RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I'm looking to eliminate the underpowered stock Heng Long traverse motor setup with a servo like Mr Tankbear sells. How would this be wired into my system? Do I need to plug the servo into the Clark board or can I wire it up to the existing harness?

Thanks in advance

Carl

Carl, Tk-24 does not support servo rotation but there is two ways to do this:

1. Plug the servo rotation into an unused channel on the receiver, and map that channel into the Clark rotation channel. So the extra channel is controlling the rotation, the mapping means you still get the sound effect from the Clark rotation channel.

2. Open up the servo and creates two wire only servo motor. Tankbear sells one, and you can also find the instruction on the Clark site. In fact the Clark servo rotation is based on this set-up. Once you disconnect the control wire from the servo and simply wired up the motor wires, you can plug it directly into the normal rotation connection, and Clark board actually does not know the difference.

MichaelC.

MichaelC wrote:Carl, Tk-24 does not support servo rotation but there is two ways to do this:

1. Plug the servo rotation into an unused channel on the receiver, and map that channel into the Clark rotation channel. So the extra channel is controlling the rotation, the mapping means you still get the sound effect from the Clark rotation channel.

2. Open up the servo and creates two wire only servo motor. Tankbear sells one, and you can also find the instruction on the Clark site. In fact the Clark servo rotation is based on this set-up. Once you disconnect the control wire from the servo and simply wired up the motor wires, you can plug it directly into the normal rotation connection, and Clark board actually does not know the difference.

MichaelC.

Excellent thank you! I'm think of an upgrade to help rotate that huge JS-3 turret

MichaelC wrote:2. Open up the servo and creates two wire only servo motor. Tankbear sells one, and you can also find the instruction on the Clark site. In fact the Clark servo rotation is based on this set-up. Once you disconnect the control wire from the servo and simply wired up the motor wires, you can plug it directly into the normal rotation connection, and Clark board actually does not know the difference.

That sounds really interesting, I assume that means you can have proportional speed too then? Ordinarily I'd avoid servo turret rotation because you have no control over the speed, but if you're just sending a voltage to the gearbox and not using pulsewidth modulation that shouldn't matter.

Raminator wrote:

MichaelC wrote:2. Open up the servo and creates two wire only servo motor. Tankbear sells one, and you can also find the instruction on the Clark site. In fact the Clark servo rotation is based on this set-up. Once you disconnect the control wire from the servo and simply wired up the motor wires, you can plug it directly into the normal rotation connection, and Clark board actually does not know the difference.

That sounds really interesting, I assume that means you can have proportional speed too then? Ordinarily I'd avoid servo turret rotation because you have no control over the speed, but if you're just sending a voltage to the gearbox and not using pulsewidth modulation that shouldn't matter.

Even without the direct connection, if I look at my tanks that uses servo rotation connected directly to the receiver and control via a separate channel on the radio, I still get proportional rotation since the radio will handle the proportional control. So either way I think you will get proportional control.

As to the JS-3, I never thought of using a servo rotation. I have used two Heng Long units before, and then I think I switch the 130 motor to one with higher torque and it seems to have done the trick. However I think the main issue, regardless of the motor on the Heng Long unit is that the gears are just not strong enough to transfer the power. So I think at the end you might be better off with two Heng Long units than one servo units because you might still have the gear issue with the servo.

I also used two Heng Long rotation units for my E-100 and Maus, which both has probably the largest turret for WWII Era tanks anyway. The Maus one is resin which has the additional weight issue.

I have ordered a few new turret rotation assemblies and also a nice metal servo setup with brackets from Mr Tankbear

When you open up a servo you will need to remove the small circuit board that has the 3 wire lead. Also any pin or notch to stop 360 rotation will need to be removed. I like to clip the motor wires short enough so that when I extend them I can hide the spliced parts and heat shrink tubing inside the servos body where the circuit board used to live.

I also prefer metal gears.