Large Scale Central

Aristo Dash 9 overloads by itself.

Problem Solving
#1

I’m looking at an Aristo Dash 9 with a revolution receiver in it. Just moving itself down the track for a few minutes, and the receiver goes into overload.

“So,” thought I, “let’s pull the motor blocks off and see if one of them is drawing a lot of current.” Um. Yes. One of the blocks just spinning its wheels in the air at like 6v draws 1.8A. The other, with the wheels spinning freely in the air maxes out my little bench supply at 2.1A. Using my brilliant powers of reasoning, I concluded, “Something’s not right here.”

So I thought I’d disassemble and examine these, perhaps power each of the motors by itself to see what kind of current each of the 4 draws but…

How do you get the middle gearbox out of one of these blocks? I’ve had my steam blocks apart more than a few times, and rather figured I’d take out these 6 screws and the guts would just lift out.

This is an engine bought from an estate sale as “run only a few times.” The wheels are worn completely down to the copper. I converted it to battery for him a while ago and, until just a few weeks ago, it ran quite nicely. Perhaps I should swap the blocks with his Santa Fe loco that he’s not as personally connected to and call Navin?

#2

Hi Tom, I have several Aristo Locos running on battery power. I have discovered that the poly fuses will trip at 3 amps. So I by-passed them on my RailLinx system so the battery is directly wired to the throttle. No more problems. I can pull any thing now. If your wheels need replacing I will still do that.

I have a board with poly fuses to protect the battery and wires directly into the Revo.

You can contact me directly for more details on this workaround.

Don Sweet, RCS of NE

www.rcsofne.com

#3

Tom you need to make sure you unsolder the motors first. look in the side you will see where they are soldered it is tight space.

#4

Tom Ruby said:

This is an engine bought from an estate sale as “run only a few times.” The wheels are worn completely down to the copper.

Don’t you love it?

#5

If you are tripping the polyswitches in a dash 9 you have something wrong, they are 3 amp rated and trip near 6 amps.

Overloading motors can damage them. Eliminating the polyswitches is a bad idea in my opinion.

You could get slightly higher rated ones, but …

You have a bad motor or a bind somewhere… unsolder the motor brush tabs on the sides of the power brick and pull the whole thing out.

Now, some advice: if you are drawing that much current, it could possibly be alignment, but more likely a bad motor or gearbox. Those parts are not normally available separately.

You might find a kind soul here that would sell you a spare, used part, but I’d look to purchasing a new motor block from RLD or Reindeer Pass.

Regards, Greg

Don Sweet said:

Hi Tom, I have several Aristo Locos running on battery power. I have discovered that the poly fuses will trip at 3 amps. So I by-passed them on my RailLinx system so the battery is directly wired to the throttle. No more problems. I can pull any thing now. If your wheels need replacing I will still do that.

I have a board with poly fuses to protect the battery and wires directly into the Revo.

You can contact me directly for more details on this workaround.

Don Sweet, RCS of NE

www.rcsofne.com

#6

Nope. Poly switches weren’t the problem.

When I took the power blocks off and put power to them, it took 2 amps just to spin the wheels in the air. 2 times 2 is four amps, a wonder the thing even ran a little. I took a block off another for comparison. 1/2 amp. Since this specific loco is near and dear to the owner’s heart, I swapped the power blocks. Now this loco runs nicely. I’ll get the other going when we get a pair of blocks or maybe just some motors. “Oh, Navin!”

Unsolder it… Hmm, I wondered about that. Bet it’s a trip to get put back together.

#7

Big tip, and you really need to unsolder both at the same time, with one iron, you heat and pull, heat the other side and pull… it will come but most people wind up taking divots out of the plastic in the slot and overheating the brush terminals.

Pain in the butt to do.

Thought you had pulled one apart before?

A page on the Aristo motor block: http://www.elmassian.com/trains/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/aristo-motive-power/prime-mover-basics

Greg

#8

We know Robbie has a good number of 3 axle motorblocks at RLDHobbies.

Ed

#9

Be aware, if they have stainless wheels on them, you have to use the stainless wheels that come with them, the taper of the axles are different.

Greg

#10

Although it does not seem to be the problem in this case, my battery powered Dash 9 repeatedly shut down when I tried to run it at Andy’s. The volume on the Phoenix Sound P8 was shut off and the locomotive ran fine the rest of the day. I believe this is a lithium-ion battery pack problem rather than a receiver problem.

At home at Doug’s I was hauling an 18 car train of modern cars with my Dash 9, many of them USAT 55 foot metal tank cars, up a steep grade. This is the only time I ever encountered an overload shut down with a Revolution receiver.