Which electronic board can handle 540s?

[Blackadder123]

Hello,

Found someone selling some seriously strong looking 540 gearboxes and was wondering which electronic board could even handle these. Currently only using the Taigen 2.4Ghz ones, so the 540s do fry these, I might have to upgrade my board.

On a side note, can the Taigen 2.4Ghz ones with a fan handle Jamara 480s? I already bought a used pair of these and am waiting for it to arrive.

Thanks for any answers

[wibblywobbly]

Any of the aftermarket boards will handle 540's or the Jamara's, eg Clark, Elmod, IBU, and of course Tamiya that uses 540's anyway. The RX18's and clones are designed for the standard motors, they 'may' handle bigger motors but they pull a lot of amps on stall, so although the tank may run around ok in normal use, if the tracks get jammed or drives into an obstacle, there is a risk that the huge rise in amps will blow the esc's. A fan won't help much in this sort of situation as the heat builds up too quickly.

I take the view that as a tank is a 50 ton lumbering pile of metal, the objective is to reduce speed using standard motors and low ratio gearboxes, but it depends on what you are looking to achieve.

[Blackadder123]

Well I'm currently building on a M41 Walker Bulldog so I really need that power-weight ratio for it to feel scale as a light tank. Thus I'm first going to try the 480s with a 4:1 gearbox. Wouldn't the 4:1 gearbox reduce strain on the motor and therefore reduce the amps pulled when under relatively high strain?

I have the option to to run 540s too, but I'll have to upgrade to a quite costly aftermarket board! From the little info I could find googling, I did find that people experienced fried Clarks with 540s.

[wibblywobbly]

Might I suggest the Graupner 400 motors, I used those in a Bulldog and it was incredibly quick, with plenty of power for off road use. Lots of people use them, they are very popular and quite cheap.

[Blackadder123]

Hmmmm, I'll definitely give those a go if the 480s don't fit. Did you use a 4:1 gearbox to achieve scale speed or a 3:1? As for installing a new motor into the gearbox, do you simple take the original cog off the old motor and slide it onto the new motor? Haven't done such an installation yet.

[wibblywobbly]

The pinion will have the same shaft size, though if you don't have one I recommend a pinion puller. It's the safe way to remove a pinion without damaging the motor or shaft. The motors are a direct replacement.

I was running my Bulldog on old HL metal gearboxes as I recall, it was a long time ago so I can't be sure.

[Blackadder123]

I think I might test the new motors with the Taigen 2.4Ghz first. Does anyone happen to know how many amps fries this board? I'll try to install a fuse into the wire connecting the battery the way it's done in my other Tiger (factory installed), but not sure where to buy the fuse set. In my Tiger, there's a black case that holds the glass encased 5A fuse.... Quite a handy system! Anyone know an alternative method to fit in a fuse?

[bikerdude]

In my boats I just got an online blade fuse holder, think I got the last lot with an order from component shop, but a half decent car shop should have something suitable.

[Blackadder123]

In my boats I just got an online blade fuse holder, think I got the last lot with an order from component shop, but a half decent car shop should have something suitable.

Oh right, I'll look into that. Thanks.

So it turns out that the Jamara 480s might not fit in the M41 after all..... they're just too long. Now I need to find motors that preferably work with the Taigen 2.4Ghz and can, when paired with a 4:1 gearbox, produce high enough RPM such that the light tank has a scale top speed. Seems like a lot of conditions to fulfill.........seems a bit futile.

Would the 4:1 gearboxes be overkill in terms of sacrificing too much speed for torque? The Graupner 400s probably are a good option, but I fear that the 4:1s will reduce its speed by quite a bit.

[bikerdude]

Just thought, the other way of fitting a fuse, whilst not great, and certainly wouldn't look that good, but would work, is to simply cut the required wire, fit a female spade connector to each of the freshly cut ends, and then insert a blade fuse in to that.