Vin all of the drop ins will fit in there is no age.
its the lights that may not hook up right. the boards are made to the current mods. gp6/9 where the worst but there are fixes. if you lights will not hook up you can get the new boards from mike at usa.
The F3 has the “weirdest” lights and one of the oldest circuits, maybe 3 different voltages for lights are used.
The GP7 (it is not a 9) has 2 different lighting versions, low voltage (like 5 volts) and track voltage.
Greg
The older GP7/9 used a high voltage bulbs here is the mod. for those http://www.cvpusa.com/doc_center/rev1_GP7-9_old_style_lighting.pdf
In any event the AW Drop-in will work in any vintage engine it was designed to fit in. The caveat is you’ll have to modify the lighting circuits. I replace all the wiring and stock stuff with new LED’s. AW has service bulletins on how to wire specific Drop-in boards with stand alone LED’s without benefit of USAT circuit boards.
Michael
On my old F3s I used the original Airwire900 board (now the G3) in conjunction with the factory circuit board to drive the lighting at the correct voltages. The motors were wired directly to the AW, but the lighting output was detored through the old main board. A simple dpdt relay was needed to reverse the polarity of the lighting circuit to achieve the fwd and rev lighting features.
Yeah, that can be done also. I prefer to get rid of all the old electronics as much as possible and any mechanical devices.
The F3’s had 2 regulators screwed to the lead weights if I remember right. Unfortunately this also made an electrical connection to the lead weights. I helped one guy who moved both regulators to the same weight to “clean up” and burned several components out.
It’s worth the effort to get rid of the incandescents and their screwy voltage requirements and wiring and replace with LEDs with no voltage regulators, heat sinks, etc.
Greg
The F3 looks like it would be more complicated for me at this time.
Probably going to switch the GP30 that I have instead, it doesn’t have much run time on it at all and it will get me to use it more.
Having fun so far playing around with the GP38, still trying to figure everything out but I am getting there.
Update 5/18/15:
So after the winter that would never end here in New England (and our Caribbean vacation) we finally have our railway open for the season.
While I had only a few chances to test the locomotive that I equipped with the Air Wire setup before getting it out on our own railway here is my review so far:
I certainly do like and appreciate the no track cleaning before running a train.
I am a little disappointed in the range of operation between transmitter and receiver. I have the transmitter output maxed and to the best of my knowledge when putting the shell back on the GP38 the antenna was not being trapped under other wires and was as far from the battery as I could possibly get it.
Talking with the people from AirWire at the ECLSTS they did mention motor noise from new motor blocks that had not broken in yet being a cause for poor reception along with my choice of battery I used (even though I used what was recommended by my Airwire dealer).
However, still not really a big deal to me as I mainly am a set it & forget it runner… may be a different story if I was someone who did operations (my range is maybe 20’ at best).
Anyway, the operation is pretty smooth (even though sometimes I am turning stuff on/off by accident) and I was very impressed with the run time I have seen so far. I had the GP38 pulling just 3-cars yesterday, but in the hot sun and with full sound & lights running and it went for a good 3-hours before I shut it down. I am sure it would have run longer on the same charge but we needed to catch up on 2-weeks of Game Of Thrones before the new episode aired last night!
So overall I am satisfied with it, I still want to convert my GP30 over to battery, just wish it was a little cheaper.
Greg Elmassian said:
Yeah, that can be done also. I prefer to get rid of all the old electronics as much as possible and any mechanical devices.
The F3’s had 2 regulators screwed to the lead weights if I remember right. Unfortunately this also made an electrical connection to the lead weights. I helped one guy who moved both regulators to the same weight to “clean up” and burned several components out.
It’s worth the effort to get rid of the incandescents and their screwy voltage requirements and wiring and replace with LEDs with no voltage regulators, heat sinks, etc.
Greg
USAT has replacement parts at a reasonable price for the LEDs, so all you have to do is plug ‘n’ play. For electrically challenged folks like me, this is a good thing.
The bigger issue Steve, in my opinion, is that there are so many small boards with lights soldered to them, and wired wrong for LEDs, so I would in most cases remove the old bulbs and just hot glue the LEDs to the boards for physical placement.
I go to a lot of trouble to use the original wires, connectors, etc, in many cases, but it’s a heck of a lot of work.
Regards, Greg
Vincent,
The range is only 20ft??? I get better than 200ft with the original decoders using the old style transmitters or the t5000. Are you refering to the throttle control range or just accessory features? I usually set the lights how i like them and run…and I dont run any sounds systems…so maybe I’m missing the range flaws? Occaisionally when my trains are running continuously, the train will stop unexpectedly and then start back up. I found that by turning the throttle off after getting up to speed this won’t happen.
Rockwall Canyon Jeff said:
Vincent,
The range is only 20ft??? I get better than 200ft with the original decoders using the old style transmitters or the t5000. Are you refering to the throttle control range or just accessory features? I usually set the lights how i like them and run…and I dont run any sounds systems…so maybe I’m missing the range flaws? Occaisionally when my trains are running continuously, the train will stop unexpectedly and then start back up. I found that by turning the throttle off after getting up to speed this won’t happen.
