# First battery power conversion



## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Finally bit the bullet! Tearing into a perfectly operating electrical device and snipping wires and soldering and all that jazz has always intimidated me. Once I switched over the dark side of battery power, I knew I would have to overcome that to convert my locos over. I assaulted my Aristo FA1 yesterday with the intention of retaining it's ability to run track power if needed with a DPDT switch. I discovered this made things quite a bit more complicated than a simply snipping the pickups and feeding battery power in. Still, I just used by extremely basic "understanding" of electronics, kept scratching my head and experimenting and I got it to work! Nothing that's going to impress anyone in this forum, but it left me with a very distinct feeling of accomplishment and knocked down a psychological barrier I had created for myself.










What a mess of wires, as I'm sure most of you know, it originally had only two sets of wires per motorblock; one for pickup into the distribution board and another feeding power back into the block. Look how many more there are now, what a mess.










Business end of the DPDT.










The relatively hidden switch.

All said and done it works as it should. I did make one mistake, the second battery pigtail coming from the pilot... well I spliced it into the main feed wires rather than running it all the way back to the switch. As a result, if the battery car is plugged into the pilot pigtail, and the DPDT is set to track power only, the battery still works. Not good. But for my needs I can't forsee a scenario where I'll have the battery car hooked up simultaneous to running track power. If I'm using track power it will be while visiting another layout and I won't have the battery car on the rails.


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## TruEnuff (Jan 1, 2010)

Manco...you post is timely. I'm about to start my first conversion...with lots of trepidation. Your message gives me hope! 
Bruce


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Manco, did you use solid copper wire? 

It sort of looks like it in your pictures. 

Regards, Greg


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

I used what I had lying around and yes, there is a section of solid copper wire in there. Is that a bad thing? The pig tails and existing wiring were a silver colored and stranded.


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Solid wire is very susceptible to breaking at the point where you stripped the wire, especially if you nicked it a bit when stripping the wire. It is best to use stranded wire, which will last much much longer. Tin the ends and yo will have a nice connection that will endure much more handling without breaking.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

It'll work. Just if you make another or someday rebuild this one, maybe because you're tired of the wires breaking, get some stranded wire. It's much easier to work with.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

What Del said... if you aren't changing the wire out, try securing it near the soldered connections they will be most susceptible to fracturing, or placing stress on components. 

Regards, Greg


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## Manco (Jan 5, 2009)

Well hopefully with the shell back on there shouldn't be any movement in the wires in the future. But duly noted, I'll keep that in mind for future installs.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The main concern are wires connected to trucks, I should have mentioned that. Vibration can work over time, but that takes a lot longer than movement from the truck turning from side to side. 

Regards, Greg


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