# Aristo / Revo install on USA



## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I am sure this has been covered but... I have a GP-38-2 and want to install the Aristo Receiver. I was told by a very prominent dealer that most USA engines are to be done the same way. Who can give me a "how to" link or instructions please? It seemed easy enough when he explained it to me but it was some time ago.


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## krogerssolar (Jan 8, 2009)

John take a peek at the Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society page i have used posts by Paul Norton the GP-9 is about the same wiring in it as the gp38 http://ovgrs.editme.com/Geep9. You will need the Non Plug in play broad for the Rev RX unit it needs more wiring unless you would be using connectors from All Electronics then it will go a lot faster how do you plan on running you loco ie track power or Battery power how i have dome my GP9 and GP30. i install a switch and add mu connectors to the loco i install the switch so it can do track or battery with out needing to unwire the trucks 


Just what i have Done

Kevin


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

perfect, I forgot all about them guys and even have in my favorites. Battery of course and I have the correct connectors and board too. 

THANKS!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I have a couple of comments on the conversion on the OVGRS site. 


I cannot understand why you should go to all the trouble to physically remove the wipers from inside the motor block. Not only is it unnecessary (you just unplug the track pickup connectors in the shell), but MANY people let the axles pop up when taking the bottom motor cover off, and get the bushings in wrong and DESTROY the gears.
If you want, carefully remove the bottom cover, remove the sliders and put it back on without disturbing the mesh of the axles/gears.
If you just feed the output of the TE to the track pickup "inputs" on the main board, the loco lights will function with no modification, just like they did on DC. Sure LEDs might be cool, but if your lights are working why go to all the trouble to rip them out?
The GP7/9 has bicolor "classification" lights. These will continue to function green forwards, red reverse. Why rip these out?
 Basic install: 

Preparation: 


[*] Unplug the 2 connectors that have the track pickup leads. Tape over the ends that came from the trucks. [*] Now you have two connectors going to the main board that are unconnected and have no tape. Tape over one of these. [/list] 
Wiring: 

[*]Now you have only one connector that is unconnected and no tape... plug an All Electronics connector into it, and wire it to the motor output on the TE. [*]Connect the TE to a battery. [/list] 
Now run your train 

It certainly is not that complicated if you do not perform a lot of unnecessary actions. 

Regards, Greg


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I started to remove the bottom cover while following the instructions they have and thought the same things Greg. I removed the shell and there are 6 wires from each truck. 2 from the pick ups are joined with 2 from the trucks that make 4 into 2 Connector. (are these all pick ups? disconnect this?) 
The 2 that remain from the trucks go to another 2 wire connector ( I assume this is the power feed to the trucks and should be the connectors [both trucks] that go to the circuit board power out? 

Greg, you say to use one connector but won't that only power one truck?>


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I was told to take two of the all electronics connectors (mu plugs) and connect to each of the 2 wire plugs going to each truck... (in which I hope are the 2 wired stock plugs?) 
then cross the wires... one red, one black from each seperate plug and then wire them to the circuit board that plugs into the Revolution receiver. Crossing the wires had something to do with not trusting the stock USA plugs to be positive or negative as colored? like this...









If this makes ANY sense, then which wires off the board do I solder the mu plugs to?









I do not want to fry my engine, please help! It makes sense in theory and I think I remember correctly as told by Robbie at RLD. HELP!


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

* I need to make sure the motors are isolated! I guess 1 pair of the red/black wires go to MOT- and the other pair go to MOT+ ?????????
* TR+ RIGHT SIDE TRACK PICK-UP Black (BLK)
MOT+ MOTOR POSITIVE POWER Gray (GRY)
HD1 REAR HEADLIGHT NEGATIVE Yellow (YEL)
HD COM FRONT HEADLIGHT POSITIVE Blue (BLU)
HD2 FRONT HEADLIGHT NEGATIVE White (WHT)
MOT- MOTOR NEGATIVE POWER Orange (ORG)
TRK- LEFT SIDE TRACK PICK-UP Red (RED)
* Connect the motor wires: *Solder the motor’s Right Side terminal to the Adaptor
Plug at MOT+. Solder the motor’s Left Side terminal to MOT-.
* Connect the power wires: *Solder the Negative side of the battery pack to TRK-.
Solder the Positive side of the battery pack to TR+.
* Connecting the Headlights: *The headlights will most likely require rewiring. All
of the wiring to the headlights MUST be isolated from all other wiring. See the
following wiring diagrams to connect the headlights in your locomotive.
HD2 is soldered to the Front headlight and is the negative power lead for the front
headlight. HD1 is soldered to the rear headlight and is the negative power lead for
the rear headlight. HD COM is soldered to both the Front and Rear Headlights


and is the positive power lead for both front and rear headlights.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

John, one good thing is to verify things with an ohmmeter. The connectors that have 4 wires in them are the track pickups. 

The connectors with only 2 wires are the motors. 

Disconnect the connectors with the 4 wires. Tape over the ends on the 2 connectors that come from the trucks. 

Now you have 2 empty connectors. These are where power feeds to the main board. They are both identically wired, so there is really no reason to use both, in fact it could be a problem if you made a mistake... Now you follow the instructions I gave earlier. Tape over one and just connect to the other. 

You are NOT going to separate the motors from the lights, this is an easy install... you are not going to rewire anything else. 

Either follow my directions or do something else but if you do something else, get complete instructions and follow them. 

I'm trying to make it simple for you, do not mess around with anything else... the only connections to the TE will be the motor leads and the track leads... 4 wires... 

