# Can't control speed!



## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

I have an ART 5450 power supply with accompanying ART 5401 throttle and direction control. I connected it to my track last night and found that as soon as a connection is established, the locomotive would move at a constant speed regardless of what I did with the throttle. Even if the throttle is set to stop, as soon as the wires make contact with the back of the power supply, the locomotive takes off. In addition, andI don't know if this is normal or not, but if I place the wires in the "Accessory" terminals, the locomotive takes off at what appears to be full throttle.

Now my uncle had this power supply and throttle hooked up at one point on his setup and it worked just fine, so I have no reason to belive it's a faulty throttle. It has been packed away for a few years though. And there's really only one way to hook this thing up so I'm not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas or suggestions??


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Broke, try it again somewhere else if you want. Unless you hooked it up backwards. 

Regards, Greg


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Hmm, it was working when my uncle packed it. He's moved a few times, maybe it took a jar. I don't think there is a wrong way to hook it up and still get power to the rails. The only thing I can think of is where the throttle connects to the power supply there is a + and - terminal. I guess ART could have defied logic and I need to put the black wire on the + and the red wire on the -. But then if I had that backwards I wouldn't expect it to work at all.


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## Curmudgeon (Jan 11, 2008)

From George's pages: 

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips4/art-5460_tips.html 

There are four quick connect output terminals and a 3' or so power input cable on the back of the 5401. One pair of connections provides DC power output. The current capability of this output was not rated, but I would guess that these terminals are directly connected to the input power as they are not affected by any of the controls on the 5401. The other pair of terminals go to the track. 

My reading is two terminals are fixed voltage out (loco runs constant speed) and the other two are adjustable outputs.


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Did you hook up the track feed to the constant output for accessories and not the variable output? 

-Brian


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## Curmudgeon (Jan 11, 2008)

Brian- 
Read the post before yours.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Looks like there IS a way to hook it up wrong. 

Regards, Greg


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

The input power to the 5401 is a pair of wires hanging out the back. There are fixed and variable outputs.


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Curmudgeon on 06/02/2009 11:19 AM
Brian- 
Read the post before yours.




I don't need to. Mine are hooked up properly!










-Brian


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Ha ha ha! 

Brian, are the 2 different outputs labeled? Could not find an instruction manual or picture on the Aristo site. 

Regards, Greg


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Yea, they're labeled. It's been a long time, but I seem to remember it was hard to decide which wire went to +.


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Yes they're clearly labeled. 2 outputs say they are for track power and 2 other say they are for accessory. Obviously I tried hooking up to the track power outputs first. Since then, I've tried every possible combination hooking one wire to the track power with another to the accessory and etc, etc, etc. The only 2 results I receive is either the loco running at constant speed, or when hooked to the accessory outputs the loco runs at break-neck speed (constant output). Like I said, there really is no wrong way to hook this thing up (unless you can't read).


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

It sounds like it is broken. A shorted control FET would do exactly what you see.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

As in the first reply? ;-)


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

And the final answer is kaput.







Later RJD


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 06/02/2009 4:13 PM
Yea, they're labeled. It's been a long time, but I seem to remember it was hard to decide which wire went to +.




There is no positive/negative since that is dependent on which way the direction switch is thrown.

-Brian


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm talking about the input, not the output. 

Sounds to me like it's fried.


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Great! Oh well, it had to go sooner or later as it was rated at less than 5 amps and would have been a bottlneck for MUing big diesels .


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)




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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

The black smoke leaked out, Greg. What was that?


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The best picture I could find of "fried electronics" in a short tie... It's a PC motherboard. 

Regards, Greg


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I think it *was* a PC motherboard. 

Used to work where there was a -12v power line on the pin next to Data Bus 0. You weren't officially a member of the department until you had blown up a computer. The "kludge card" mysteriously had those 2 connector pins connected, and you had to separate them. A tiny fleck of copper remaining would let the black smoke out of EVERY chip in the system.


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

this one is a little closer to home


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

AD322?


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

yep


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Funny, I have 4 dead ones, one does look just like that! 

I assume that is a regulator? Or the final output transistor? 

Regards, Greg


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

That is where Greg put his cigar out.


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

it appears to be a low voltage regulator. I assume that the switch FET (the one bolted to the metal heat sink) is also shorted and backfed track power to the gate driver and blew up the regulator in the process.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Oh! I remember! Try connecting the red wire to - and the black to +. The cable is right for plugging into the original connector, but wrong if you take the connector off and wire it yourself.


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Well that is the one thing I haven't tried. I'll give it a shot. 

On another note, I ordered a 24v 15a power supply that came in the mail today. I'm electronically illiterate so, I'm not sure how I supply the power supply with power... ironic huh? I thought most power supplies have a cord on them but this one doesn't, not even a socket for a power cord. So obviously some of the terminals on the power supply are for the input power. My problem is, which ones? I guess it's time to hack up an extension cord and start expirementing.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Buy 3 prong plug and wire assembly from home depot. 

Black wire - load 
White wire - neutral 
Green wire - ground 

Regards, Greg


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Well Torby, I tried hooking it up "backwards" and the volt meter spiked and I could hear the internal switch on the power supply kicking on and off and on and off. So I don't think it liked that " src="http://www.mylargescale.com/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wink.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" /> 

Greg: thanks, I think that clears it up. There are three seperate terminals that are labeled "N" "L" and then the little symbol I *think* stands for ground. That makes more sense now that I know "L" stands for "Load". I thought the "N" stood for negative.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

No negative on AC... 

N = neutral = white wire 
L = load = black wire 
I does not make sense... could be a Tilde... ~ 

Closeup picture please... 

Regards, Greg


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Manco, does the symbol look like this?


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Yes! That is the symbol showing next to the "N" and "L". That adds up then. There are six more terminals besides the three mentioned and 3 of them are marked V+ and the other three are marked V-. I'm assuming I run a wire from each track, one to a V- terminal and one to a V+ terminal.


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## RimfireJim (Mar 25, 2009)

Posted By Manco on 06/09/2009 1:19 PM
Yes! That is the symbol showing next to the "N" and "L". That adds up then. There are six more terminals besides the three mentioned and 3 of them are marked V+ and the other three are marked V-. I'm assuming I run a wire from each track, one to a V- terminal and one to a V+ terminal. 

If you do that, you're probably going to get the same result as you did with the broken Aristo electronics: full speed ahead (or reverse). From your previous post, it sounds like you bought a fixed-output-voltage power supply. You're going to get a full 24V on the rails. You need something between the power supply and the rails that can vary and reverse the voltage.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, power supply handled, now need speed controllers. 

zoom! 

Regards, Greg


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Exactly right. Fortunately the power supply has a voltage adjustment which when turned all the way down runs 2 locos M.U.'d together at approximately the right speed. So it gets trains going for now... until I can allocate a TE.


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