Radio Control - 2.4 GHz Revolution Train Engineer
by Paul Norton
Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society - http://ovgrs.edtime.com
INTRODUCTION
This article details how to install and program the new Aristo-Craft 2.4 GHz Revolution Train Engineer.
A GP-40 diesel will be used for this article, but the installation and programming should be similar for any Plug and Play locomotive.
REMOVING THE SHELL
Remove the cover for the switches from the top of the locomotive.
Remove the handrails from the sides and ends of the locomotive.
Place the locomotive upside down on a soft engine cradle taking care not to damage the horns.
Remove the ten screws outlined in yellow that hold the shell to the frame.
- Two are at the very front behind the short hood pilot. Do not remove the screw in the center.
- Two are near the edge of the frame in front of the rear wheels of the front truck.
- Two are under the rear of the front truck.
- Two are just in front of the rear truck.
- Two are at the very rear behind the long hood pilot. Do not remove the screw in the center.
Turn the locomotive over and lift the shell from the frame from the back to the front. The long hood, cab and short hood will all come off as one piece. Set the shell on the engine cradle beside the frame taking care not to damage the horns. Fasten the ten screws back in the shell so they do not get lost.
INSTALLING THE RECEIVER
Remove the 12-pin dummy plug from the front of the Plug and Play port and insert the 2.4 GHz Revolution Train Engineer. Raise the antenna slightly.
QUICK PROGRAMMING THE LOCOMOTIVE
Remove the battery cover from the rear of the transmitter and insert 3 Alkaline, Ni-Cad or NiMH AA cells. Replace the cover.
Flip the transmitter over and press and hold the power ON/OFF key for a second. The graphic screen will display operational information which will be useful when the locomotive has been programmed.
Press the MENU key. The MAIN SET UP MENU will appear and item 1. TRACK/LOCO ASSIGN will be highlighted. Push the STOP key to select it.
The TRACK/LOCO ASSIGN menu will appear and item 1.a. BIND ADDR will be highlighted. The bind address is similar to the channel number used on the 27 and 75 MHz transmitters. Select any two digit number between 00 and 49 by pushing either the "<" or ">" LEFT OR RIGHT ARROW keys to move up or down numerically. I used the last two digits of the locomotive's road number so it would be easy to remember. When the number has been selected, push the STOP key to save it.
Push the "V" DOWN ARROW key to highlight item 1.b. RX TYPE. Use the "<" or ">" LEFT OR RIGHT ARROW keys to select either On Board for locomotives or BASE RX for accessory controllers. As this is a locomotive, On Board was selected and the STOP key was pushed to save it.
Push the "V" DOWN ARROW key to highlight item 1.c. NAME. Use the ALPHA/NUMERIC keypad to enter a name to identify the locomotive. The data is entered the same way as using a portable phone or cell phone. I used CN GP-40 for this diesel.
Push the "V" DOWN ARROW key to highlight item 1.d. ROAD NO. Use the ALPHA/NUMERIC keypad to enter a 4 digit road number. I used 4008 for this diesel.
Items 1.e. to 1.l. are optional items. In order to operate and test the locomotive as soon as possible, these functions will be left in their default mode and reviewed later.
Press the "V" DOWN ARROW key until item 1.m. BINDING is highlighted. Binding is similar to linking process that was used with the 27 and 75 MHz transmitters and receivers.
A locomotive must be bound using the following steps before it can be operated.
- The locomotive must be powered. If a fully charged Aristo-Craft lithium-ion battery pack is available, plug it into an MU plug on either end of the diesel. Alternatively a battery car or small transformer with a compatible two-pin plug could be used.
- On the corner of the receiver, there is a small black momentary switch. Press and hold the button, indicated with the red arrow, until the small red LED on the receiver begins to flash.
- While the LED is still flashing and item 1.m. BINDING is still highlighted on the transmitter screen, press the STOP key to BIND (LINK) the locomotive's receiver and the transmitter.
- In a moment the screen will indicate BINDING PASSED and the red LED will stop flashing.
Unplug the battery pack or battery car or power pack.
Press the MENU key twice to return to the OPERATING SCREEN. Press and hold the ON/OFF key for a couple of seconds to turn the transmitter off for now.
INSTALLING THE SHELL
Remove the ten screws from the shell. Using the removal of the shell instructions as a guide, re-install the shell and the screws taking care not to pinch any wires between the shell and the frame or damage the horns. Re-install the hand railings, but leave the cover off the switches for now.
OPERATING AND TESTING THE LOCOMOTIVE
If you are using track power, ensure the power switch on the locomotive is set to track power before replacing the switch cover. Place the locomotive on the track and apply power. The lights may come on, but the locomotive should not move.
If you are using battery power, ensure the power switch on the locomotive is set to battery power before replacing the switch cover. Place the locomotive on the track and plug a battery car into the rear MU plug. Alternatively the locomotive could be raised on test stand so the wheels are free to turn, and a battery car or an Aristo-Craft, lithium-ion battery pack plugged into the rear MU plug. The lights may come on, but the locomotive should not move.
Press and hold the power ON/OFF key on the transmitter for a second. The graphic screen will display operational information.
On the top of the screen there will be a name and road number of a locomotive. If it is not the locomotive under power, use the "<" T or T ">" key to find and display the name and road number of the locomotive.
