Garden Railway Forum

Usually I get ideas for my ‘railway life’ from ‘real life’, like using a deodorant cap for a steam dome. But this time it’s gone the other way – a model railway project has become a ‘real life’ project.

Recently, I heard a BBC program (on overnight relay to Oz) describing an aid for dementia patients which consisted of a ‘shoe box’ containing a number of items like a palm tree or violin. When these items were placed on the ‘lid’, corresponding music played palm tree= surfing music, violin=classical. It used RFID tags.

It set me to thinking that my wife can longer use our stereo CD with her dementia, and maybe I could do something similar, using the small MP3 player and TF card I have been experimenting with for train sounds.
See the 4th post in this topic: https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopi ... 7&t=12308
It has to be as simple as possible for Pauline to operate, so I decided to use a single rotary switch to select her 8 favourite different CDs. Then I realised I needed an on/off+volume switch. I ripped the CDs into my computer and used Audacity to join all the separate songs together into a single file for each CD. Then put them onto the TF card. So with the mp3 player, 2 switches, 9 resistors, an old speaker box, four rechargeable batteries, and I finished with this ...
She has managed to grasp how to use the switch to select the CDs, so she can sit in her lounge chair with it beside her and play her favourites all day.

A brilliant bit of lateral thinking, Greg. I'm sure there must be a growing need out there for a gadget like this.

Rik

Great idea, Audacity is a useful piece of software been using it for years.

What a fantastic job, well done indeed, Greg. ( and I thoroughly approve of her favourite artists as well )

philipy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:07 am ......( and I thoroughly approve of her favourite artists as well )

Thanks for that nice comment Philip. Luckily P and I have similar music tastes, EXCEPT when she selects Charlie Landsborough, I hand her the tissues and leave the room.

gregh wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:49 am

philipy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:07 am ......( and I thoroughly approve of her favourite artists as well )

EXCEPT when she selects Charlie Landsborough, I hand her the tissues and leave the room.

I confess that I'd never actually heard of him before this, but I didn't want to be picky in my original comment!
We both love Andre Rieu - went to one of his open-air concerts in the square in Maastrict a couple of years ago. It's as fantastic in real life as it appears on the DVD's.

Brilliant, what a great device you have made. Music has such natural healing ways.

Just Julie wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:32 pm ................. Music has such natural healing ways.

Pauline has been a lot happier listening to it - and I have more time to do stuff on my trains!

Greg - a great project and so needed - you've given me a germ of idea that I could use with my mum who is also suffering from this condition - thank you!