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Aristo RS3 Conversion to MTH PS3


Chuck
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Here I'll show some steps in converting a Aristo Milwaukee Road RS3 to the MTH ProtoSounds 3 Decoder which includes sounds, lights, smoke & MTH ProtoCouplers.

 

The engine as stock...

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Tore down with one motor block opened to see about flywheeling...

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Truck disassembled and cleaned...

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Machined a flywheel on my CNC engine lathe out of engineering grade plastic/ Delrin and fitted onto universal joint. Delrin works best as it's lightweight which leads to little if any vibrations as don't know how perfect the universal joint that is on the motor armature was machined. Turns out that u-joint is poorly made as it just slips onto armature shaft and is held in place with a set screw. Infact there's a flat on shaft for set screw...flat spot was ground by hand as there's grinder marks on motor case where the employee slipped. Typical Aristo half-assed manufacturing quality.

 

Note flywheel has a hole bored perpendicular to motor shaft for set screw access. Hole is covered by the black & white tach tape.

 

Another note..I've been making motor flywheels for large scale trains for years out of Delrin material as it works out very well for a few reasons.

 1. If the manufacturer didn't use back drivable double cut worm wheels & gears then brass flywheels are useless...infact they may just be detrimental to the longevity of the gear train. See back

     drivable gearing enables "coasting" when no power is present. You can spin the wheels by hand. Only time I've seen that used in large scale is on MTH, USA & AML steam engines. So on a non             back drivable design the energy stored in a brass flywheel may be harder on the geartrain when power is abruptly cut...a brass flywheel may try to keep motor spinning for an instant when the                 gearing won't allow it. A plastic flywheel stores no energy. Then again this may all be a bunch of bunk and I'm wrong.

2. Fabricating flywheels out of plastic/ Delrin results in much less tooling needed. A common drill bit index will get you "close enough" for the mounting hole bore. Delrin will expand a bit and can usually      press flywheels on by hand. Brass flywheels need to be bored with over/ under reamers to get the exact fit and that can get quite expensive inventorying that tooling. Say like a 1/8" armature shaft          will need a flywheel with say a .001" over or under (or less) reamed hole to have the proper press fit. Since motor armature shafts are really nothing more than blank ground water hardened drill rod,      manufacturing tolerances aren't 0.00 and are usually +- .0005 or half a ten thousands of an inch. What I'm getting at is 2 identical motors may have 2 different armature shaft diameters. Not                    different by much but just enough to make a brass flywheel fit tight on one but loose on other. 

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Did a little modifying of case to accept flywheel with flush side cutters and a Dremel. Changed wiring to match MTH wiring colors. Had to reroute wires they come thru case cover. Tach tape stripe count is irrelevant as can edit soundfile to speed match.20210131_064454.thumb.jpg.b840bae865a35e7be9dc729f7fdf84a6.jpg  

 

Top cover on and optical stripe reader installed.

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Here's chassis with trucks and PS3 decoder installed.

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Here's a MTH ProtoCoupler installed on pilot.

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Check coupler height with Kadee gauge. A bit low but acceptable. I use the larger "G" Kadee's anyways as the 1:32 couplers are too small and weak for big long 1:29 trains used outdoors. Even on 1:32 trains the small Kadee's are worthless. A small dip in the rails will cause a 32"+ long car couplers to "slide" up/down and out of adjoining couplers knuckle. 

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Ok, i need a time to translate  .....:)

 

The parts for the conversion do not exist here, in Germany. I still have a question, how to adjust the speed in conjunction with the tachoreader. That's interesting to me. I use PS2.
Thank you

Jan

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Chuck, another impressive loco from the shops of Chuck's Trains.  The idle sounds identical, fantastic.  Do the stripes on the flywheel need to be a specific width or can that be adjusted with the software?   I assume the reader controls the sound of the diesel speed?  Does it do anything else?   Keep up the great work.   

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19 hours ago, Dash 8 said:

Ok, i need a time to translate  .....:)

 

The parts for the conversion do not exist here, in Germany. I still have a question, how to adjust the speed in conjunction with the tachoreader. That's interesting to me. I use PS2.
Thank you

Jan

 

Jan,  I'll pm you about it all. 

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10 hours ago, Screwy Nick said:

Chuck, another impressive loco from the shops of Chuck's Trains.  The idle sounds identical, fantastic.  Do the stripes on the flywheel need to be a specific width or can that be adjusted with the software?   I assume the reader controls the sound of the diesel speed?  Does it do anything else?   Keep up the great work.   

 

Thanks Nick! About the flywheel stripes...Yes and no. Correct the reader runs the sounds, rev up and downs, stopping etc. And it's tied into the smoke unit so more rpm's equals more smoke and increased voltage to heaters. It really comes into play in a steam engine for in sync smoke with chugs. Oh and stripes control engine speed so when remote shows say 10 smph it's moving an actual 1:32 or 1:29 scale miles per hour. It doesn't need to be spot on perfect unless running a bunch of different engines in a lashup.  

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The flywheel strips:  they seem to be critical.  Controlling the smoke is a nice feature.  Your explanation of the steam loco sounds explains why a build that was posted had the chuffs so far out of sync.  He should have had you do the sound.   

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On 3/4/2021 at 10:49 AM, Jerry B44 said:

Nice work, my RS3 looks like  a piece of junk, so I'll just leave it the way it is. Who needs side rails?

 

Jerry, That guy in Canada makes replacement RS3 handrail stanchions for like $20 per loco. That and some brass wire would make replacements pretty cheap....And give you another project! :Slightly_Smiling_Face_Emoji(24x24): 

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On 3/4/2021 at 5:25 AM, Sean said:

Great work Chuck ..I was expecting the crew to say " easy you'll spill my coffee "

:Clapping_Hands_Emoji_large(24x24):

 

Sean...Lol...I did once read on a real trains forum where retired railroaders posted that a caboose was the worse place to be in when train is moving. Even the later cushioned underframe cabooses would toss you from one end to another when train slack ran in or out while underway.

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