Aristo-Craft FA1 non-PNP

Here’s a look at the FA1 chassis – the hood is removed, and so is the plastic engine block. The red/green motors leads have been removed from the white modular plugs, and capped with Bodnar connectors. The circuit board is still there with the hopes of feeding the two light bulbs you see. But I later decided not to include these bulbs, as they are not prototypical – I didn’t even reinstall the engine block. Somebody in the Chinese factory thought they’d be cool to include, but it’s a toy feature that we don’t need and we won’t miss. The black/white leads in the modular plugs are track power feeds; we will also remove them from the plug and splice in two Bodnar connectors. The entire circuit board will be scrapped.

For those interested, this is the underside of that circuit board For those interested, this is the underside of that circuit board. I tried to trace where the current flowed so that those solid wires could power the bulbs from the modular plugs; you can see where I cut the traces on either end to enable just those wires, but it didn’t work right – so for me, the whole thing gets pitched out – you don’t need it.

As we’ve described before, use two 3P terminal strips dovetailed together and jumper all the posts together with solid copper wire. Dab each post with flux, then melt in a dab of solder. This will be the track power distribution strip. Do the same with two 2P terminal strips to create your motor block distribution strip. If you wish, you can trim the excess posts sticking out with open-end wire cutters. (Ignore the white/black wires connected here for now…this picture is meant only to show the wrappings and soldering)

Here we see the underside of the FA1 hood Here we see the underside of the FA1 hood. With this install, we’ll add the receiver using the adapter board, and a smoke control board to power an older smoke unit.

From the left, the yellow arrows are the cab light and headlight contact strips, the white arrows are the smoke control board components spliced into the auxiliary harness (black/brown wires). In this photo, the smoke control board is connected to the on/off switch at the rear of the loco – later I will scrap that idea and connect directly to track power. The red arrow is the cab lights and headlight wires that were removed from where the yellow arrows point; these wires were capped with a Bodnar connector so we can power the headlight and cab light continuously with track power from the terminal strip. It is possible to control the headlight separately, but in this first install that I attempted, I chose not to do that…I didn’t know how yet!

Another close-up of the contact strips that receive power from the on/off switch, showing where we cut the wires that feed the front lighting. We will bypass this on/off switch on the left completely for motor, smoke and lights. Note the center two contact strips – they power the smoke unit. We’ll remove the switch board completely, then use those interior two strips and connect spade connectors from the smoke control board output under the two center screws between the yellow arrows to power the smoke unit.

Here’s a close-up of the smoke control board Here’s a close-up of the smoke control board. We clipped off one of the power plugs on the left to use it to power this board. Since the FA1 has only one smoke unit, you don’t need the second plug.

Here you can see the front of the smoke control board, where we’ve taken that plug from the 2nd output and used it to plug into the power socket on this board. The stripped ends were tinned to strengthen the stranded wires, and each one is connected to its own track power terminal strip. Once we connect track power to these strips, the board will have the power it needs to run your smoke unit.

One of the considerations you have to make is where to install the link button. On the FA1, I found room inside the cab on the back wall near the ceiling. Easy to access, and mostly out of sight behind the cab door. My FA1 has the cab doors removed – not completely by choice. The hinges are not very substantial I have found…

If you like this location, I achieved it by drilling a slightly larger than ¼” hole at this location from inside the hood – the shell is on its nose here, looking down at the back wall of the cab compartment. Continue to size the hole until the push button of the switch can pass completely through and the threads can be accessed with the nut and lock washer. You are working in very close quarters here; use a Dremel tool or twist the bit between your fingers! Higher and left of this location would be slightly better, knowing that the nut needs room to seat against the cab wall.

This is a good time to review what the Aristocraft non-PNP Adapter Board is and what it does. Once this is wired into your loco, it will provide control over the motor speed, front and rear headlights, and some auxiliary functions that the receiver provides.

The red and black wires each need to connect to one of the track power terminal strips, which will power this entire adapter. The gray and orange wires each need to connect to one of the motor block terminal strips, to send throttle information to the motors. The yellow and white wires are optional, for headlights front and rear, with the blue being the common return wire from each end.

Here’s the exploded view of the wiring harness Here’s the exploded view of the wiring harness. The larger 6P terminal strips will be connected to track power (the red and white wires coming from the top of the photo). They also have wires (black/white) to power the smoke control board. The red/black wires from the adapter board each connect to one of the track power terminal strips. The smaller 3P terminal strips are for the motor blocks – they are each fed by the gray and orange wires that send voltage information to the motor blocks. You then have one wire from each motor block Bodnar plug connected to an open pole on the motor terminal strip.

The Revolution receiver has been plugged into the adapter board, and a piece of pink foam from the receiver packaging has been cut to fit to support the receiver so it will lay flat. The blue cylindrical capacitor plugs into the chip via a small two-prong plug, and provides a short burst of stored power in the event the track power is interrupted briefly by dirty track or plastic frogs or crossings. Aristocraft provides an adhesive black pad that was designed to fit over the square based circuit board, then attach the capacitor to any surface in the wiring bay. I have since found it a better technique to fasten the capacitor top-down, since the top is very flat and sticks better. This entire assembly can now be fastened to the floor of the loco’s chassis.

Here’s the harness as you would install it in the chassis Here’s the harness as you would install it in the chassis. The track and motor terminal strips have been connected together on each side, and the motor terminals have been dabbed with white craft paint to identify them . The capacitor has been attached to the front weight for testing purposes – in the final assembly, I would mount this top-side down with DOTS strips. In this photo the chassis circuit board had not yet been removed, nor had the bulbs – later on those were discarded. The black/white track power wires in the white plugs were removed and capped with Bodnar connectors. Then the corresponding mated plug was attached, and the tinned ends connected to open poles in the track strips.

Here’s the more recent photo that shows the mossing on/off switch in the back of the loco. The power leads from the output side of the smoke control board are connected directly to the center two contact strips that feed the smoke unit. The smoke control board is powered via the white plug, with the tinned bare wire ends connected to each one of the track power strips. The original circuit board in the floor of the loco was finally removed in this photo. This loco is now ready to go…. Except….

Again, a closer view of the spade connections that power the smoke unit on the bared end of a Bodnar connector, slipped under the screws that hold the contact strips in place. This worked VERY well if you have very small spade connectors, on the order of 1/8” wide.

I had purchased some ditch lights from RAM at the ECLSTS, and I thought why not try installing them in this FA1 unit? So you select the locations you want the two lights to be located, then drill the appropriate size holes for the lens, then attach the lens that will hold the LED ditch lights.

Under the shell, where you can see how the lens were glued from the inside to secure the LEDs that snap into those lens. I was not real happy with the neatness of this work, and I may end up replacing these lens if the fall out. The wires coming from the nose are fastened under the cab with DOTS strips to secure them.

Here’s the completed install, with ditch light batteries mounted on the nose section ahead of the cab compartment. These will charge from track power IF you limit the circuit to 12V with diodes. I mounted the on/off button for the ditch lights just behind the capacitor. I had to drill a small hole to mount it.

If you have internet access, you can see these ditch lights being tested at this link: FA1_operating_ditchlights This 3gp file type may require QuickTime to properly view it.