HELP! How to link a Train Eng Handset.

Gizzy

Gizzy

A gentleman, a scholar, and a railway modeller....
Country flag
Chaps,

Cyril (Glengrant) sent me his TE for checking. I have it in our electronic repair shop here at work atm.

It's a different type to mine, with SPD (speed), DIR (direction) and FRQ (frequency) buttons along the bottom of the handset.

As I'm at work, I don't have access to my own unit or the instructions, so can anyone help by telling me how I link this version of the Handset to the Receiver unit?

On mine, which has an ON button, I press the button on the Receiver for about 5 secs, let go, then I press a button on the handset, normally the A key, twice. The green LED on the Receiver comes on but I can't link it to the handset.

Am I doing something wrong? Cyril thinks the Handset may be duff, and I'm inclined to agree with him, but without my own unit to compare, I'm stymied.

Help and advice gratefully received, but I finish work at 10 pm this evening....
 
Giz, whatever, don't get a nervous breadown over this, don't run into divorce proceedings or anything like that, do what I would do, pour a large dram, drinbk it, and throw the bloody TE in the bucket
Cyril
 
Let's see what the power of GSC does first mate?

If I get nowhere, you can return it for a refund....
 
Gizzy said:
On mine, which has an ON button, I press the button on the Receiver for about 5 secs, let go, then I press a button on the handset, normally the A key, twice. The green LED on the Receiver comes on but I can't link it to the handset.
Click to expand...
Hi Gizzy, try the following, it's from memory so may not be 100%
Press and hold down receiver button, green light comes on. Press and hold down the A key whilst still holding down the receiver button, after a few moments green light starts to flash. Release transmitter button then release receiver button. Test for operation.
For a greater momentum effect use a different receiver button, A is least momentum effect, F greatest.
 
Neil Robinson said:
Gizzy said:
On mine, which has an ON button, I press the button on the Receiver for about 5 secs, let go, then I press a button on the handset, normally the A key, twice. The green LED on the Receiver comes on but I can't link it to the handset.
Click to expand...
Hi Gizzy, try the following, it's from memory so may not be 100%
Press and hold down receiver button, green light comes on. Press and hold down the A key whilst still holding down the receiver button, after a few moments green light starts to flash. Release transmitter button then release receiver button. Test for operation.
For a greater momentum effect use a different receiver button, A is least momentum effect, F greatest.
Click to expand...

Hullo Neil,

that's the usual way I do it, but I'm not getting the flashing green LED.

I think the handset may either not be transmitting, or might be on a different frequency.

I might have to try the receiver with my H/S tomorrow....
 
Gizzy said:
Hullo Neil,

that's the usual way I do it, but I'm not getting the flashing green LED.

I think the handset may either not be transmitting, or might be on a different frequency.

I might have to try the receiver with my H/S tomorrow....
Click to expand...

Oh, I doubt the transmitter frequency will make a difference as you need to use this method to link to the receiver after changing transmitter frequency and/or channel. I trust you've checked the obvious like battery connections (a design weakness IMHO) and that a transmitter led lights when a button is pressed.
 
Neil Robinson said:
Gizzy said:
Hullo Neil,

that's the usual way I do it, but I'm not getting the flashing green LED.

I think the handset may either not be transmitting, or might be on a different frequency.

I might have to try the receiver with my H/S tomorrow....
Click to expand...

Oh, I doubt the transmitter frequency will make a difference as you need to use this method to link to the receiver after changing transmitter frequency and/or channel. I trust you've checked the obvious like battery connections (a design weakness IMHO) and that a transmitter led lights when a button is pressed.
Click to expand...
Hi Neil,

yes the Handset LEDs work when a button is presses and the batteries and their connections are sound.

With regard to the frequency theory, I'm wondering if maybe someone previously has tweaked the frequency tuning to avoid interference with another unit or some other radio receiving device.

Cyril brought this unit 2nd hand from a retailer I believe, and without the transmitter unit which he already had. So as the H/S seems to be doing something, I'm led to believe that either the transmitter part of the pcb isn't operational, or the frequency is not correct, or has been tweaked on the pcb in the H/S.

I'm off back in the workshop to dig deeper, but I don't have a way of checking the frequency coming from the H/S here at Wattisham. So I'm guessing and hoping....
 
Ok peeps,

although I am an Electronics Engineer, my own background is telecomms, avionics and computers. I do not have any in depth radio control knowledge, so is anyone out there able to tell me how I could measure the frequency of this TE H/S with an Oscilloscope?

I'm wondering if I could hook a probe onto the aerial connection and seeing if I can measure something. I guess this the TE works in the 27Mhz band, but someone, somewhere in GSC land may be better informed as to how I can check if the H/S is actually transmitting a signal....
 
Just to clarify, the H/S is ART-5473, which I'm trying to link to an ART-5471 receiver, so if anyone has this combination, could they advise if my linking proceedure is correct please....
 
Gizzy said:
Just to clarify, the H/S is ART-5473, which I'm trying to link to an ART-5471 receiver, so if anyone has this combination, could they advise if my linking proceedure is correct please....
Click to expand...

Hi Giz

Only just read this post, i have one of these sets and it took me ages to get it to set up the first time, the frequencies are selectable and you have to match the transmitter to the receiver first. I also thought some one had tweeked the set at first but then found it has 10 dif frequencies to choose from.

