Aristo Revolution TE 2009 P2

Wiring
When doing non Plug-N-Play installations, be extremely sure you have the correct wires for track power and motors. Connecting track power to the receiver motor outputs is fatal to the receiver. Once you let the smoke out, you can't put it back. Double check the wiring and do not trust wiring color coding.
Plugging the receiver into the 12 pin socket and getting it one pin off does the same thing and will also let the smoke out.
Wire Connectors
Aristo uses a 2 pin connector for MU locos or supplying battery from a batter car. USA Trains uses the same 2 pin connector internally to connect the motor blocks and track power to the main circuit board. These connectors can be bought on line from All Electronics Corp. in 2, 3 and 4 pin configurations. See the photos below.
PNP Dummy Plug
You can wire the Aristo-Craft dummy plug on the plug and play boards so you can power the motors and headlights from the Revo receiver in a trailing power car. Separating the motor/headlights from track power like this keeps the rest of the loco lights & smoke boards powered by track or battery power. This way when you put power to the track the locos marker and number boards will light and the headlights will light when the motor receives power from the receiver. Note - The Revo receiver never completely shuts off the motor outputs, due to the way PWC works. When the headlights are wired to the motor outputs and the throttle is at 0%, the headlights may be dimly lit.
Adapters for non Plug & Play Locos
The Revolution receiver comes with a non PNP adapter board. It only supports one end of the receiver and has wire leads for connecting to the loco. An optional Non Plug-and-Play board is available which fully supports the receiver and has screw terminals for easier wiring connections. The wiring connections are grouped differently on these two boards. Look at the boards carefully. The wire connections are marked on the boards. I have used both and have decided to use the included adapter board and wire terminal strips for my connections. I put two photos of the non P-N-P boards below.
Capacitor Boards
If you are using track power it is recommended to install the optional capacitor board. The Revolution receiver is sensitive to dirty track and the cap board ensures it does not cut out on you. Without the cap board you loco may stutter as it goes around the track. I install the cap board on every receiver installation. New Revolution sets, which arrived in September 09, include a cap board with one capacitor. Aristo still recommends the larger, optional 6 cap board for track power. Your results may vary but I will stick with the 6 cap board.
If you do not have room for the long capacitor board, you can cut it in half. You will need to connect the the traces back together with short lengths of wire. Clean off small spots on the traces until they are shiny copper, then solder the wire to connect them. You can then mount the two halves side by side or any configuration that works for you. A picture of a cut board is below.
Sound Boards
The Revolution is compatible with Phoenix, Dallee and MyLcoSound without additional components. With an adapter board Sierra sound boards will work. The adapter board is necessary due to the Revo receiver outputting PWC power to the motor outputs. The various sound board manufacturers have wiring diagrams to using the Revo and Aristo-Craft has wiring diagrams on their Technical Support website.
I only have experience with the Phoenix sound boards so I will cover some details here.
Phoenix 2K2 - The Revo can control 6 auxiliary functions. You can use 2 of them for sound volume control. I connected the red wire of the auxiliary function harness to pin 4 on the 2K2 board and the brown wire to pin 6. This will allow transmitter key 5 to raise the volume and key 6 to lower the volume. Pretty neat! You can then use the other 4 function keys to control 4 sounds and still have two sounds controlled by reed switches and track magnets.
Phoenix PB9 - The PB9 replaced the 2K2 board. It is mostly the same except it only has 4 pins for sound triggers.
Phoenix P5 &P5T - The P5 sound board is made for DCC but can be used with the Revo. It does not have a back up battery but does not need one since the Revo works with full track power. The P5 does not have pins for sound triggers but the optional P5T connects to the P5 and adds 6 sound trigger pins. This combo is several dollars cheaper than the PB9.
PB9 & P5 Volume Control - These two boards are set up different for volume control. Because of this the Revo will not control the sound volume. Dave Bodnar, who conducts seminars on and helped design the Revolution system, has designed a simple adapter board which will allow the Revolution to control the volume of the PB9 and P5 boards. Here is the link to Dave's web site on how to build the board. Phoenix Sound


Here are the two non Plug N Play adapter boards. The one on the left comes with each Revo receiver. The one on the right is an optional accessory. The advantage is the rear support for the receiver and screw terminals for wire connections.		Notice that the short adapter board has the wiring connections printed on the bottom of the board. The connection locations are lined up to match the board pins. The optional board has the connections grouped together in a more logical arrangment.

Here you can see a capacitor board that I cut in half. Notice how I connected the cut traces by soldering jumpers to connect the boards. The bottom wire on the left is the black and white wires covered with heat shrink tubing. They go to the receiver.		This is the Aristo-Craft Plug and Play board dummy plug. You can see where I cut the traces to separate the track power pins (1&2 from the ends) from the motor pins (3rd from the ends) and headlight pins (4th from the ends). I then soldered wires to the motor and headlight pins and ran them to the Revo receiver motor outputs.

The CON-240 2 pin connector available from Allelectronics is the same 2 pin connector Aristo uses for a MU connector and USA Trains uses for internal wiring. The AE connector is on top. The Aristo connector is on bottom. When used between two locos or cars some people like to cut off the locking tab so if the rolling stock comes uncoupled, the connectors pull apart without any damage.		Most of the time the AE connectors do not match the red black color coding of USA Trains or Aristo for correct polarity. One solution is to use colored heat shrink tubing to cover the wire with the correct color code. The other solution is to swap the wires. By pushing a straight pin into the "top" hole of the male connector, you can press down the small locking tab and release the wire pin. Release both pins and then push them back into the opposite holes.

To release the wire pins on the female connector, use the point of a razor knife to press down the metal tab where the right arrow is pointing. In the photo the tab looks like black plastic but it is in fact the locking tab for the wire pin. Release both pins and swap the wires.