Battery Power - 75 MHz Receiver Helpful Hints | Show Menu |
by Gord Bellamy
RECEIVER INSTALLATION
The connector with seven coloured wires must be removed (snapped off) from the main circuit board before the 75 MHz receiver can be used.
To install the receiver in an Aristo-Craft, Plug and Play locomotive, remove the dummy plug from the front of the Plug and Play socket inside the locomotive and put the receiver in its place.
To install the receiver in other locomotives, the connector with the seven coloured wires must be attached to the receiver as shown in the following photo.
The seven wires on the connector must be soldered to wires in the locomotive as follows:
- Red - Track Power Left Side or Battery Positive
- Orange - Motors Terminals Left Side
- White - Rear Headlights (negative)
- Blue - Lights Common (positive)
- Yellow - Front Headlights (negative)
- Grey - Motors Terminals Right Side
- Black - Track Power Right Side or Battery Negative
If the motor(s) and light(s) are not working the same direction, change the motor wires over.
RECEIVER ANTENNA
A typical installation of the receiver’s long wire antenna involves wrapping it around a piece of cardboard or styrene and mounting it as high as possible in the locomotive. Although it may not provide any greater range than the wire antenna, the Black Kat from E Cubed R/C shown below is easier to mount because of its small size.
An antenna should not be placed behind the etched brass grilles of diesels like the FA-1 and RS-3 or radio range problems will be encountered. The following installation in an FA-1 shows a Black Kat antenna mounted under the plastic rear grill and behind the plastic louvers at the rear of the diesel.
TRANSMITTER ANTENNA
Early 75 MHz transmitters were sold with a short, rubber covered antenna. Radio range and response with these antennas can be very poor. Radio range can be tripled however, by replacing these with a telescoping antenna available free of charge by e-mailing Aristo-Craft. All new 75 MHz receivers are supposed to be sold with telescoping antennas.
RADIO RANGE PROBLEMS
If you do not obtain the expected radio range, check the following:
- Are the batteries in your transmitter fairly new? Aristo-Craft recommends using Coppertops or similar batteries. Rechargeable batteries do not have the same voltage and decay when left sitting.
- Are the batteries for your locomotive fully charged to at least 18 volts? According to rumor, the 75 MHz receiver responds better at higher voltages.
- Are you holding the transmitter antenna straight up?
- Is the receiver antenna unwrapped and properly placed as high in the locomotive as possible? The antenna should not cross over itself.
- Are you standing under the metal frame of a gazebo or other structure?
RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE (RFI)
When the 75 MHz receiver is used in a tender, B unit or trailing power car, radio range of 100 feet is possible. When the receiver is mounted inside a locomotive however, radio noise generated by the motor(s) can interfere with the transmitter’s reception. When this occurs the locomotive may be difficult to slow down even though all the other transmitter commands appear to function properly. This problem can be resolved by adding radio noise suppression components. To read more about this see the following articles:
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Last Modified 9/16/08 8:53 AM