I found that the the units needed to have been turned on for a good 15mins the very first time i managed to get them to talk to each other and that they needed to be about 6-10inches apart, after that they have worked fine every time at any distance.

The best info i found was from Aristi's own web site - technical tips - from your description this is the 2000 series try following the info in this Pdf
http://www.aristocraft.com/techinfo/pdf/55470_instructions.pdf if this is the wrong year all the others are on the following site, in the Instruction Manuals section http://www.aristocraft.com/

i also found reading the old favourite very usefull
- http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/te_programming.html
i think he calls it the 10 frequency Train Engineer

Hope this helps - if not pm me for my phone number and i will talk you throught it

I had to print the pdf and read the instructions a few time to get it straight in my head as they just seened a bit awkward to follow on screen (although that may just be me)

hope this helps and good luck
 
Gizzy said:
Ok peeps,

although I am an Electronics Engineer, my own background is telecomms, avionics and computers. I do not have any in depth radio control knowledge, so is anyone out there able to tell me how I could measure the frequency of this TE H/S with an Oscilloscope?

I'm wondering if I could hook a probe onto the aerial connection and seeing if I can measure something. I guess this the TE works in the 27Mhz band, but someone, somewhere in GSC land may be better informed as to how I can check if the H/S is actually transmitting a signal....
Click to expand...

I assume the receiver is the more modern scanning one and not the old single channel one.

An old CB with the American channels can be used as a test receiver.
Failing that a general coverage receiver or scanner should do it.

Failing that do you know any local radio hams, most would have an rx of some sort.

Failing that.......last resort ...........send it to me I can test if its txing.
 
Rob s said:
Gizzy said:
Just to clarify, the H/S is ART-5473, which I'm trying to link to an ART-5471 receiver, so if anyone has this combination, could they advise if my linking proceedure is correct please....
Click to expand...

Hi Giz

Only just read this post, i have one of these sets and it took me ages to get it to set up the first time, the frequencies are selectable and you have to match the transmitter to the receiver first. I also thought some one had tweeked the set at first but then found it has 10 dif frequencies to choose from.

I found that the the units needed to have been turned on for a good 15mins the very first time i managed to get them to talk to each other and that they needed to be about 6-10inches apart, after that they have worked fine every time at any distance.

The best info i found was from Aristi's own web site - technical tips - from your description this is the 2000 series try following the info in this Pdf
http://www.aristocraft.com/techinfo/pdf/55470_instructions.pdf if this is the wrong year all the others are on the following site, in the Instruction Manuals section http://www.aristocraft.com/

i also found reading the old favourite very usefull
- http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/te_programming.html
i think he calls it the 10 frequency Train Engineer

Hope this helps - if not pm me for my phone number and i will talk you throught it

I had to print the pdf and read the instructions a few time to get it straight in my head as they just seened a bit awkward to follow on screen (although that may just be me)

hope this helps and good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks for those Rob.

It's not just you either; I also find it easier to print documents and read them on paper rather than a VDU too....
 
spike said:
Gizzy said:
Ok peeps,

although I am an Electronics Engineer, my own background is telecomms, avionics and computers. I do not have any in depth radio control knowledge, so is anyone out there able to tell me how I could measure the frequency of this TE H/S with an Oscilloscope?

I'm wondering if I could hook a probe onto the aerial connection and seeing if I can measure something. I guess this the TE works in the 27Mhz band, but someone, somewhere in GSC land may be better informed as to how I can check if the H/S is actually transmitting a signal....
Click to expand...

I assume the receiver is the more modern scanning one and not the old single channel one.

An old CB with the American channels can be used as a test receiver.
Failing that a general coverage receiver or scanner should do it.

Failing that do you know any local radio hams, most would have an rx of some sort.

Failing that.......last resort ...........send it to me I can test if its txing.
Click to expand...
A scanner! Now there's a thought Spike?

One of the lads at work has one, so my plan is to take my Tx into work, check it on Thomo's scanner and see what the frequency is, check it links to Cyril's Rx, then I can test the suspect hand set in the same way.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll post here how I get on later....
 
Cyril here, I am reading with astonishment all that is going on, you guys are pulling out all stops in your efforts to get my TE going. Is anyone keeping a running total of the bill?
 
Glengrant said:
Cyril here, I am reading with astonishment all that is going on, you guys are pulling out all stops in your efforts to get my TE going. Is anyone keeping a running total of the bill?
Click to expand...

Hopefully, it'll a lot less than your recent car MOT Cyril.... :thumbup:
 
Okay, an update on progress.

The scanner we have here at work is from 66MHz upwards, so I couldn't use it for checking the TE H/S.

I've linked my own H/S to Cyril's Rx okay, so I've used an Oscilloscope to check the frequency.

My H/S operates at 29MHz and I now know Cyril's is working but at 27MHz, so the H/S is serviceable.

So now I'm going to read the links that Rob S kindly sent.

Watch this space..........
 
I have an AM/FM Scanner that works down to 25MHz if you need it
 
Chris said:
I have an AM/FM Scanner that works down to 25MHz if you need it
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, I reckon the H/S is working and it's a coding issue now....
 
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