# Airwire has a plugin board for aristocraft now!!!



## Daniel Peck (Mar 31, 2009)

http://www.cvpusa.com/airwire_adapta-1.php


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Does this pcb permit the AirWire ESC to operate on a constant track voltage?


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

Tony, I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that there is no reason that it couldn't provide the constant track voltage. Those leads are available in the Aristocraft connector. I know this because their own Revolution uses these two leads.

Ed


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Ed. 
This new pcb would need a built in bridge rectifier to polarise the track voltage and probablty suitable caps to filter the voltage. 
The REVOLUTION like other PnP ESC's, has this built in.


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## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)

According to Al, this adapter simply allows for a PNP install of the G3. Production boards are still 2 weeks away. Without this new board, trying to connect a G3 to the existing Aristo boards causes problems.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Tony, from the diagram below, there appears to be a clear danger of destroying the G3 or G2 if you ran power from the track.

In addition, the well known issue of the Aristo Track/Battery switch not actually disconnecting the battery from the track is still not accounted for. So even if there was no track power, a short in the rails could short the battery.

So, I would agree wire as shown, power the track and reverse the direction on the power pack and you have destroyed a G3/G2, and violated the AirWire warranty to boot.

Strange, just 4 diodes would have eliminated this dangerous situation.

Maybe someone will tell Airwire... I know the owner dislikes me, so I'm not telling him!


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Why are you talking track power? This is meant for battery operation. Here is the complete drawing that says to disconnect track power pickups.

 http://www.cvpusa.com/doc_center/Us...hookup.pdf


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Because Tony asked about it? And I answered him? 

It's not an unreasonable question. 

But you are right Paul, Airwire does a good job of warning people, AND the instructions to remove the wires from the connectors is concise. 

(although never underestimate the ability of people to not read instructions ha ha!) 

Bigger danger is that not all Aristo locos are wired the same way, or have 4 pin plugs to the board that has the socket. 

Again, 4 cheap diodes might be good insurance. 

Greg


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

I must admit that mine was a rhetorical question. 
I can certainly understand why there is a need for a decent battery only PnP conversion kit and I wish CVP all the best with this new item. 

I just felt that having it usable with track power for those that wanted such a device that can be used with AirWire, would make for a much bigger potential market. 
I have designed such a fully fused and filtered device that can use either batteries or track power. Methinks I will go ahead with it now.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,
I just looked through it again. Page three has a warning in red that the internal wiring could be different.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, saw it, but some people might be frustrated and hook it up anyway, since their loco does not match any of the documentation. Again, 4 diodes is cheap insurance against damage. 

But looking at history, since they are not on the G2 or G3 board either, and historically, apparently the cost outweighs the unhappy customers who have blown up their boards by hooking power backwards. 

Not the way I would do it... but it's not my decision of course, the past decisions of CVP must be considered as factors on why this board could be vulnerable too. 

Greg


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,
I personally don't like bridge rectifiers on the inputs. Reason is I use 14.4 and now some 14.8 volt batteries. Going through the bridge there will be a roughly 1.5 volt voltage loss. My 14.4v battery would be down to a usable 13v. Granted,with a much higher battery or track voltage the loss would not have much effect. Back years ago when I started in battery RC I used 12v gel cells with Locolinc. Even then I wired around the rectifier that is on the input of the Locolinc boards. In this case if someone really wanted to use track power, buying a rectifier is cheap. Then again, the Airwire system is designed for battery.


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Paul, 
If you us five diodes you will be protected. 
Four, in a bridge formation from the track and one Schottky for the battery pack input. The outputs of the two circuits are merged and the system will always automatically run on the highest voltage.
The worst you will lose is about .3 of a volt from the battery pack.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks Paul, yes, I understand the voltage drop issue, but nowadays, people normally use FETs for the input bridge, Aristo does and QSI does, it really helps minimize "lost volts". 

Use of schottky diodes would cut the loss in half, and FETs even more, but then I would say the cost goes up too much for a board they want to sell at $20. 

I guess overall it is better in this case (battery) to not "give up" any voltage on protection diodes because doing it with low drop diodes increases the cost. On a $200 decoder, it's affordable (and done on a regular basis) but not on a $20 adapter board. 

When you consider all the aspects, I guess the current "course" makes sense (for the adapter)... 

Greg


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