# Aristo Mallett



## Bram (Feb 27, 2009)

My friend has one of these locos and it does look superb and he runs on track powered TE Revolution.

The problem is that it has burnt out two main boards and these were returned, together with the receivers, to Aristcraft on both occassoins and fair play to them they repaired/replaced them no questions asked, but on the downside there were no answers as to why this had happened either.

So, has anybody else experienced a similar problem or can anybody throw any light on to why this should occur


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Do you know what components burned out on the boards?


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## Bram (Feb 27, 2009)

It was well fried Paul at the point where the power feed goes into the board and the burn out was starting to travel along the solder etches. We only run on 18v not 24v.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

New or old style? (socket in the boiler or tender? 

Greg


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## Bram (Feb 27, 2009)

In the boiler Greg


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

There is no record of this being a common problem, nor have I read in any of the major forums of this happening. 

I suspect there is a strange short somewhere in the mechanism, or that the loco gets derailed and it WILL melt the boards if you leave power on when derailed. 

Since is is running the Revolution, my guess is that he is running constant track power. If you derail, and cause a short through the drivers (or the tender) this kind of damage can occur. 

Is there any chance that the wiring has been modified? I'd also check out that the tender is wired properly. 

Regards, Greg


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## Bram (Feb 27, 2009)

The two instances of burn out with us occurred after the engine had been running for approx 20 to 30 mins and then it suddenly stopped for no apparent reason, certainly no derailment. The wiring in the loco I would say is "factory finish" and has not been tampered with, we have not looked in the tender yet.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Sounds like even the poly switches fail to shut things down. Later RJD


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I agree RJ... sounds like some internal short somewhere... inspect the wiring from the track pickups on the motor blocks to the main board, look for chafing that could cause shorts. 

Please validate you are using constant track power. 

Greg


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## Bram (Feb 27, 2009)

Yes Greg, we are using constant track power at 18volts


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Two boards means that the problem is elsewhere... I'd really go over the wiring as suggested, physically inspect every millimeter of the wires as they get to the main board. 

Are there any other modifications? sound system? 

Have you been able to test and verify that there is not something wrong in the tender? (like track pickup wires mixed up)... All of this could come from the factory. 

Regards, Greg


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## Bram (Feb 27, 2009)

We are having difficulty in getting into the tender, but we will keep trying and report back. 

What we have discovered today however is that one set of drivers is jamming, so we are going to set the Mallett up on a rolling road to monitor it


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The tender comes apart with a few screws, what kind of difficulty are you having? 

Maybe you have the Vanderbilt tender, a bit more difficult to take apart, reference this page:

*http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mai...ght-a-misc* 


Greg


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