I recently bought a Crest Train Engineer Revolution.I attempted to install it in a USD SD70 MAC. I followed the instructions that are posted on the internet. Poof. Needless to sat I smoked the non-plug-n-play board. A member of our railroad club who is very knowledgeable in electronics was able to get it going after obtaining a new board from Crest. His neatness has a lot to be desired. I thought I could follow his wiring and install another revolution in a second SD 70 MAC.
I have considerable knowledge in electronics having been in the alarm industry for over twenty years, but their instructions are not clear enough for me.
What I need is someone is is really familiar with the Crest Revolution. Someone who could draw a schematic of the wiring and e-mail it to me. I would appreciate all the help I can get. Thank you.
Jim Cencer
Nevada
The Revolution wiring is actually very straightforward. If you've got the adapter board with the screw terminals, there are two for battery power going in, two for power to the motors, then three for the headlight and back-up light. (Common +, then two ground returns depending on direction of travel.) If you've got the older version with the hard-wired harness, the red and black wires are power in, the orange and green wires go to the motors, and the blue, white, and yellow wires go to the lights. (Blue is common +).
The trick with installing the Revolution in any locomotive, then, becomes isolating the wires within that locomotive that feed the motors, headlights, and also if there are other lights or features (smoke, etc.) that you would want to control or always have connected to the batteries. USA's locomotives are known for some fairly complex internal wiring, especially when it comes to their lights. I've not worked on the SD70, so I can't offer specific advice.
Here's a link to CVP's instructions for installing their drop-in decoder in the SD70. It might be of some assistance in terms of tracing the wiring in the loco so you can hook it up to the Revolution.
http://www.cvpusa.com/doc_center/SD70MAC_Install.pdf
Later,
K
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