why something automatically jumps 10 times in price once it gets the "hobby" label tacked on to it. I get a lot of my hobby supplies at the local Dollar store. Winches? Use old clock gears from clocks that I get from yards sails. Navigation lights? I am building my own from brass tubing with solid brass rod as the top covers and some grain of wheat bulbs I found in my old model railroad box. Do you know if they make LED's that small?

 With all my sucesses with fabricating all the parts for my tug I thought I might try and make my own sound board if I could find the parts. I may keep a lookout for an old toy truck with a horn as a way to put a horn on my tug.

 For a while I used the NiCad battery packs to run my boats but with the 12 volt lead acid cell I have in my tug I will be switching over. Except for my USS Crockett, a lead acid battery in that would stop it from "planning" across the water and turn into damn near a submarine!!!

Next project is either the Canadian icebreaker Norman Macleod Rogers (1/72 scale) or a 1/48 scale flower class corvette (either the HMS Bryony or HMCS Arrowhead), now tghose suckers will need a lot of ballast and a 12 volt lead acid battery will do wonders.

I always wanted to do a Mr Darby as I thought it was a great looking tug. Does DUMAS still make it?

Hey , JOHN you are a man after my own tightfisted little heart . I have the MR DARBY . with two fire nozzles and they were picked up (the pumps) at a yard sale . What are they ? Well , they are fish tank water filter pumps and with a stepdown transformer (taken from a stereo) They work fine on 12 volts . I buy my batteries used ( but good) from a local motorcycle shop . I like 12 volts because I get about 2 1/2 hours on one charge . If I stretch it and don,t use anything but the motors I get 3 1/4 hours . I have bilge pumps (well actually no ) that take no power at all . It,s a brass tube or tubes mounted at the keel to take in water as the vessel cruises and ejacts it at the side outlets . My horn came from a diesel truck toy I found at a yard sale .Although I am inventive  , when it comes to electronics I am not the brain an engineer is supposed to be . Something about dealing with something I can,t see I guess . I buy my motors used from an electronics shop that sells these little jewels by the bucket (One like a citronnella candle comes in ) . My rudders are scrap lexan and I build my own screws as well . The shafts are salvaged from various electronic items that don,t work but have the parts I do and can use . The only thing I have purchased new is the electronic speed control and radio/reciever /servo sets . If I have to many things to animate I "cam" them to an extra servo without stops or limiters in it . Works great too .  The major facter in smooth operation is a good worm gear from something electronic that has them and no one wants anymore .       tankerbuilder

Thanks I'll give it a try. That is the last thing I have to put in my tug, a horn.

 Just completed the sea trials today (my wife calls them pond trials....sea trials are dellusions of grandeur to her). Works great, including the bow thruster and fire monitor. Used a $5 windsheild washer motor for the Fire monitor rather than a $35 "model boat" pump. Built my own fire monitor from brass tube rather than buy one for $28.

Still have to complete the details on the tug, like hand rails, ladders, navigation lighting system, the rest of the mooring bits and of course the bridge interior details (enough to make it look like a bridge when looking through the windows).

Going to put a boat retrieval towing system on it as well.

I'd cruise some of the model railroading forums, since they use horns on their layouts.