Engine Sound for R/C Toys

Hello,

after learning C Programming and PIC uC Programming from this forum and several tutorials, I am willing to make engine sound for r/c toys.

The quality doesn't need to be very precisely the same like normal car engine but kinda nice tone and loudness is the most important thing since we are playing r/c outdoor.

My question would be, is there any way to program the sound by microcontroller programming or so? Does anyone here has any tutorials to share about programming loudspeaker or perhaps, buzzer?? Thanks a bunch!

I usually use my mouth to make the engine noises.. I'm working on jet engine noises at the moment..

You can make sounds with a PIC or other uC. If you think back to the sounds used in early video game you will have a good idea of what is possible.

Loudness needs to come from amplification. The PIC can only provide the sound.

Engine sounds vary tremendously. You can make engine sounds if you are not too fussy about the quality and which engine it sounds like. A real engine sound and what can be passed off as engine sound are far apart.

You can make sound with a PIC by AC coupling an output bit to a speaker with a 47uF capacitor. If you toggle the bit at 200 Hz you will hear a 200Hz tone. To make complex sound like an engine you will need to do a lot of experimentation. Loops inside of loops, maybe some random noise. That sort of thing.

You could search the web to see if anyone has a engine sound as a ring tone. But that will only provide the sound as is. If you program it you can vary RPM etc.

Good Luck

3v0:

you have clarify something to me and I can imagine now, putting into my mind how this thing could work with PIC.
Now I have a thought about mixing the sound. For example several pins are used to mix sounds to create a complex sound like an engine sound.

With this the higher the RPM of my car, the louder and the higher noise it will be produced.

Boomslang:

You record your voice or what? Care to explain more? Thanks!!

Somthing like that. But you still will need a audio amp to get volume that is useable outdoors. If you look you should be able to find a single chip amp that you can control the vol of using a PIC.
EDIT: Or a digital pot.

mrfunkyjay said:

3v0:

you have clarify something to me and I can imagine now, putting into my mind how this thing could work with PIC.
Now I have a thought about mixing the sound. For example several pins are used to mix sounds to create a complex sound like an engine sound.

With this the higher the RPM of my car, the louder and the higher noise it will be produced.

Boomslang:

You record your voice or what? Care to explain more? Thanks!!

Click to expand...

3v0 said:

Somthing like that. But you still will need a audio amp to get volume that is useable outdoors. If you look you should be able to find a single chip amp that you can control the vol of using a PIC.
EDIT: Or a digital pot.

Click to expand...

I do think so... it is like driving LEDs with ULN2803, controling the logic with PIC.

What about PWM? Is there any possibility to use PWM in this sound-producing PIC project??

mrfunkyjay said:

I do think so... it is like driving LEDs with ULN2803, controling the logic with PIC.

What about PWM? Is there any possibility to use PWM in this sound-producing PIC project??

Click to expand...

You could use a transistor to up the power to the speaker. I am not sure now well that would work out.

Using PWM would increase the complexity of a task that you do not know how to do. Bang it out in software. I you can get it to work then you might try using PWM but why ?

Start by making simple sounds. Learn as you go. Sirens and sliding sounds are fun.

yes sir!

no, it just came across my mind, but nevermind.. might find another simple solution for beginner later... okay I shud find tutorials again. thanks!

you can use simple 4 (or more) bit DA converter using resistor ladder .. look at http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electronic/dac.html .. it is pretty simple ..

then, you just need to read the samples from some "external" device (like MMC card / eprom / ..) and play them .. depending on the length of the sample and amount of ram on the uC you are using you have to tune the sample to appropriate size/format.

you can play single sample in a loop with different speed to "change" the pitch of the sample hence "speed up / slow down" sound. you will have to make some amp circuit and use some digital pot to adjust the volume

that;s the "easy" way ... the "better" chouce would be to use some of the "sound" chips available on the market that can record/play sound (at pretty nice quality) .. and they are few $ so not too expensive ..