# Aristo Critter to Battery Project



## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

Looking for some help with this project since I know nothing about the electronics of these locos. I have the Rail Boss 4 system from Del Tapporo to include the transmitter, receiver, and battery conversion module. Here are a couple of pics of the insides of a Critter and the power brick. Note the two red arrows I've added in the Critter photo that I am assuming is the main power from the switch to the central power control module of the Critter. Am I correct in assuming that I can just cut these and insert the Rail Boss system at this juncture? 

In the picture of the motor block. I'm guessing that the red and black is power to the block (soon to be from battery) and the green and blue is the power line from the track which I will no longer be using?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotty_macd/15409483348
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotty_macd/14974857214

Thanks for any help in solving this.

Scott


----------



## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Typically, red/black is power from the rails, and other colors go to the motor. An ohmmeter will confirm that either way. 

I can't see enough of the rest of the circuit to tell what--exactly--is going on with the black wires going to the board on the floor, but it looks like they supply power to the lights. 

I'd take the motor leads (likely green/blue) directly to the motor output of the Rail Boss. Then you can then very likely connect the battery power to those two black leads to provide power to the lights, but I'd be tempted to trace the wiring just to make sure it's coming from the track pick-ups. If it's not, there may be a voltage regulator that you'll not want to cut out of the circuit if you want to keep your lights working. 

Later,

K


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Trust no wiring, get a cheap ohmmeter and check what is connected for sure.

Verifying what wire is what then becomes easy. this is also a way to make sure that all the track pickups work for the track powered people.

At one time, aristo must have run out of black wire, I have locos with red wires that are painted black, and the black paint flaked off and both wires were red.

Greg


----------



## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

Here's a photo of my progress this weekend (17 Oct 2015). I had everything hooked up and the RailBoss transmitter sync'd and all running smoothly on blocks. I went to button everything up and did another quick test before applying screws to chassis/body and zip. Nada. The LED on the battery converter which has the main power switch comes on, but not the LED on the receiver/electronic speed controller. Pulled it apart, checked wires, pulled them out and re-assembled in the order as before, still nada. So something must have shorted as I was packing everything inside the shell. So much for having it ready for the garden railway club this afternoon. Darn!

Untitled by Scott McDonald, on Flickr
Untitled by Scott McDonald, on Flickr
Scott

Adding this link for future reference: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-multimeter


----------

