I had a wiring error from the factory in my SD45 (the last production run loco by Aristo).
Not sure that this was the same as Navin describes, he says you have to cut some traces and add some jumpers to the stock board.
This wiring error was a swap between a track pickup wire and a motor wire, on one of the boards in the trucks, where power is transferred from the motor block to the truck chassis.
Luckily it did not destroy my QSI decoder.
Something to watch for, battery or track power.
Greg
Steve,
I’ve gone with the exact same setup you are using. I had no idea about the board issue. I just checked my SD60f (SD45) and the board is dated 11/15/2000. I guess I dodged a bullet on that one. You would think the Revo II would have a big warning enclosed as it’s a known issue. I’ll have to check the rest of my locomotives.
Shane
Shane Stewart said:
Steve,
I’ve gone with the exact same setup you are using. I had no idea about the board issue. I just checked my SD60f (SD45) and the board is dated 11/15/2000. I guess I dodged a bullet on that one. You would think the Revo II would have a big warning enclosed as it’s a known issue. I’ll have to check the rest of my locomotives.
Shane
Shane, I don’t think that you’ve dodged a bullet. It took several hours of running time before the fault raised its ugly head. If you have a three wire setup coming from the SD45 boards that attaches to the steel frame of your loco, you’re probably ok. Its a heat sink for the lighting, or so I am told.
My memory was faulty on the 2001/2002 dating. I had opportunity to look at the boards that I removed from my SD45, and they are indeed dated 11/15/2000.
Good luck.
Richard said:
Thank you Steve for the reply but what I was asking
MU is easy, so it says in the destructions. Ummm, not so fast.
After a tutorial by Don Sweet, I get it sorted out. Thanks, Don, much more understandable than the Chinglish that comes with the REVO.
What did you learn from Don that made it easier
Richard
Hi Richard.
Here is what Don Sweet sent me:
Here is some help with the setup to create a MU.
Press Menu:
Scroll down to ADD MU/SU, press enter
CAB NO is flashing choose a new cab number. 4 or 5 etc.This will be for the MU setup.
Scroll down to MU MODE; press right arrow to turn on
You will see MU1, MU2, MU3
Scroll down to each MU1 position and select your Loco . The number of the Cab will show and the name for that loco.
Scroll down to MU2 add your loco CAB and name.
To save setting press menu. Press menu again to exit to main screen.
Now using the T>> find MU1. The first loco name & number will be displayed. Now you are connected to both locos. Go for a run.
Don
It was helpful to me, hope it helps you.
Steve Featherkile said:
Shane Stewart said:
Steve,
I’ve gone with the exact same setup you are using. I had no idea about the board issue. I just checked my SD60f (SD45) and the board is dated 11/15/2000. I guess I dodged a bullet on that one. You would think the Revo II would have a big warning enclosed as it’s a known issue. I’ll have to check the rest of my locomotives.
Shane
Shane, I don’t think that you’ve dodged a bullet. It took several hours of running time before the fault raised its ugly head. If you have a three wire setup coming from the SD45 boards that attaches to the steel frame of your loco, you’re probably ok. Its a heat sink for the lighting, or so I am told.
My memory was faulty on the 2001/2002 dating. I had opportunity to look at the boards that I removed from my SD45, and they are indeed dated 11/15/2000.
Good luck.
Yes Steve you are right about his board being one of the early ones that can go bad, if you watch his video you can see the add on board at the end of the main board that was the voltage regulator on the early board were the newer board has that 3 wires that go to the frame witch is a voltage regulator. What did you do with the switches that are just a little bigger did you just cut the opening a little bigger? The $40 plus 15 or 20 for shipping is cheap insurance.
Richard
and thank you for the post from Dan that was what I was asking and only you could answer
Thanks Guys, I’ve removed it.
I gutted a newer MRL unit, but the Revo connections are staggered the wrong direction. Now I’m getting a little confused. The only marking on the newer board is SD-45-R1. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
Shane
Richard,
Yes, I enlarged the opening a tad. Its a thin plastic?, so it cut easily with an exacto knife. One caveat, the battery/track switch is reversed, so throw it to “track” if you want “battery.”
Shane, I believe your J2 plug is offset the wrong way, but no connections go through it, only the J1 pins are important. I believe this is what you are asking about.
Yep, in it’s death throes all kinds of manufacturing goofs happened.
Greg
Shane Stewart said:
Thanks Guys, I’ve removed it.
I gutted a newer MRL unit, but the Revo connections are staggered the wrong direction. Now I’m getting a little confused. The only marking on the newer board is SD-45-R1. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
Shane
Yes Shane that is the new board I just looked the V R plugs in on the left end just in front of were the revo plugs in make sure you plug the V R in and attached to some kind of heat sink.
Richard
That reminds me to get a picture of the offset pins… if you have a nice high resolution one you could send me, I would appreciate it. We need to document this things as more people run into them.
That board should at least have J1 and J2 identified and pin 1 of each identified. Maybe my SD45 has the offset pins… hmm…
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Shane, I believe your J2 plug is offset the wrong way, but no connections go through it, only the J1 pins are important. I believe this is what you are asking about.