Don Sweet sent me a message with some things to check, so when I get a chance I will open the GP38 back up and take a look again.
And yes, it is the throttle and accessories - 20’ max at the moment for range.
I did also have the train suddenly stop for no apparent reason, was driving me crazy, then maybe within 30 seconds or so it just started moving again.
Vin on the starting and stopping one thing you can check is to make sure CV 11 is on 0 this is the time out if set to 0 it never times out.
Yes, Don knows far more about this than I ever will!
For a long shot fix…
try changing to a different frequency or channel. It may be possible there is interference from another 900mHz device such as a wireless phone. I once had a similar range issue when I accidentally had two of my engines running off the same frequency using different addresses.
Vince,
WOW, 20’ range; something is obviously amiss… As suggested excessive EMI can be generated by new brushed motors whilst breaking in the brush and commutator, best case for seating new brushes is low voltage operation for at least ten minutes or more. The antenna should be vertical or perpendicular to the loco frame, unencumbered by other wires and such. Metal to metal abrasion is a common source of EMI too…
The battery being suspect is interesting, what type of battery is being utilized? To avoid being obtuse, what type of battery did you purchase i.e., Li-Ion, NiMh, NiCd, Li-Po, or? I’m scratching my head on this consideration.
Michael
Michael Glavin said:
Vince,
WOW, 20’ range; something is obviously amiss… As suggested excessive EMI can be generated by new brushed motors whilst breaking in the brush and commutator, best case for seating new brushes is low voltage operation for at least ten minutes or more. The antenna should be vertical or perpendicular to the loco frame, unencumbered by other wires and such. Metal to metal abrasion is a common source of EMI too…
The battery being suspect is interesting, what type of battery is being utilized? To avoid being obtuse, what type of battery did you purchase i.e., Li-Ion, NiMh, NiCd, Li-Po, or? I’m scratching my head on this consideration.
Michael
This is the battery that I purchased:
http://www.reindeerpass.com/Railroad-Remote-Control-CR-1605-14-8V-5200mah-Lithium.aspx
The people I talked with from AirWire at ECLSTS said they don’t like this battery because it emits a lot of interference.
Like I said, it may be the antenna did get hung up on some wires when I put the shell back on. I just have not had the time to take it back off and take a look.
It’s plausible a protection control circuits of Li-Ion batteries could generate RFI, yet I’ll suggest its NOT common far as I know. My experience with Li-Ion batteries of various cell assemblers over many years of RC airplane use and testing never revealed or experienced said RFI of the batteries we used therein.
It’s easy enough to eliminate the battery as suspect by utilizing an alternate power source, make no other changes at this time and onto the rails for evaluation.
Another consideration is spurious noise from other sources, i.e., Wi-Fi, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, cell phones, nearby towers and or cell sites… Perhaps you can run the engine at another site.
Michael
Vincent, you are getting some good analysis. As I represent Cordless Renovation I would replace your battery pack if it was defective. However, after installing this battery pack as well as the 18.5V 6000 mAh battery in numerous AirWire , QSI and RailLinx systems I doubt the interference is coming from the battery pack. Your placement of the battery is the best over the rear truck. Also, are you using the smoke units? If not remove them. They will block some of the radio signal.
My assistant Kevin reminded me that AirWire changed their radio on the G3 and he has seen broken leads from the little board at the end of the G3 board. Please inspect the 6 legs that connect the radio board to the mother board. Kevin had to repair the legs. This is a weak spot on the new G3 board and AirWire has tried to strengthen the connection. Do not bend the little board and make sure the antenna is pointed to the sky.
You can always stop by for a visit and we can help you.
Don
RCS of New England
This is funny. Seriously. Batteries emitting electromagnetic interference?
Yes, as a matter of fact, but it isn’t the batteries problem.
Back in the old days, we had to make sure the receiver was far away from even our nicads…but not always.
The electronics in the throttle…whether it be early Oz, Hairwire, would pulse…giving your your PW output…but that pulse fed back down the power feed from the battery (think ammeter and flipping loads on and off).
The cells and cell plates would vibrate at this PW…the fix was to change to frequency of the PW.
So you’re trying to tell me, without telling me, that Hairwire has reverted to the old PW frequency and is trying to blame batteries?
Okay.
Good story.
Yup.
I like it.
TOC
Thanks everyone for the replies.
As far as the battery goes, I am simply repeating what was said to me by the people manning the AirWire booth at this years ECLSTS.
No, I don’t remember their names, rank and serial number… just repeating what I was told
Let me just say that (like with my beloved New England Patriots) It is more probable then not that I myself am the cause of my poor reception range. I am sure once I get a chance to open the locomotive I will probably find the antenna laying flat on the chassis or tangled up in some of the wires.
After all, this was my first attempt at a install… I was generally happy that I installed it and it worked!
The battery is installed over the rear truck as it was shown that way in the instructions.
I don’t believe it is getting interference from any other device as I have tried the locomotive on (3) different layouts with the same results.
Hopefully this weekend I get a chance to open it up and look around at it and see what is up.