# Updating range on an AC SD-45



## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

AristoCraft make some excellent locos. They usually run pretty well and installing battery R/C has been made very easy. 
However, because they have a PWM generator for the smoke and lights mounted right where you would normally mount the antenna wire, range has often not been as good as USAT locos where the RCS receiver can be mounted away from any such sources of interference. 
Recently I tried mounting the metal cased RX-8 on the back of the cab wall and running an AZARR antenna up inside the cab and around the cab roof with spectcular results. 
I could reliably control the RS-3 (fitted with Phoenix P5 sound) from 300' away without adding any motor "noise" suppression to the RS-3 motor blocks. 
The next step was to try the same technique with an SD-45. 
Thanks to the very simple cab construction of the SD-45 this was very easy to do. 
Here is a pic of the metal cased RX-8 mounted on the rear of the cab wall after I had drilled a small hole for the antenna wire. 








Here the AZARR antenna is shown mounted vertically up in one corner of the cab. The extra length of the wire is then strung around the top of the cab and held in place with dabs of silicone. 








Again I achieved 300' of reliable range without any extra motor "noise" suppression, but now and then the receiver suddenly shut down because of motor "noise " interfering with the PIC IC that runs the RCS operating program. I reinstalled the RF chokes on the motor leads and the problem went away. 
It seems the suppression AC fit to the motor trucks is perfectly adequate for the single motor trucks but not good enough for the two motored trucks. 
Anyway. I am now confident of reliably getting really good range from all AC locos fitted with the PnP socket.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Now now Tony, there's nothing wrong with that PWM chip right next to your antenna...... that a .45 caliber could not solve!! ha ha ha! 

Recent Aristo locos have had linear regulators in them, like my E8.... 

Regards, Greg


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## Paul Norton (Jan 8, 2008)

300 feet of radio range! Another impressive installation! 

I will pass this on to the members of our club, as many of them use RCS systems for on-board installations.


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Paul. 

I think the secret is twofold. 

1. The wound part of the AZARR works best when vertical. 
2. The antenna wire is as far as possible away from that pwm generator. 

The bigger AC locos with 2 motors per truck require extra motor "noise" suppression. The single motor trucks do not. At least with the kitbashed RS-3 I did.


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