(this is the simple install that the person you talked to referenced... what you posted is a full install where you disconnect everything and wire it separately, much more work... the only advantage to that more complicated method is constant lighting and full brightness at low speeds. Honestly, you need to keep it simple... when you learn more you can go wild) 

Regards, Greg


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

Greg I don't know how to highlight your instructions and re post here or I would.
What confuses me is that you say to connec the truck pick ups to the output on the TE. How will this work? Am I just stupid here or what?


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## krogerssolar (Jan 8, 2009)

John What i think Greg is saying in the USA Loco's there are two sets of connectors coming from the trucks the one that have four wires are the pickups from the track you dont need to use them if using battery power so tape over them. the other two wire pairs are to the motor blocks that go to the +- of the Rev


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I thought so myself. therefore... 2 motors = 2 red to the + and both black to the - sounds simple enough except. Now I DO have to use the REVO board for lights etc. because the stock board is now un powered... correct?


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## krogerssolar (Jan 8, 2009)

yes you will have to check the voltage on the light's. my two locos the voltage was 3volts that came out of the USA Stock Board what comes out of the Rev is 22 to 24 volts DC so what i did was make sure the smoke unit was unplugged from the Stock Board and wired it right to the incoming voltage on my locos it is ether battery or tack inputs to the Rev and install the smoke control board to control the smoke unit. then what i did about my lights i didn't want to rebuild them i used one connector and wired it to the Motor out put of the Rev that way it is able to get the +- or -+ polarity and the lights will still switch just make sure every thing has been unplugged before powering it up make sure no motors are on the stock unit and that the smoke is off other wise you may blow the Rev unit i almost did by forgetting one motor block. this seems to be working fine on my setup hope this helps 

Kevin


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

*(I deleted my original post)*

looks like you figured it out.

The track pickups both go to the same place, so you only need to feed in one place.. you can use both if you feel better about it.


The key here is to feed the motor output from the TE to the track pickup input of the loco... Then you do not have to rewire anything else... easy.

Again the only disadvantages are the lights will not be constant brightness, but you can change that in the future if you want.

Regards, Greg


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I got it now, thanks a bunch. Robbie helped me this morning while I looking at it. Although he recommended using both connectors into the board.... Are you absolutely sure just one will work? If so I will trust that you are the Genius I was told you are, and never doubt again! :~) I have to wait until tonight to try it and will let you know


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Quote....If so I will trust that you are the Genius I was told you are...







What wo told you that?







HA HA HA !!!!!


















Just Messin.........


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

How do you post those cool emoticons Nocholas?

IT WORKS!
It was sooooooo easy! 1. disconnect track pick ups, connect the plugs that go to the board (with "MU" plugs) to the Motor + and - on the adapter board. (crossing a positive from one plug with a negative from the other) solder everything.









2. Connect battery to the Track + and - on the adapter board.

3. Program your loco.

Thanks to all of you and Robbie at RLD for your simple instructions on this conversion.

It does seem that the lights DO rob power, but I am only using 18volt Black and Decker battery packs. Now I am hesitant to put it back together without trying to paint it 1st! This would be my 1st attempt at a custom paint job. Where are the threads on this to help me? Should I post my virgin attempt at a Custom Paint job with decals?


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Painting tip; Remove all lettering before repainting. 
I had to sand through the first coat of paint to remove some on a car that I tried to rush. Took a lot of feathering to smooth it out. 

Find the how to's in paint. 

Congrats on your wiring. 
John


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Biblegrove RR on 10 Dec 2009 09:22 AM 
How do you post those cool emoticons Nocholas? EASY,NICK STEALS EM FROM ME REGAL!! HAH LOL NO REALLY HE DOES!!


IT WORKS!
It was sooooooo easy! 1. disconnect track pick ups, connect the plugs that go to the board (with "MU" plugs) to the Motor + and - on the adapter board. (crossing a positive from one plug with a negative from the other) solder everything.









2. Connect battery to the Track + and - on the adapter board.

3. Program your loco.

Thanks to all of you and Robbie at RLD for your simple instructions on this conversion.

It does seem that the lights DO rob power, but I am only using 18volt Black and Decker battery packs. Now I am hesitant to put it back together without trying to paint it 1st! This would be my 1st attempt at a custom paint job. Where are the threads on this to help me? Should I post my virgin attempt at a Custom Paint job with decals?


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Posted By blueregal on 10 Dec 2009 09:47 AM 
Posted By Biblegrove RR on 10 Dec 2009 09:22 AM 
How do you post those cool emoticons Nocholas? EASY,NICK STEALS EM FROM ME REGAL!! HAH LOL NO REALLY HE DOES!!


IT WORKS!
It was sooooooo easy! 1. disconnect track pick ups, connect the plugs that go to the board (with "MU" plugs) to the Motor + and - on the adapter board. (crossing a positive from one plug with a negative from the other) solder everything.









2. Connect battery to the Track + and - on the adapter board.

3. Program your loco.

Thanks to all of you and Robbie at RLD for your simple instructions on this conversion.

It does seem that the lights DO rob power, but I am only using 18volt Black and Decker battery packs. Now I am hesitant to put it back together without trying to paint it 1st! This would be my 1st attempt at a custom paint job. Where are the threads on this to help me? Should I post my virgin attempt at a Custom Paint job with decals? 



Regal....... PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE................
















Nicky....


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep der goes another one!! Hee Heee


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)




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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks John, just what I put in my 2 posts... easy, simple, and not complicated. Now you can unplug one of your two plugs just to confirm... but since you used two you can leave them. 

Regards, Greg


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Nicholas Savatgy on 10 Dec 2009 01:05 PM 







And another one goes and another one and another one Nicky you are just toooooooooooooooooooo much!! Hee hee Regal Greg can you believe this guy???????? hee hee 

should have read like the song and another one bites the dust and another one and another one hee hee thought about it later and remembered the song better!!! Nicky Nicky don't know about you!


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