RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hello all,
I just bought my first tank today. It is a used HL M1A2 not sure if it would be considered the pro but it does have a lot of metal upgrades. Metal tracks, metal caterpillar, metal wheel (front only), zinc gears and a smoke and sound unit.
Everything seems to be working as it should except the airsoft cannon. I can't seem to get it to fire, no noise, motion or anything..
I opened the canopy to look for the missing on/off wife but found this model doesn't have one. All wires were in place and seated properly, I didn't see anything broken or missing. I also opened the remote and again everything seemed intact.
I did get it to fire once by accident, I wasn't expecting it to work so I wasn't paying close attention but there was a smallish pop and the tank rocked in place. When I hold the right shoulder button down and move the left stick up nothing happens. The turret doesn't move up so that indicates the shoulder button is registering and when I release them I get the engine stutter I hear when the turret stops rotating.
At this point I don't know enough about tanks to figure out what to do next and I couldn't find much about this type of issue online. As a matter of fact I saw very little about the HL M1A2 anywhere. Could anyone point me in a direction for troubleshooting this?

One additional piece of info, when I had the canopy open I was testing the machine gun and it was working fine. I notice CH3 MC Gun had open slots so I wondered what would happen if I moved it over. Nothing changed when I moved it, as a matter of fact the machine gun worked perfectly fine while it wasn't plugged in at all. That definitely confused me...

Thanks in advance,
Jason

Hello
Already and personally,check that the transmitter matches the board ( HL brand ? ) the bandage ( TX /RX pairing is correct.done ? );then check all the connections on the board,then install a quality battery
Then possible problems due to prolonged storage motor blocked by dry grease...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxUBYBnans The button blue and wire,for the bindage..

What type of transmitter do you have ? Several type existing ? Pictures

Jofaur86 wrote:What type of transmitter do you have ? Several type existing ? Pictures

Thank you for the reply. I will check the video now to see if the grease is the issue.

I believe this is the stock controller even though the last owner wrote the wrong model on it.

I also charged what I assume was the original nimh. Again no response but I may have heard a faint whiring during 1 attempt.

Could the wrong battery cause these types of issues? I also thought it was odd the instructions and box both refer to the battery being 7.4v which is a lipo voltage vs 7.2v which is nimh. I assume it was a translation error?

Hi there.

New and newish Heng Long tanks come with a 7.4 Li-Ion battery, the older ones come with a 7.2 Ni-MH, and even older ones come with 7.2 Ni-Cd batteries.
Either type of the old 7.2's will still work in a new one, but if they're old and tired, they may not hold enough charge now, to be honest, those old Heng Long batteries are of the poorest quality, and are nowhere near as high as their stated 1700 to 2000 mah ratings.

I'm guessing you should have had the black battery pack/casing with the 7.4 volt Li-Ion inside with that tank.

I don't suppose there's an on/off switch on the chassis floor? Yes, models from around 2016- on dispensed with the safety on/off switch. Prior to that, the switch was often it was located on the Commander or Loader's cupola. Or, it could be positioned beneath the tank along with a volume control, and main power switch.

If there's no switch, and all the cables are connected to the correct terminals, then the microswitch on the base of the airsoft gun could be faulty (contacts not opening and closing properly).

A tip: if the connectors were in the correct slots to begin with, trying another (vacant) position is not going to help- indeed, it could cause damage.
Do use the wiring diagrams available here, in the Archive (downloads section, and elsewhere).

The airsoft unit does use a fair bit of energy, and so a fully charged battery should be used for any potential fault finding. It's also worth looking at the wiring and connectors to check for dry (bad) soldered joints, and damaged cables.

Looking at the controller type, they did away with the safety switch under the turret hatch when they introduced that style.

Hello
I see that the cables of the turret come back to a connector where the 8;wire,cord between this connector and the boards is attached the original schématic,but only with the 8 pins ,on airsoft systems,it there is usually a small switch ( in black on the photo ) if there in check that not on OFF ? If existing....By rerearding your post,you indicate that no movement ,no noise,etc ? For shooting be careful with an airsoft the gun has not recoil

43rdRecceReg wrote:I don't suppose there's an on/off switch on the chassis floor? Yes, models from around 2016- on dispensed with the safety on/off switch. Prior to that, the switch was often it was located on the Commander or Loader's cupola. Or, it could be positioned beneath the tank along with a volume control, and main power switch.

If there's no switch, and all the cables are connected to the correct terminals, then the microswitch on the base of the airsoft gun could be faulty (contacts not opening and closing properly).

A tip: if the connectors were in the correct slots to begin with, trying another (vacant) position is not going to help- indeed, it could cause damage.
Do use the wiring diagrams available here, in the Archive (downloads section, and elsewhere).

The airsoft unit does use a fair bit of energy, and so a fully charged battery should be used for any potential fault finding. It's also worth looking at the wiring and connectors to check for dry (bad) soldered joints, and damaged cables.

All of the cables seem to be connected properly, I am trying to figure out how to remove the gun with damaging anything in order to clean and regrease it. I can solder but I REALLY hate it and those tiny wires... yuk

Knowing the 7.4V lipo was the wrong battery and prior to seeing Mick's response it should be Li-on I charged up the included nimh and gave it a shot. A few minutes into testing (several tries) I did hear a new noise. Hard to describe it but I believe it was the airsoft trying to wind back. I didn't hear a click or anything I would expect to indicate it fired but it was trying. This last for about 10 seconds until i released the buttons and I was unable to reproduce it.

Perhaps the battery got too low to fire the cannon at that point? I shall have to order a Li-on battery and charger as my current charger does lipo and li-fe but no Li-on.

Son of a gun-ner wrote:Looking at the controller type, they did away with the safety switch under the turret hatch when they introduced that style.

You are correct, there is no safety switch.