Dixie horns

[keith88]

Hi everyone i have a set of Dixie horns in my charger (big hit at shows and cruises)  but the problem is that i have to keep the horn button pressed to play them and let off at the right time or it keeps going. I have heard that some people have made theirs to cycle and stop ..Dose anyone here no how to wire them to do that and what would i need? At the moment it wired on to my stock horn relay.

[Nacho-RT74]

never heard of that and in fact can't imagine how to do it. How the Horn air compressor will know when the tune got completed a cycle ? or a relay, or whatever ?

I just can think on an electronically produced horn sound such as:

[keith88]

There is a way to do it i have read it in some other forums but it wasn't explained, just that it was possible. My guess would be some sort of adjustable time relay that would shut the power off for a few seconds to give you the time to take your finer off the button.

[Brock Lee]

The only potential problem I could see with an adjustable time relay is the motor in those horns does not move exactly the same speed every single time. Eventually it would need to be cycled manually to recalibrate.

The interior has a couple gears moving around a capstan with the disc on it. I am not sure one could install a reed switch. And with all the magnetism used to power the motor, I highly doubt a magnetic switch would be doable.

[Nacho-RT74]

The only potential problem I could see with an adjustable time relay is the motor in those horns does not move exactly the same speed every single time.

of course, regular voltage variations will produce that

[Brock Lee]

Combined with the fact the motor is just a larger version of a slot car motor. It has no bearings. Just metal, magnets, and coil wire. There is a lot of friction going on in there and it uses raw power to spin. It is very inefficient.  When you pop an older one open, you will find a bunch of black dust in the oil. It is shavings from the magnets getting ground up by the motor. This is one of the crudest electric motors still manufactured.