Heng Long Tiger 1 non runner

[AndyC]

I don't want to go into the details but its not likely to be a long term hobby for my friend unfortunately.

The reciever board in the tank has all the wires soldered to it. I'm quite happy wielding a soldering iron, I've been fixing old valve radios and record players for a few years.

[silversurfer1947]

It might be worth your while posting what you need in the wanted section
viewforum.php?f=19

[General Jumbo01]

Okay, but it's not £90+ but under £90 delivered. I'm just concerned that his mate may be turned off by the awful way the old Henglongs used to operate - the on/off like throttle, snatchy steering, non working smoke, limited sound, almost clockwork technology (toys). Isnt that why so many tanks used to end up on the garage shelf? Things really have moved on.

[jarndice]

Hi Andy, You say ALL the wires are soldered to the Main Board,
Are you sure that the Turret Rotation motor/ the Turret Main Gun / The Hull MG and the Headlights are because all the Heng Long Tiger 1s before the latest Version 6.0/1 that I have seen have all those services attached to a Secondary (Daughter)Board which should be on the inside of the Tank body as distinct from the Main Board in the Hull ?
The Daughter board in the tank body is then connected to the main board in the hull by an umbilical double ended 8pin JST 2.0 female plug,
Certainly if you do convert to an RX 18 you will need a Daughter Board if you don't already have one in situ which is not a problem if you are adept with a soldering iron.
As I see it you will need in total=
An RX18 MFU,
A Compatible Transmitter, (Heng Long use a closed system so there is no Receiver),
A Daughter Board,
5X2pin JST 2.0 female plugs,
2X3pin JST 2.0 female plugs
1X5pin JST2.0 Female Plug
Plus a double ended 8pin JST2.0 female plug and a prewired (with 2pin JST 2.0 female plug) Smoker.
I assume you already have a suitable Ni-Mh or Ni-Cad battery and a charger?
If you go on E-Bay JST 2.0 Female 3/5 pin plugs are readily available for very little money and often with Freepost.
I don't have any spare 3pin JST 2.0 female plugs or any spare 5pin JST 2.0 female plugs but if I scratch around the workshop I am sure I can find everything else if you are interested.

[AndyC]

Hi Andy, You say ALL the wires are soldered to the Main Board,
Are you sure that the Turret Rotation motor/ the Turret Main Gun / The Hull MG and the Headlights are because all the Heng Long Tiger 1s before the latest Version 6.0/1 that I have seen have all those services attached to a Secondary (Daughter)Board which should be on the inside of the Tank body as distinct from the Main Board in the Hull ?
The Daughter board in the tank body is then connected to the main board in the hull by an umbilical double ended 8pin JST 2.0 female plug,
Certainly if you do convert to an RX 18 you will need a Daughter Board if you don't already have one in situ which is not a problem if you are adept with a soldering iron.

In the body there is a small board with an 8 pin socket. The board has wires to the lights, the turret rotation motor, and another small board which is also wired to the gun motor, there is also a pair of unconnected thin red/black wires leading into the turret. In the hull there is a single board with soldered cables to the motors, switch, and a set of sleeved wires to the 8 pin plug.

As I see it you will need in total=
An RX18 MFU,
A Compatible Transmitter, (Heng Long use a closed system so there is no Receiver),
A Daughter Board,
5X2pin JST 2.0 female plugs,
2X3pin JST 2.0 female plugs
1X5pin JST2.0 Female Plug
Plus a double ended 8pin JST2.0 female plug and a prewired (with 2pin JST 2.0 female plug) Smoker.

Understood

I assume you already have a suitable Ni-Mh or Ni-Cad battery and a charger?

Yes

If you go on E-Bay JST 2.0 Female 3/5 pin plugs are readily available for very little money and often with Freepost.
I don't have any spare 3pin JST 2.0 female plugs or any spare 5pin JST 2.0 female plugs but if I scratch around the workshop I am sure I can find everything else if you are interested.

That would be great, thanks
The RX18 incorporates the receiver then? I guess the transmitter and the RX18 will need matching TX & RX crystals, I'v just had a chat with my friend about this tank and he does have a pair of crystals from a defunct R/C car (which fortunately I'm not going to get involved in!)

[jarndice]

The small board in the tank body is the Secondary or Daughter board, The RX18 does not use crystals, It was for its time a quite advanced piece of equipment considering it was only marketed by Heng Long as a toy.
Indeed it is probably fair to say that the roots of this hobby are not to be found in Tamiyas products although they predate Chinese RC Tanks but in the first RC Tank (The Tiger 1) sold by what at the time was China's largest toymaker Heng Long,
Unlike Tamiyas beautiful but expensive kits Heng Longs crude RC Tank was cheap and ready to run (Until they broke which was far too often ) And because it was so cheap it meant that people like you, me and members of the Forum would positively look forward to them failing so that we could fix ("Improve")them
If you are interested and you are willing to cover the cost of the postage I can get the bits off to you next week.

[General Jumbo01]

I genuinely wish you both the best of luck in this venture. You are in good hands Andy, generous too

[jarndice]

Andy Good news /Bad news,
I cannot find a Heng Long Transmitter so that makes the RX18 redundant BUT I have found a 2.4 Digital Taigen Transmitter as well as a 2.4 Digital Taigen Control board (Which is the same size as the RX18) + Sound Module and Speaker,
The downside to the sound module is its for a Panzer 4 Maybach engine instead of the Tiger 1 Maybach engine but unless you know your Maybach engines you won't be able to tell the difference,
The Taigen control board and the Taigen Transmitter are not paired so they will need re-binding,
To that end I can include a Taigen illustrated colour Leaflet that gives fitting and binding instructions as well as a wiring diagram for the Daughter board.
If that meets with your approval let me know,
According to Royal Mail the postage for a medium parcel is £5.10,
If you have a pay-pal account you might like to PM it and your postal address to me.

[AndyC]

PM sent, thanks!

[AndyC]

Thanks to jarndice's generosity I'm well on the way to getting this Tiger 1 working
With the motors running I can see that one of the nylon gears in the left gearbox is cracked and quite noisy so I'll need to find another one of those.
However I have a query about the smoke unit. From what I understand I've got an HL proportional one (with a 2.2cm x 3.7cm circuit board) and from what I've read the Taigen V3 MFU has a proportional output for the smoke unit. Would this explain why it doesn't work properly, only pumping very slowly, if at all? How to resolve this?