I have just received a Bachmann C19 engine and tender. The tender has a DCC card (G831X+PCB01). I have all my engines (5 total) running with Revolution Train Engineer (TE), which is DC. Has anyone converted a C19 DCC to DC using Train Engineer? Is there any sense in just reconnecting track power to TE board and TE board to motor? Then just connect the speaker to the TE Board? Or is this conversion much more complicated?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks, Keith Johnson
I can’t answer your question, but where did you find an available C-19? I have been looking for one for months.
A member of our club here in St. George Utah is minimizing the layout since her husband has passes away. She gave away 4 or 5 locomotives she said weren’t running. Since I don’t have DCC, I want to convert to DC with TE.
Welcome Kieth,
Maybe I can help. I have 3 that I converted to RailPro. One of them was done using the factory boards.
First some questions:
Are all of the factory boards still installed in the tender?
Do you know the difference between the DC Board and the “Octopus” board" - the one with just wires coming off it?
If answers to first is yes and the loco has the “Octopus” board, then converting it to your Revo system should not be too difficult. I have all the wiring information from the factory and from my own reverse engineering work. I also have at least one full set of the factory electronics for the tender.
Maybe open the tender and post a picture of how it is set up now. Tender top has three screws. One under the water hatch cover and two in the front corners, visible with the coal load removed.
Where are you located? I might be willing to convert it for you. I should only need the tender.
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Jon, thanks for the response. I have attached a picture of the tender with the coal load removed. Is that picture enough or could you use more? I live in St. George Utah. I really only need TE control of the speed and direction. The TE board has the sound on the board. But I don’t want to lose the lights. The smoke I can lose.
Are you able to see the photo?
Thank you. Yes, the picture is great!
So it appears that you have all of the factory electronics in place. That brown wire pair with the plug that is disconnected is the speaker lead. All of the functions and lights are accessible via the solder pads at the bottom of the board - OR - via a plug-in wiring board that attaches to the two rows of sockets. This is what I refer to as an “Octopus” board. It is simply a circuit board with lots of wires running off it to connect to whatever system you like.
I’ll find one of mine, take a photo and post here soon.
Here are the two boards that should have come with the loco.
On the left is what I am calling the Octopus board. It’s just leads for every function on the loco. Used to install a non plug-n play system. On the right is the DC board which is normally shipped plugged into the tender board. The DC board allows the loco to function on basic track power with lights and smoke controlled by switches in the smoke box.
If your Revo system is one of the plug-n-play, it may be able to plug directly into the tender. I have no Revo experience, so others might need to help you there.
If your Revo has wire or screw terminals and you have an Octopus board, I can help you wire it up.
For my latest RailPro conversions I removed the weights and the board from the tender to make room for a big speaker and battery. I then wired directly to the wires coming out of the plugs at the front of the tender.
This is a thread covering a conversion of a C-19 to RailPro… RailPro Install in Bachmann C-19
And if you don’t have those boards pictured above, you can buy them from Bachmann. Others who have taken theirs out may sell or donate them to you. This was discussed for someone else recently.
This is the only one I can find but the octopus board might be available if you call parts direct.
https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=69_580&products_id=5149
I have a hard time seeing why you would want to return the C19 to DC control when most would upgrade to DCC, or Rail Pro. I do understand that many still run DC on their layouts and upgrading to the newer control systems for there own personal reasons is not what they want to do. All being said, it looks like several can help you, thanks to old take off parts from others.
trainman
John, I have 6 locomotives set up using TE. It would be too costly and too much trouble to swap every one of them to DCC. So instead of converting 6 DCs to 6 DCCs, I just change 1 DCC to 1 DC. I generally don’t need all the features of DCC.
Keith
Thanks, Bob,
This looks fairly straight forward. Do you happen to have the wiring diagram of how you connected to what pins? Or do I go by the photo?
Thanks,
Keith
Keith
I know the C-19 electronics rather well but am a little confused abut what you want to do.
It all comes down to what you are putting on the track
- If you want to run the locomotive on DC simply plug in the Bachmann DC board (pictured on the right hand side of Jon Radder’s message above, If you do not have this board I have a lot of them if you need one.
This board allows you to control the speed and direction by varing the DC voltage on the track. The old Aristocraft Train Engineer system works this way,
- If you want to run the Crest Revolution Train Engineer RC system you need to install a Crest onboard receiver in the socket, This allows you to run the locomotive using RC (radio control) with either battery power in the locomotive (or trailing car) or constand voltage track power.
Bobs photo of his install shows this board in the socket.
Please let us know which option you wish to use and we can help you with getting running.
Stan
Stan,
I have all my engines (6 total) on Revolution Train Engineer. I want to add a receiver to the C19, I am not sure what the wiring would be. I have a picture from Bob McCown that shows some wiring, I’m just not sure which wire is what. I could just follow the colored wiring. and maybe that’s enough. I run with full track power so all control is in the TE transmitter.
Does this help explaining what I’m trying to accomplish?
Keith
If youre going to use the on-board sound on the Revolution RX, you don’t need to do anything except plug the RX into the board. I run Phoenix sound boards, so thats where all those other wires are going.
Thanks, Bob, is it as simple as that? Just insert the TE board and maybe hook up the speaker?
Much easier than I expected.
Keith
And yes, I will be using the sound from the TE board. So I’ll hook up the existing speaker to the TE board.
K
Bob
Its been many years since I tested the Quest revolution board. A few questions.
- The socket has two rows of pins, tthe row called J1 has the headlight motor power in and power out,
While the smoke pin will not work does the chuff input work? Dows the revolution provide DC power on the + and - pins?
J2 has the speaker and 5 functions. Traditionally Aristocraft only used the speaker pins. Does the quest board also sue the speaket pins?
Does the quest board use the function pins or do you have to solder a connection to the main board and pug them in to the quest board?
Thanks
Stan
The other question that needs to be answered is what are the settings for the switches on the tender board and in the smoke box for Revo?
I removed the tender board on my RailPro installs. For RailPro, the smoke box switches get set to DCC so that RP can control the function via it’s current sink outputs (ground). I would assume Revo would be the same for functions it can control and DC or Off for those it can’t.
Jon, Bob,
Do I understand this correctly? I have the Train Engineer RX board (57002DSS) so I just need to plug it into the DCC board in the C19 and then hook up the speaker. Then link it to the TX and I should be set. I will have speed, direction and sound from the TX. Will I still have lights? I’m a tad nervous because I don’t want to blow out one of the boards.
And thanks for all your help.
Keith