Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

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Rad_Schuhart
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Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by Rad_Schuhart »

Hi, I got a original Benedini Mini V2 and I did a small review here:

https://radindustries.wordpress.com/201 ... s-mini-v2/

Any questions you might have about it, we can discuss it in this thread.

Disclaiming: I do not earn not even one euro for any sales or reviews in my blog. I earn absolutelly nothing with my blog.
I also suggest you to visit my blog with the computer and with some advertisement blockers. I wish I could remove those annoying adds myself.

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
I published a first rough version of the tutorial:
https://radindustries.wordpress.com/202 ... -tutorial/
Last edited by Rad_Schuhart on Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by jarndice »

Thank you Rad, I think you just took over my weekend reading your Blog and Benedini's own write up of his different products. :haha: Thanks for the tip about ordering a programming cable with the board,
Have you thought of writing your own handbook easing newbies into programming the Benedini board ?
I realise you do not have the time but their really is so little material available, And the lack of such "How to" booklets must surely put off a lot of potential users of such useful equipment.
I confess to not always agreeing with everything you write but I read every word because it is never boring and always honest.
Keep it coming. :thumbup:
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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Rad_Schuhart
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by Rad_Schuhart »

jarndice wrote:Thank you Rad, I think you just took over my weekend reading your Blog and Benedini's own write up of his different products. :haha: Thanks for the tip about ordering a programming cable with the board,
Have you thought of writing your own handbook easing newbies into programming the Benedini board ?
I realise you do not have the time but their really is so little material available, And the lack of such "How to" booklets must surely put off a lot of potential users of such useful equipment.
I confess to not always agreeing with everything you write but I read every word because it is never boring and always honest.
Keep it coming. :thumbup:
Hi Jarndice, thanks for your kind words, I apreciate them a lot. :D

The "Dasmikro/Benedini mikro" entry in my blog was just an experimental entry I did, back in the day, when I had nothing to publish on the blog. I just copied and pasted some parts of this thread on it and promished myself to go back at it at some point and correct it or add new things:
viewtopic.php?f=81&t=24339

Maybe you can take a look at it, there is a nice bunch of info which is not in the blog. Anyway, the plan is, in a month or two, (or maybe three, lol) to completelly rewrite that entry and publish it with updated info. Now I understand better than back in the day how the product works!

Anyway I am really amazed about the TONS of views I receive in my blog just because of that outdated and not very usefull blog entry. I can say more than a 65% of the poor souls that reach my blog is because of that entry, and is people from the entire world. Asia, europe, US... Even africa. That makes me believe two things:

1) The Dasmikro clone is selling like hot bread. ( Poor Thomas :'( )
2) There are indeed a lot of people that has the board and no clue of how to make it work.

Both does not surprise me at all. The clone has a cheapo price and is affordable even for sick people like me, and also as you point, the lack of info about how to make this board work is unbelievable. Info is either non existant or very confusing... (at least it was last time I checked) And my experience is people uses the board it as it is, with the stock sounds, and never think about replacing them. Even worse, most people do not know they can replace the sounds and it has lights outputs. I have seen some threads about people asking how to wire an electronic switch for installing headlights into a WPL truck with the dasmikro, when the board has all the light outputs any mortal might need, lol.

About making a guide-how to... Well, it is complicated. I will try but it is complicated. Why? Because I dont know what is the radio people are using. You know I repeated it to death in the forum that the most important part of the hobby, is the radio. With the 4ch Tamiya attack radios most people uses, I see absolutelly no way to use this board. (except plain engine sound, of course)

People should start with a decent (that does NOT mean expensive) radio, or handmade a 12 position encoder, which is not easy for the beginners.

Second problem I see about this... Is plain simple: I dont want to offend anobody here, but most of the people just does not care at all about the sounds or even lights. Sometimes is frustrating to share new ideas or to teach the how to, and having almost no answers. Look at the entry I created the other day about triggering 24 user sounds in the elmod, almost no answer and I really thought it could be interesting. At the other hand, user Mr. X opens a post with "Look, I bought a heng long tiger 1" and receives 7 pages of comments. Well, lol.

EDIT: Of course I understand everybody is different and there are people that can have fun just stocking boxes of virgin Heng Long tanks.

Anyway I owe all that I learnt to a guy that created an entry like mine in a forum talking about his programable radio. He was talking what seemed chinesse to me and almost nobody answered him... But I read it, learnt it and I was amazed about the hobby posibilities. So, as like that guy did, if only one guy learns something from any of my tutorials, it was well worth the effort. :D Thanks to god it seems there is a small bunch of people interested on what I do.

In your case, Jarndice, I do know you have ASP2 boards. Those boards back in the day had way, way more functions than most of the boards nowadays, and being able to trigger all the functions was complicated and required several radio mods that I followed in the rc tanks australia forum. That makes me believe you did those mods too, or you got a radio from Rc tanks australia, or at least you are using any radio that has er9x, erskytx or opentx as a firmware. Is that correct? If yes, that is a great starting point.

