Hello there, John.........
Interestingly, I have had the same thought......possibly just a few years later!
What I would like is a DCC controlled module that would allow you to use function keys to generate simple bell codes..... for example decoder address 53, F1 would give you one ding, F2 would give you two dings.....etc. This is mainly on use for our exhibition layout which is a 50 foot long linear layout. and would be used for 'attracting the attention' of the operator at the other end when their attention has wandered...... especially after lunch!
After a bit of reading around, I got hold of an Arduino controller board, a mp3 module, and DCC interface board and have started to play around with them.
The theory is that the interface board makes the DCC commands readable by the Arduino board and that can then trigger the allocated track on the mp3 player.
The tracks on the mp3 player are stored on a micro SD card, so you can record what ever you like for each individual track.......
Well, that's the theory, anyway. It's early days but so far, but I have managed to work out how to get tracks to play on the mp3 player module on its own and the next step is to see if I can read the DCC commands on the Arduino module......its then a question of seeing if I can get some code that will use the commands to trigger the mp3 tracks!
Pete