Hello out there , I have this Aristo dash 9 that runs for awhile and then stops. Won’t move anymoe. I think I heard it has a thermo switch somewhere inside. Can this be fixed ?
Whole bunch of them… you will see them, they are square, flat, 2 leads, and usually orange.
Greg
Greg , I went to your site but couldn’t find anything pertaining to my loco problem. Can you be more spicific. Thanks
Mike, you will need to figure out the wiring in the Dash 9, and see where the polyfuses are, and bypass the ones causing you problems. You also need to indicate track power or battery power. You will find these little square flat things all over.
(http://www.elmassian.com/images/stories/motivepower/aristo/tender/stock.JPG)
The problem is that not all Aristo locos are wired alike and there’s a number of these, any one or more could be causing your problem. You could try temporarily bypassing them, and then remove the bypasses one by one until you locate the component causing you problems. You do need a working knowledge of electricity. I would not recommend that anyone try to rewire a loco without a working knowledge, you might do more harm than good. Regards, Greg
Greg said:Do you think that might be my problem? :P
You do need a working knowledge of electricity. I would not recommend that anyone try to rewire a loco without a working knowledge, you might do more harm than good.
There are three polyfuses in the Dash 9, two on the front board and one on the rear board.
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/Dash9/Open.JPG)
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/Dash9/PowerWires.JPG)
The polyfuses are available from Mouser Electronics under part number 576-30R250UU for about 35 cents each. There are instructions on how to open the Dash 9 in the battery Power Section of our club web site.
Thanks for the pix Paul.
What I was trying to say is that you want to determine which (if any) polyfuses are tripping prematurely. Also, there might be a problem with the dash 9 drawing excessive current, and the polyfuses are doing their job, i.e. need to fix the problem why it’s drawing excessive current.
To debug, the first thing would be to monitor the current drawn and watch what happens when it stops running.
If all is well, maximum current wise, then I would proceed to bypass the polyfuses one by one until I located the problem.
Greg
I followed the lead of Marty Cozad and completely bypassed the polyfuses by running wires from the MU plugs, front to back. So far, so good, running two Dash 9’s from one trail car.
Been seriously thinking of picking one of these up and painting it in Pennsy colors…Is this a common problem with these? Can’t say I’ve heard of it before.
Yeah Steve, that actually was a pretty hilarious design fault, the MU cables were for sharing power, but putting the 3 amp polyfuses in the main “power bus” limited you to only one loco in heavy load situations.
I’ve found that Aristo seems to try to minimize the number of different parts (good) by re-using a part in many different situations (sometimes the power rating is wrong).
They need 3 amp ones for the loco, and 5 or more amp ones for the MU cabling.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Yeah Steve, that actually was a pretty hilarious design fault, the MU cables were for sharing power, but putting the 3 amp polyfuses in the main "power bus" limited you to only one loco in heavy load situations.I’ve found that Aristo seems to try to minimize the number of different parts (good) by re-using a part in many different situations (sometimes the power rating is wrong).
They need 3 amp ones for the loco, and 5 or more amp ones for the MU cabling.
Greg
My concern is, even though the bypass is there, will the individual locos be protected? To my mind, it seems that they should… So far, no Magic Smoke.
It really depends on how they wired them.
The mu cables might want 5 or 10 amps in them.
The motor needs one on one side, 3 amps would be ok… in an SD, I’d wire one into each motor block wiring…
The biggest danger in my experience is track power, and a derailment causing a short in the wiring between trucks, and each power pickup lead needs a poly fuse…
Greg
Thanks for the replys guys. I am running on track power using a Bridgewerks 15 amp pack. Its crazy cus after I started this thread I took it out and thought i’d give it a try again. It ran fine for a couple of days and then suddenly…dead. I was not using it alone . It was connected to another dash9 using the mu cable from Aristo. Now its back on the shelf. I have to admit , electronics is not my forte .
With the wiring variations Greg reports, what is Aristo’s story on remedies? Fuses blow for a set reason and so what is the cause that Aristo has offered as the reason?
Wendell Hanks said:Aristo admit a problem? :D Surely you jest.
With the wiring variations Greg reports, what is Aristo's story on remedies? Fuses blow for a set reason and so what is the cause that Aristo has offered as the reason?