# Aristo revo TE - 3 installations



## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

After playing trains with the new revo for a little more than 4 months now, I thought I would share my experience so far. I am not an expert and do not pretend to be. Simply put, once I got things working the way I want, I stop fooling with them. My track record proves I should fool with stuff less and run it more!

Rather than try and justify what I purchased with a bunch of rationalization that really doesn't apply to anyone but myself, I will dive right in to the installs and the operation. 

The first loco to get an install was an aristo mallet. Opened the boiler (why do they continue to use such crappy screws whose heads strip so fast?!). Plugged the receiver in to the socket. I grabbed the wires leading to the motor and used those to power a Phoenix 2K2 board. In an effort to reduce wires leading to or from the tender, I installed the sound system in the locomotive. I actually have two speakers in the boiler, one under the smoke stack pointing toward the track and one mounted to the lead weight. I also drilled a bunch of holes in the floor to let the sound out. This has proven to work very well. 

Difficulties: One thing I had trouble with was the chuffing. I had been using the sensor/magnet mounted to the trailing truck. The magnets continually got fouled up and would move on the axle. Eventually, I converted this funtion to work off of voltage and not a real input. This fixed the problem related to chuffing. 

While I am overall happy with this installation, I do find that I am occassionally losing the link to the locomotive while it chugs merrily around the layout. Often, when I blow the whistle or give some other command, the link status goes back to LinkOK. Not sure what is happening there. Also, sometimes the whistle or the bell funtion will get 'stuck' in the ON position. Again, this is remedied on the fly by hitting that function button again. 

The second loco was an aristo mikado. This was also a fairly straightforward installation since it already had a socket for the receiver. What made it complex was the addition of the sound system. Again, I am using a Phoenix 2K2 card in the boiler. I grabbed the wired leading back to the motor to power the sound board. With this locomotive, I also encountered the first problems requiring the addition of the 6 capacitor board. I ended up putting one in the mallet as well. The addition of these boards, and the pick up from the tender has resulted in very good running. I also cleaned the wheels for the first time and found that really solved some problems! Once again, the whistle and bell commands seem to somehow get stuck. Not too big a deal, more annoying than anything else. Simple remedy: take the loco off the track and let everything power down.

The third loco is an old aristo FA. I had to cut and thrown the boards in this unit. There is connectivity between the motors and the power pick up in this engine. Using the plug and play board that came with the starter kit, I was able to make this an easy install, once i realized that aristo wiring is terrible! I had to trace all the wires but once I did that I was able to correct my mistakes. On this engine, I used a terminal strip to control where the wires went and the connections. This was a big help when I was troubleshooting. I also set this engine up as a true A unit and have inputs coming from a B unit for power pick up and outputs controlling the motors and two wires for a speaker. Speakers for the Phoenix 2K2 system are mounted below the radiator fan covering. I removed the fans (used to suck air in and blow out through the stack) since I wasn't using the stock smoke units anyway. I used 4 wire plugs between the A and B unit, which have a locking mechanism. These are similar to those used by aristo, but with 4 wires instead of 2. 

Overall, I am happy with this system. It suits my current needs for now and for the forseeable future. It has exposed some real limitiations of my physical plant but in time, I will be able to remedy that by expanding the railroad and creating alternate routes for multiple train operations.


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Mark. All I can say is, I'm happy I decided not to dive in yet. Maybe next year or the year after that. 

-Brian


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Mark glade that the system is working most of the time for you. like any system there can be problems. Doen the road it may be all that you want and be trouble free. Later RJD


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

I was surprised by how much more enjoyable an on board control system made to my running of trains. The most noticeable is that I run more locos during a session. I can run two or four at a time or park them and take turns which ones I run. 
Nice summarization of your experiances.


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Ward,

You may have noticed that at the open house, we were doing just that. And my railroad is really too small for two streamliners and a long freight train. Now, next time you come Ward, bring an engine to run. 

RJ,
I am hopeful that down the road, this is all I really need. I like that I can blow the whistle and ring the bell in real time. That was a major drawback on the MTS-II system I had. And even though some might view it as a drawback, I like that I can link only one transmitter and receiver can be linked at once. Meaning, if I link throttle 2 to the receiver in locomotive X, I won't have any control over loco X with throttle 1. That is going to be handy when Luke is old enough to run a train, but not quite able to control more than one at a time. Now, if there was a way to lock the scroll mechanism, it would be even better. 

Brian,
Right on! You won't get any pressure from me one way or the other. It's your money, your railroad, your time, do what you like!


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## jcopanos (May 29, 2010)

Mark, 

If you are still watching, a question or so...I too am putting Revos in 1990 vers of two FA-1's and decided the same as you to put remove the fan and use the opening for the speaker. Actually its kind of a dahh..no other room really. Question is, what is you speaker size and did you make some sort of enclosure? I am thinking of foam cups glued to the back of the speaker. Also I am still trying to decide if Phoenix is worth the extra hundred bucks over a Dallee?? BTW I am relatively new. I dropped the hobby in early 1990's i.e., work, transfers (6), and the like but with six months to go to retirement, I'm hot again! Hence the old FA-1's 

I certainly agree with your comments on wiring. I think Chinese must be color blind because they followed no clear pattern! Another question while I am thinking about, how did you get the three screws off the weights so you can access the motor blocks, which are blocking the screw heads? 

Thanks for your good info, 
Jim


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Nice info on real installs, and real comments and observations, both pro and con. 

One thing that I do want to emphasize again and again, is verify wiring with a meter, and verify that you really did get the motors separated from the track pickups. Mark found these and avoided damage. 

Don't be tempted to trust the wiring, Aristo locos are tested on DC only apparently, and the polarity of the wiring inside is sometimes random, wires can be switched inside to make the loco run in the right direction on DC, but can make the internal wiring backwards at various points, and the "polarity" of the socket is also apparently not tested. 

Do what Mark did and you won't be disappointed. 

Regards, Greg


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Jim,

Sorry, I missed your post way back when. 

Like Greg said, use a meter and don't trust the wiring. 

For your questions (sorry this is so late), I believe the Phoenix is worth the money. The newer cards are cheaper than what I spent previously but I don't have first hand experience with them. I did not make an enclosure for the speakers. I used the ones that came with the Phoenix cards. They have a big magnet and make a lot of noise. The Dalee is not polyphonic, meaning they only play one sound at a time. Some folks don't mind this, but I like having the bell ringing and engines revving while I am blowing the horn. The best suggestion with the Dallee is to listen to it in person and see what you think. After all, it is your money. 

Mark

PS. now I've got 7 locomotives set up for this system now:
2-8-2 mikado (aristo and LGB)
2-8-8-2
4-4-0 (bachmann spectrum)
FA-FB (old versions)
FA (new version)
RDC-3
and one RS-3 in pieces because I don't know what's wrong with the LED lighting..


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