My Tiger Tank Project

[EAO]

Max-U52, Detroit Rock City! That was a good and funny thread to read. Dialect, linguistics, and language is interesting and would be a neat thing to major in if one was back in his college days. Even here in the States I get it all the time. Born and raised in Wisconsin, lived in Seattle for 12 years, then 12 here in Missouri/Arkansas. I haven't lived in Wisconsin in nearly 25 years, yet at least once a month someone says to me "you're either from Minnesota or Wisconsin". Blows my mind, I don't hear it. Occasionally, I will hear my Badger State relatives say something that catches my ear with their accent. In Seattle though I did begin to detect a accent from people from Cali. Not to mention, the different uses of words like bubbler vs. water fountain, traffic light vs. stop and go light, canopy vs. topper, soda vs. pop, etc, etc, etc. Why they never included Michigan with MN and WI is also a head scratcher. They say people from the U.P. sound funny, I don't hear it! But again I digress.

Thinking about it, I believe Mr. Bix is right. After extended shooting sessions at the range, my firearms will get discolored at the muzzle, a blackish dark grey color. The ones with flash hiders and muzzle breaks more so than straight barrels. One wipe with a oily rag removes the residue immediately. My Father In Law did his tour of duty in Vietnam at a little place called Lai Khe with the Big Red 1. I've seen plenty of pics of him as a 20 year old with his M16. It was really ugly, blueing almost gone, plastic stocks rough and chipped. He said inside it was as clean as new. They had to be as you couldn't treat them like the M14. Also, going out on night ambushes you want to know your weapon is going to function! Truer words I can't imagine.

Now on to Jim. When you said you were working on the headphones I immediately thought about the throat mikes. Lo and behold there they are! Still finding ways to improve that monster! I also agree with you about Eric at Imex in Florida. Great guy who answered many, many, novice questions when 308 had her stock guts....now you guys are answering my barely advanced novice questions! I saw the muzzle covers on their website, it'll be nice to see how they look on a real tank. As for finishing "Tigers In The Mud", I just downloaded that to my Kindle yesterday! I'm just about done with "German Heavy Fighting Vehicles Of WW2 From Tiger To E100" by Kenneth W. Estes. There is a section dealing with the Tigers at Leningrad where they mention removing the front outer road wheels to prevent bogging. I'm a huge avid reader of almost nothing but military history as far back as I can remember, especially WW2 and the European Theater. This is the first time I ever read a book that mentioned it. Your "Miss Leningrad" I initially thought represented battle damage until I continued on with your thread.

By the way, I did have time to burn through 2 battery packs chasing those pesky lizards around before heading home. It's quite comical, if a lizard could have facial expressions it would be one of WTF? They take a double look, and then it's "I don't know what that is but I'm splitting Jack"! On a side note, who knew that battery chargers have an auto mode? Alright, everyone but me...DUH! Getting really long run times now with the NiHm batteries! Apparently, the charger is sensing peak way better than the manual setting...I know, again DUH! 308 will get a grease and oil job as soon as rain interrupts my chores. She's due time wise and the steep rocky terrain at the cabin takes it's toll.

One last thing, I got the new, pretested SD card from Thomas at Elmod yesterday while I was gone. He mailed it on July 30! There's an awful lot of stamps on that little envelope! Great guy and great customer service, plus the best boards out there (in my humble, know nothing experience and opinion). Pretty impressive!

Well the dogs act like they haven't seen me in months, so it's off to the back porch with them and a cigar.
Cheers to all,
Eric.

[Jimster]

Speaking of batteries, one of the most useful and appreciated mods I’ve done is to start making my own Lithium Ion 2 cell battery packs and charging them with an Imex Ac/DC Power Station Touch Screen Charger and switching from the he Tamiya style connectors to XT-30 connectors. All this I owe to our very own Rad_Schuhart. The battery pack is at least half the size of the standard factory tank batteries and a bit lighter. More room for my GI smoker, awesome speaker from Stian Sollie, the Elmod board and the slightly larger PDSGB gearbox. They seem to give me more run time as well. I had been using the 5,000 MaH batteries from Imex but I’ll never go back.
Enjoy the blue clouds Eric! I may produce a cloud of my own being in Illinois and all

[EAO]