Yep, in it’s death throes all kinds of manufacturing goofs happened.
Greg
Never mind in it’s death throws.
Pretty well every loco AristoCraft ever made had some and often multiple design faults.
Even the RS3, which is the best running loco they ever made, had the body mounted backwards on the chassis resulting in the speaker blocking access to the ESC PnP socket.
Thanks a lot Guys,
My SD60f is now back on the test track with the newer boards and everything seems to be working fine. This thread probably saved me from a costly disaster. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
I have discovered on the new boards that the MU polarity reverses between the front and rear. I don’t know if this is how they are all wired now, or if this is another oddball. On the old boards, the inside MU connections were both positive. On the new boards, the rear board is positive on the outer connection.
Shane
Shane Stewart said:
Thanks a lot Guys,
My SD60f is now back on the test track with the newer boards and everything seems to be working fine. This thread probably saved me from a costly disaster. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
I have discovered on the new boards that the MU polarity reverses between the front and rear. I don’t know if this is how they are all wired now, or if this is another oddball. On the old boards, the inside MU connections were both positive. On the new boards, the rear board is positive on the outer connection.
Shane
That’s interesting. Have you let Navin know this, yet?
I’m not sure that it will cause any problems, since REVO II doesn’t care which side it gets its positive 'Trons from. It might, but I’d just be guessing, either way.
Steve Featherkile said:
Button 1 is default latched.
I was able to latch button 2 (bell) to get continuous clanging.
I was not able to get a single blast of the horn. Default of button 3 is momentary, and one press of the button yields 4 blasts of the horn that is almost a crossing signal. The short blast could be shorter. Latching the horn makes it go on forever, as one would surmise.
In both the bell and horn, the latching was not disengaged without a second push of the button, after which the software demanded the sound complete its cycle, bell 8 dings, horn, 4 blasts. I can live with that.
Perhaps, on the next update, the horn can be changed to one blast per button push, with an allowance for duration of button push.
I was able to change which locomotive had the bell and horn with the * button, thanks, Kevin. I suspect that would also work with 3 or more locos in the consist, I would just have to cycle through the locos to get the right one.
Thanks to Dave for posting the article, and to Gregg for linking it here.
Steve,
I have seven locos set up with battery/Revo systems. Three steam and four diesels. On all four diesels I was able to set F2 to latch to get continuous bell clanging. On the three steam boards I was not able to get continuous clanging even though the F2 button is set to latch in the menu. Weird. Is there a fix? Obviously the steam board is different from the diesel board. It’s been bugging me since you posted this.
I have no idea, Joe. Your best bet is to call Navin.
Joe Zullo said:
Steve Featherkile said:
Button 1 is default latched.
I was able to latch button 2 (bell) to get continuous clanging.
I was not able to get a single blast of the horn. Default of button 3 is momentary, and one press of the button yields 4 blasts of the horn that is almost a crossing signal. The short blast could be shorter. Latching the horn makes it go on forever, as one would surmise.
In both the bell and horn, the latching was not disengaged without a second push of the button, after which the software demanded the sound complete its cycle, bell 8 dings, horn, 4 blasts. I can live with that.
Perhaps, on the next update, the horn can be changed to one blast per button push, with an allowance for duration of button push.
I was able to change which locomotive had the bell and horn with the * button, thanks, Kevin. I suspect that would also work with 3 or more locos in the consist, I would just have to cycle through the locos to get the right one.
Thanks to Dave for posting the article, and to Gregg for linking it here.
Steve,
I have seven locos set up with battery/Revo systems. Three steam and four diesels. On all four diesels I was able to set F2 to latch to get continuous bell clanging. On the three steam boards I was not able to get continuous clanging even though the F2 button is set to latch in the menu. Weird. Is there a fix? Obviously the steam board is different from the diesel board. It’s been bugging me since you posted this.
I took your advice and called Navin to ask about my problem. He was good enough to discuss the problem with me. It turns out that with the steam boards I have I cannot get a latched bell even though the menu says F2 is latched. He also said that if I send him the boards he could reprogram them to the RevII standard. I thanked him for taking the time to talk to me about this, but it is not THAT important to me to have to take these boards out and ship them to him (time and money). He is very easy to talk to and told me to call any time. Nice customer service! (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Joe, I thought you were retired? (Time)
How much did Navin want for the reprogramming? (Money)
Just curious. I do have the USB dongle for reprogramming.
Greg
He didn’t mention the labor cost only that I’d have to ship them to and from. I asked that I thought the older boards could not be re programmed, but he said that HE could do it. I replied “Of course!” (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Yeah, I think the wireless loader updater (the usb dongle) software is only in the newer stuff, he must hardware to some contacts on the motherboard.
Sure would be nice to know what other changes to the firmware have been done between the various versions.
Greg
Steve , way back on page one you mentioned the Revo sound of a diesel was the same at idle or Run 8. That would really bug me so now I am wondering which sound boards on a battery / wireless/ dead rail system do give proper sound between idle and Run 8. Anyone with experiences with USA locomotives let me know as that is probably what my fleet of locos will be.
Not hijacking the thread it was mentioned on page one!
