Tankhobby's IR system

[Ex_Pat_Tanker]

Well, here it is! I finally go around to doing the review/how-to that I promised all those weeks ago!

Nicks' system is intended to be used with a comercial Tx/Rx setup, so don't expect to make it talk to a HL board - In therory you could use the airsoft input to trigger the unit, but I'd check with Nick before you attempt that...
Available here: http://home.comcast.net/~chioc/
Cost: ~$100 with a sound card (not shown on his page at the moment)
Kit consists of the following:
Fully assembled control board with system reset switch.
Fully assembled Detector board and cable (no cover as of yet - I sent to the Blitz to for him to work his magic on).
Fully assembled firing trigger board (optional, can be replaced with a switch if used for a static item like a AT gun).
Fully assembled sound card.
5mm Flash LED and cable.
5mm IR LED and cable.

The control board has additional connections for an optional shutdown relay and a Tamiya TBU if you don't want to use the supplied detector board.

[Ex_Pat_Tanker]

Assembly is simple - no soldering required. You just need to tap into the main power of the tank, I hooked mine up at the ESC terminals.

Mounting the emitter was a bit of a challange as I have suitable 3mm tubes cut to length for use with the DBC, my 'standard' 20mm length had to be shortened by 3mm and the larger diameter LED taped to it. I'm hoping that the shorter tube will still allow a reasonable degree of inaccuracy at longer ranges - taking the tank apart to shorten it further would be a real pain!

[Ex_Pat_Tanker]

So what do you get for your money?
What it does do:
Its Tamiya compatable.
Its easy to assemble.
It has the 4 weight classes, same as Tamiya and the DBC.
It has all the whistles and bells - sound, cannon flash, kill switch.
The tank can be immobilised by hooking up a relay to the board - See Nicks' website for details.

What it doesn't do:
No slowing the tank when it gets hit.
No auto reset - the reset switch must be pressed to re-enable the combat circuit. The red LED's in the detector board will stay lit when the tank is 'dead', and the emitter LED will not fire.

The only real problem I have had was some erratic behaviour from the detector circuit and Flash LED when the tank batteries were low. The detector would keep "taking hits" when the tank started moving, with the flash LED lighting up as well. The Flash eventually blew - possibly had a reverse current applied? A fresh battery pack fixed the detector lighting up, but the cannon flash circuit would appear to be toast as a fresh LED failed to light up

[wibblywobbly]

Nice write up..thanks!

Re the flat battery problems...the Darkith unit is also susceptible to a flat battery, nor will it tolerate switching the tank on before the tx. I always recharge at the first sign of power loss now.


Rob G

[grompix]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting Ex-Pat!

Chris