Lithium Ion, I think I'll stay away from those. With my luck and knowledge I'll turn 308 and probably the house into a glowing, sparking, red ball of flame! I'm not to be trusted with things like that...ask my Wife about my tractor and power tools! Speaking of Lithium batteries, when we lived in Seattle I had two encounters with them. Not sure what type of battery they were, but they were Lithium and this was twenty years ago or so. Outside Redmond, WA they had a great RC park for anything that flew. I was watching a guy with a beautiful large scale model of a Fokker Dr. 1. He ground looped it (something the real ones were known for), it suffered light damage but was out of service for the day. He put it in his station wagon and resumed flying his equally beautiful Fokker D8. We heard some excited yelling and turned to see his car erupting in flames! He got his Labrador Retriever out but his Dr. 1, Volvo and all his flying kit were written off. I was telling our guys at work about it and our secretary said her best friend's son flew RC planes. Next time she saw her she asked about his flying and told the story about what I had witnessed. Her son knew the hazards associated with these new technology (at least at this point in time) batteries. He always charged them in the garage on the concrete floor away from most flammable objects. About a week before this, one of his batteries went into meltdown mode, followed the wiring back to the wall outlet and burned half the garage down! I guess he should of never left them alone when charging...something most users take very seriously. Yeah, I'm sure things related to these batteries have improved dramatically but remember I'm an idiot!


Very cryptic last sentence of yours. Just what are you up to over there on the other side of the Mississippi? Enquiring minds want to know!

[Jimster]

Lithium Ion and Lithium Polymer (LiPo) are two very different battery types. I’ve read too many instances of Li Po batteries burning down houses. Very different beasts. I wouldn’t use Lithium Polymer either! Lithium Ion batteries are safe.

[EAO]

Once again, shows how little I know. Back in the day when I was flying (more crashing really) it was mostly NiCad. Ages ago it seems. An old experienced RC flyer from the first days of the sport once told me "Take offs are optional, landings are mandatory", so true.
Cheers, Eric.

[B_Man]

Speaking of batteries, one of the most useful and appreciated mods I’ve done is to start making my own Lithium Ion 2 cell battery packs and charging them with an Imex Ac/DC Power Station Touch Screen Charger and switching from the he Tamiya style connectors to XT-30 connectors. All this I owe to our very own Rad_Schuhart. The battery pack is at least half the size of the standard factory tank batteries and a bit lighter. More room for my GI smoker, awesome speaker from Stian Sollie, the Elmod board and the slightly larger PDSGB gearbox. They seem to give me more run time as well. I had been using the 5,000 MaH batteries from Imex but I’ll never go back.
Enjoy the blue clouds Eric! I may produce a cloud of my own being in Illinois and all

I'm really interested to hear more about how you make your own batteries Jimster. Is there an existing thread on here about it?

[Jimster]

Pretty much just soldering wires to join two batteries together. You end up making a pos/neg plug to connect it your tank and a three wire plug which is used to balance the batteries when charging. Here’s a link to the infinite wisdom of batteries from our own Rad_Schuhart. https://radindustries.wordpress.com/201 ... batteries/ It’s a fantastic read. Here’s a link to a couple of many videos showing how to do it. I watched several different videos before actually doing it to be on the safe side.

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Here’s the batteries I use. LG INR18650 HG2 - 20A High Drain Li-Ion Battery 3000mAh Flat Top 3.7V
$20 for four batteries which gives you 2 battery packs. Cheap!

[Rad_Schuhart]

Hey, thanks for mentioning me here, lol.

Yeah, those 18650s were my idea for the reasons explained on my website. I was going to do a step by step photo tutorial but those videos are more clean and clear of what I can ever write.

Good quality cells with high discharge rate are important. It is better to take first brand cells, but those liitokala cells I got are great and an investment of 9 euros gave me 3 battery packs for three tanks. Unbeateable price!

[Max-U52]

There's also an stl file floating around that let's you print a battery pack for those batteries. Might be easier than soldering, depending on how many cells you use.

[Rad_Schuhart]

There's also an stl file floating around that let's you print a battery pack for those batteries. Might be easier than soldering, depending on how many cells you use.

That does not work. The discharge rate in not soldered cells is not enough for our tanks. Is ok for transmitters or things like that, but not enough for our toys.