To the left of the name is a series of four vertical bars indicating signal strength between the transmitter and the locomotive's receiver. On the bottom of the screen in the center there should be an Link OK indication, and a to the right an indication of the transmitter's battery voltage.
Press and hold the "^" UP ARROW key and the locomotive will begin to accelerate. In the center of the screen the locomotive's speed and direction will be indicated. Press the "V" DOWN ARROW key and the locomotive will decelerate.
When stopped, the "<" or ">" LEFT OR RIGHT ARROW keys can be pushed to change direction.
The STOP key can be used to immediately stop the locomotive.
Congratulations! You have installed your first 2.4 GHz Revolution Train Engineer.
As previously mentioned, there were a number of optional programming settings, Items 1.e. to 1.l., that were left in default mode. Press the MENU key. The MAIN SET UP MENU will appear and item 1. TRACK/LOCO ASSIGN will be highlighted. Push the STOP key to select it.
The TRACK/LOCO ASSIGN menu will appear and item 1.a. BIND ADDR will be highlighted.
Press the "V" DOWN ARROW key until item 1.e MOMENTUM is highlighted.
1.e – MOMENTUM: The rate at which the locomotive will accelerate or decelerate. Adjustable from 1 to 100% in 1% steps, factory default 5%.
1.f – DELAY: The number of seconds a locomotive will pause while changing directions. Adjustable from 0 to 5 seconds in 1/10 second steps, factory default 1 second.
A personal favorite function that allows me to uncouple cars in a spur or siding while switching before the locomotive backs out.
1.g – MOTOR: The direction the motors will normally turn. The factory default is “NORMAL”, the option “REVERSE”. This accomplishes the same thing as the NMRA/Large Scale switch in a Bachmann Annie, but with the push of a button. The transmitter screen has a graphic display showing the direction of travel. When I see a right pointing arrow, I expect to locomotive to move forward.
1.h – HD LIGHT: Synchronizes the direction of the headlights with the direction of travel. The factory default is “NORMAL”, the option “REVERSE”. On my GP-40 I had to select reverse to have the lights function properly.
1.i – BACK-BACK: Determines the direction consisted locomotives will travel. The factory default is “NORMAL”, the option “REVERSE”. A locomotive that usually travels in its “NORMAL” direction, may travel in "REVERSE" if it is not the lead locomotive.
I don’t know if this required with track power, as most locomotives would run in the same direction no matter which direction they were placed on the track. But perhaps with on-board battery power, the direction would have to be selected if placed backwards in a consist.
1.j – TOP SPEED: Sets the top speed as a percentage of its possible top speed. Adjustable from 1 to 100% in 1% steps, factory default 100%. This could limit the top speed of the locomotive in case you were handing the throttle to an unsupervised child holding a cappuccino and a puppy. But more likely was designed to adjust the top speed of dissimilar locomotives in a consist.
1.k – START SPEED: Adjusts the speed at which acceleration of a locomotive will begin. Adjustable from 1 to 25% in 1% steps, factory default 0%. Used to adjust the start of dissimilar locomotives that are run in a consist.
1.l – AUX FUNC. SETUP: Used to set function controls for bell, whistle/horn, sound, lights etc. between momentary and latching. Latching leaves the accessory on until the button is pushed a second time for things like bells, sound, lights, etc. Momentary would sound a whistle or horn only as log as the button held down. The system includes a plug in cable for 6 functions, but there will be an option for 16 functions.
The QUICK MENU is accessed by pushing the # POUND key
Under the Quick Menu there is an item to adjust the STEP SPEED - The speed at which the locomotive will accelerate or decelerate when the appropriate keys are pushed. Adjustable from 1 to 5 in steps of 1, factory default 2%.
Speed Setting 1 – 0.1% increments in speed.
Speed Setting 2 – 0.5% increments in speed
Speed Setting 3 – 1.0% increments in speed
Speed Setting 4 – 2.5% increments in speed
Speed Setting 5 – 5% increases in speed
That’s a lot to wade through, but would only be necessary if you were running locomotives together. Even when preparing locomotives for consists, it may not be necessary to use all of the functions. People have been dissimilar locomotives together for years. But it has the power to set up a number of locomotives so they will run flawlessly together in a consist.
Press the MENU key once and the OPERATING SCREEN will be is displayed. On the bottom line of the screen the step speed for the selected locomotive is indicated.
ADDITIONAL LOCOMOTIVES
In time you may add TE receivers to other locomotives. As each locomotive requires a different track number, you may have to change the default number of tracks. Up to 49 tracks can be assigned, however it would be practical to set the number of tracks to slightly more than the number locomotives equipped with TE receivers.
If the transmitter is not already on; press and hold the power ON/OFF key on the transmitter for a second until the OPERATING SCREEN is displayed. Press the MENU key. The MAIN SET UP MENU will appear and item 1. ASSIGN FUNCTIONS will be highlighted.
Press the "V" DOWN ARROW key until item 2 USAGE OF TRACKS is highlighted.
Push the STOP key to select it. The number of tracks currently available will be highlighted. Use the ">" RIGHT ARROW key to increase the number of tracks. The default is 5. I choose 10 tracks; nine tracks for each of my diesels and one track to assemble a consist of locomotives.
Press the MENU key twice to return to the OPERATING SCREEN.
As time permits, information on how to assemble a consist of two or more locomotives and control them as one with the transmitter will be added.