Audio Module multiple Channel input?

[LesBernell]

I just finished bench testing the Motion and Audio Packs for my Panzer III.
They work great.
But I was thinking:
There is one channel (Gear switch B) for all of the sounds (except motor acceleration).
Consequently, you need to toggle the Switch B to trigger the desired sound.
That uses only 5 channels for my 8 Channel radio.
On my Spektrum DX8, that leaves Switches A,C,D,F,G and H available for other functions.
What if there more channels utilized by the Audio Module?
As an example: if there was an input on the Audio Module for Machine Gun sounds, you could assign a channel on a 3 position switch to be:
1 = Machine Gun, 3 = Heavy Machine Gun, and 2 = Off. A lot more convenient than flipping the B switch 4 to 6 times.
Also, if there was a turret turn input, and elevation input to the Audio Module; you could run a split cable from the Rudder and Throttle inputs and have turret turn and elevation sounds in sync with the Turret and Elevation motions.
I'm sure I'm not the first to think about this.
Armortek? Future enhancements?

[Adrian Harris]

The clever bit inside the audio module only has one control input, hence the reason for the wiring.

However, there's no reason why you can't put an Arduino or Pi between the receiver and the Audio Module to make it do things with different switches, but it would only be able to do one thing at a time, so you couldn't turn the turret with sound and fire the MG at the same time, it would have to switch between them.

Adrian.

[Gerhard Michel]

Hi,

there are other sound modules like the Beier USM-RC2, which are some more flexible and can use up to 4 different sounds at a time.........

[Mike Collins]

I have done what Adrian Harris suggests and got it to work fine. I used the trim switches on the Taranis, which required the creation of custom functions but YouTube helped me here. Three channels dedicated to the three key sounds, engine start/stop, main gun and MG. Those channels connected to Arduino inputs and using a "pulse in" library read and acted on. The Arduino creates a rc servo sequence that mimics the 3 pos switch ups and downs and feeds it to the sound module. I had to tinker with the software timings which I think was down to using a blocking library but it all works well.

I'm writing it up and will post the whole thing including code and wiring etc to the appropriate forum.

[Andre Meylan]

I have done what Adrian Harris suggests and got it to work fine. I used the trim switches on the Taranis, which required the creation of custom functions but YouTube helped me here. Three channels dedicated to the three key sounds, engine start/stop, main gun and MG. Those channels connected to Arduino inputs and using a "pulse in" library read and acted on. The Arduino creates a rc servo sequence that mimics the 3 pos switch ups and downs and feeds it to the sound module. I had to tinker with the software timings which I think was down to using a blocking library but it all works well.

I'm writing it up and will post the whole thing including code and wiring etc to the appropriate forum.

Hey Mike - that would be great to follow through ... did you post this yet and if yes, were can I find it??
Best regards, Andre