# Aristo Pacific/Mikade Help



## rpc7271 (Jan 2, 2008)

I bought an Aristo Pacific a year ago and now I want to add a QSI sound decoder and Gwire so I can run with battery and remote control using my Airwire throttle. I also bought a Vanderbuilt tender to go with it as I like the Vandys better that the standard tender. I have already wired up the Vandy tender with the decoder in the tender using QSI ‘s Magnum adapter plug. I opened up the pacific and there is a circuit board with a DCC plug in the loco. (I know, I should have looked before I got started but it is an older Pacific with the plastic side rods so I didn’t expect a circuit board with DCC plug.) If the board wasn’t there I was going to wire everything up directly. I planned to use a 6 wire plug that caries the motor leads and the front headlight leads to the loco and the loco power back to the tender. (The smoke generator is going to be removed as it doesn’t make much smoke anyway.) I still think I should wire everything up directly but there are diodes, capacitors transistors and resistors on the board along with what looks like a voltage regulator that is mounted to the metal weight in the boiler. (I think this reduces toe voltage to 6 volts to run the headlight and marker lights?) What does all this stuff do. I assume that everything I need electronically is built into the decoder. I printed out the electrical diagram for the Pacific from the Aristo site and looked at the stuff on the QSI site and George Schreyer’s web site. Is it safe to wire the motor directly to the decoder motor outputs without the additional electronics installed on the board? It’s not so much that I don’t know what to do as I don’t want to burn up a perfectly good motor or lamps.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

ha ha ha! I needed a laugh today! 

Actually something is strange, the older Pacifics did have plastic side rods, but not the Aristo socket. 

If you REALLY have the socket, and leave the DC shorting plug in it, that is what you will have, a short that will destroy the QSI if it is wired properly. 

The track pickups cannot be connected to the motor leads, from the QSI's point of view, this is the "terminal" no no in DCC decoders. 

How about a picture of your board. 

Check my site under the Mikado and see if your board looks like the board in the Mikado (they are the same). 

If you really have the socket, you really need to use it, besides the fact that your installation will take 5 minutes and the headlight will work. I take it back, you will need to get the speaker wire back to the tender. While you are at it, you can undo the nasty Aristo wiring and give yourself better running with making the tender pickups work. 

Read my Mikado stuff. 

Regards, Greg


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## rpc7271 (Jan 2, 2008)

I got it. I took out the factory circuit board with the DCC socket and hard wired everything. I'm still not quite done with the tender. Have the backup light to wire up and the GWire to install but a very limited test run and it all works in analog mode. You are right about the circuit board being wired wrong for this application. There is an article on the QSI web site about installing the decoder in the Pacific/Mikado at http://www.qsisolutions.com/products/techinfo/qaristo/q2_arismike_install.html You need to rewire the speaker connections and add pickups to the tender trucks and rewire the battery switch. I will probably fix this board and reuse it in one of my uboats. First test produces good sound with the factory speaker.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Did you happen to notice the name of the guy who wrote that article?

He's kind of a big mouth, but I do like his solution!









Regards, Greg Elmassian


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I think we have an impersonator here.







Later RJD


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