What did you do to your trains today?

[Super]

Very impressive Duck...look forward to the new sounds with the voices of Toad and Scruffy. This is genius.

Awesome. It's also interesting to see that the train everyone wanted to be made was Rheneas

 No. No way this is going to be the first (known???) custom Thomas item that uses its own personalised soundchip. With all the wonderful advancements in recordable sound modules like EZSound, did no other customisers ever look into it before? An all new sound module connected to an original TnA speaker is neat in its own right, but a microcontroller that recognises TOMY's codes and assigns phrases to them?! That's the incredible part. Say, did any of this knowledge come from an electronics or computers class, or did someone you know IRL help you out? Either way, this got me excited for the future of customs with features that only companies normally know the secrets to. Here's hoping you'll find boards that would be small enough to fit in engines or even other vehicles. Historical.

BTW, it took me a while to decipher what S.C. Ruffey says in the demo; for those who can't tell, he says "I'm coming apart!" and sings the chorus of "Pop Goes Old Ollie". Unlike Diesel 10 with Splatter and Dodge, will he also say Toad's lines in addition to his own? Toad holds the batteries, so he wouldn't be able to have a separate module.

I'm currently in college studying computer engineering, but I've been tinkering with electronics since I was a kid. I got into computers in high school after getting interested in old video games (my parent's basement is full of Thomas toys and vintage computers). Yes, I plan on having it say some of Toad's lines too! It was also suggested that it could play some of Oliver's lines, but I'm not sure if I'll do that.

The sound board I'm using right now is primarily meant to be used with individual buttons for each sound trigger, which is not how Talk n Actions work as they read a certain number of presses and then after enough time with no presses, play a sound based on how many presses they sensed. The microcontroller basically does this conversion, although it sends which sound to play to the soundboard over a serial connection. I could have wired the microcontroller up to fake the button presses instead, but the serial connection is simpler. I would have rather found an all in one sound board and microcontroller, or a microcontroller that can produce sound better on its own, and I'm sure with a little more searching I could find one, but for now it exists as three boards, a microcontroller, the sound board, and an amplifier for driving the speaker from the soundboard, which has a line level output. It does all fit into the 3D printed truck, but not with the original speaker bracket I hoped to use.

Those who looked at the customs in my Collection Reveal may remember the Mighty Wheels Jack, Alfie and Byron I made. At last, I took an opportunity to repaint their faces, recreate Jack's missing exhaust pipe and move Byron's lamp to the correct side. While they're still not perfect, the faces got faded and had to be repainted regardless.



Alfie and Jack's repaints turned out the best (even slightly more accurate than before), but Byron looks only somewhat better. Good thing his mouth can't be seen clearly since I didn't remove the face or blade before painting. Jack's new pipe ends where it should compared to the bottom of the cab, so that's an improvement. I've since made an accurate scratch built Jack and Alfie, though I'm not so sure about Byron.

[Super]

Looks good Lag. I like your imagination especially with the 2 on the right.

Alfie was the one with the most cosmetic alterations. Apart from the paint, he has new shapes made of cardboard and an arm from a lorry mounted excavator. Jack and Byron were mostly repaints, although Jack's bucket was cardboard as well. Full details in my collection thread ("Customs" section).

Gave Derek some buffers and his rear roof vent today (25th). Tomorrow (26th) I'll be priming him and airbrushing him.

[Super]

You have been very busy Ffar

I've been busy working on restoring Stanley due to years of play and repainting Skarloey to a more season 4 style look.