# Aristrocraft power truck



## JD Uke (Jul 11, 2011)

I am in the process of scratch building a small trolley car on an Aristocrat 2 Axle Power Truck (ART 29351). I somehow thought that track power would be picked up through the wheels, but apparently not. This is not really necessary because when finished, it will be equipped with one of the Critter Control units from RailBoss. 

A four wire harness ( black / brown / blue / black ) comes out from the motor, but I'm assuming only two of these wires ( Pos & Neg ) are needed to run the unit using batteries and the above control system, but which two? I don't plan to have lights or sound, so it should be a simple mater of knowing which two leads to use for powering the motor.

Any information would be helpful, as I plan to install the electronics this weekend. Much thanks, Jeff


----------



## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Jeff 
What makes you think that track power is not picked up through the wheels? the 2 black wires should be power from the track, check with a ohm meter wheel to black wire. 
the brown / blue wire should go to motor BUT you need to check with ohm meter. I just opened a new 29351 it has two sets of 2 wires a red and black, and red and green. what you have sounds like a gp 40 motor.
Dick


----------



## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

I have one here out of an engine (U25B) that has a male plug Red/Black and female plug Blue/Green. 
The Blue/Green supplies power to the motor and I assume the Red/Black is the pick-up from the wheels. 
When they are plugged together the unit drives along powered track. 
I would just poke some wires around at low throttle setting until the wheels go around to determine what is what. I doubt you could harm anything. 

Andrew


----------



## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Jeff 
I just checked a GP 40 motor block with a 4 wires black /brown/blue/black and the 2 black are track pickup. So the brown and blue are motor wires. 
Dick


----------



## JD Uke (Jul 11, 2011)

I have misplaced my paperwork on the unit, but the photo on the Aristo site shows a 29351 unit exactly like mine, including the 4 wires. 

If I understand everyone, to run on track power, I need connect one black to the blue and the other black to the brown. To run on battery, the blue and brown wires get connected to 
proper spot on my electronic control board. 

I appreciate all the info. Thanks, Jeff 

Sorry about the duplicate post.


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You only need the two motor wires, leave the track pickup wires alone. 

It seems you are reading something on how to make the block run from track power by jumpering the track pickups to the motor leads. 

Greg


----------



## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

After you determine which wires go to the track and which wires go to the motor, what I do with my locomotives is the following. Hold the "track power" leads in your hand. Pull the connector apart. Now you have a wire in each hand. Either tuck away or cut off the leads in your hand that go to the truck. Take the leads from the other hand, which go into the trolley or locomotive and connect those two wires to wires that go to your battery. Now your unit will run on batteries exactly the way it would run on track power. Easy but works well for me.

Ed


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

if you don't want to destroy the connector, you can release the pins from the housing with a small jewelers screwdriver. 

put a bit of heat shrink over the ends to keep them insulated. 

This should be simple with an ohmmeter to determine the track pickups, don't trust wire color, and a lot of information on the net is wrong. The ohmmeter won't lie. 

Be sure to test when there is no connection to any of the 4 wires (other than the ends going into the motor block) 

Greg


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

if you don't want to destroy the connector, you can release the pins from the housing with a small jewelers screwdriver. 

put a bit of heat shrink over the ends to keep them insulated. 

This should be simple with an ohmmeter to determine the track pickups, don't trust wire color, and a lot of information on the net is wrong. The ohmmeter won't lie. 

Be sure to test when there is no connection to any of the 4 wires (other than the ends going into the motor block) 

Greg


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

if you don't want to destroy the connector, you can release the pins from the housing with a small jewelers screwdriver. 

put a bit of heat shrink over the ends to keep them insulated. 

This should be simple with an ohmmeter to determine the track pickups, don't trust wire color, and a lot of information on the net is wrong. The ohmmeter won't lie. 

Be sure to test when there is no connection to any of the 4 wires (other than the ends going into the motor block) 

Greg


----------



## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Greg is right that is why I said use a ohmmeter in my first post. 
Dick


----------