I also do want to make my own notes. Due to I have several systems, if you dont use one for a while you can forget it. I controll all my toys in the same way with the functions in the same switches, but what varies are the radio mixes, and it would be great to keep them saved for future reference or for sharing with all of you.

Anyway 95% of what I can write about the Benedini mini applies directly to the benedini micro. The use is almost the same, but I will keep the details for a future blog entry. I dont want to start boring now! lol
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by jarndice »

Rad because you don't get a response from your entries on this Forum please don't think that the readers of them are not interested.
I suspect that many of your readers will be afraid of looking silly replying to you because they only know what they have learnt from you and their radio handbook or control board instructions unless it is the ASP2 which as we know does not come with instructions :lolno: (Go to the RCTA Forum and log in to print out the instructions, Be prepared to use a lot of A4 paper :haha: ),
I got my Turnigy 9X from Ian at www.rctankelectronics.com and he preloaded the ER tank software and using your downloaded updates on this Forum I flashed that into the Radio. Of course I have other programmable radios but they are primarily used for my Aircraft.
Apart from the ASP2 boards I also have IBU2Pro boards as well as a CLARK TK22 Which came with its instructions in German and D Selkirk in Canada supplied me with the TV Remote and after all that while it fits in the Heng Long mfu holder and it is much better than the RX18 it quickly showed its age when the slightly larger ASP2 was compared to it, The IBU 2Pro was the surprise because even now I still continue to find out good it is,
The downside personally is that most of my Armour is different MKs of Panzer 4 and the IBU 2Pro is such a tight fit that I have reserved them for the Tigers,
I have the Taigen V2 and the Taigen V3 with the corresponding sound modules, I bought them out of curiosity to see if they were any good,
Sorry Taigen you have a lot more work to do yet although I like the ability to use an aftermarket radio with the control boards,
I changed the board in the WSN/Torro M16 Halftrack for the Elmod board which is a must have for the M16 although I wish the speaker and the lights were plug in instead of having to be soldered in place not because I have problems with soldering but because the limited space in the floor of the M16 makes finding space around the board is difficult whereas a couple of sockets on the board would have saved that lost space.
I like what you and others have written about the Elmod Fusion but the expense does put me off a bit,
Time and my pocket book will decide :thumbup:
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by Rad_Schuhart »

Well, I dont know the exact words but it was something like this "It is better to look silly and ask, than staying silly forever and never ask" I keep asking the open rc guys from time to time to guide me with how to do things in the radio.

About your 9X with Tanker9x. That is a great start, (but an update to the latest version of er9x is more than recommended, it updates about every week or so, go and figure!) so it should fit most of your present and future needs. I only wonder if you managed to use all the features of the ASP2, because when I got it, I had to modify my Turnigy 9xr Pro following Kevin's tutorials. And that was, to replace 4-two position switches with 3-position switches, and to replace a potentiometer with a 6 position switch. Thanks to that I managed to play all of the many options that crazy board has.

For your radio, there are ways to do it, but it will require some programing of logic (virtual) switches, and that means you press one switch, and it does one function, ok. But if you have another switch in another position, when you press this first switch it triggers another function in the board. A bit like what I did in the 24 sounds elmod video. I press the same 4 switches but the other switch combinations makes them possible to have 24 different functions.

I had a IBU 2 Pro (that was my first hobby grade board, after the RC5HL) and I loved it... Until the ASP2 popped up and surpassed it on every aspect, lol.

The taigen with the hobby radio... Well, I have not tested them, but being able to use my own radio is amazing. Anyway from what I have read, it indeed stills need a lot of more work, and also in my opinion is a money waste. Id never buy it unless it comes with the tank.

About the Elmod fusion pro, that is what I use in my Tamiya Panzer IV. It is a bit hard to squeeze the board, plus the huge speaker, plus the smoke machine plus a 5.000 nihm, but at this very moment IMHO it is the best rc tank board available in the market. I will publish a review of it in the blog and I will tell you when it is ready too. But as I said, for me is the best right now... It is not free of darker things though. And yeah, you all know me and how I am with the dough. I must confess I cried when I pressed the paying button in paypal. The price is just outrageous and I cannot justify it under any circumstance. Thats why I only have one Elmod, but I´d happily have two more.

About your m16 board, hell, I did not know that! Yes, it would be great to have plugs, and also to have those horrible hanging condensators replaced with something else.

Regarding maybe the most popular boards, the clark boards... I just dont like them. I find they are quite poor in functions, and a 4mb sound memory makes them useless for me (Just my machine gun sound in my open panzer is about half a mega!!!) some clark boards have better things than the elmod, like the subsonic ESCs, but anyway for me they are a no go until at least they completelly change the sounds aspect.

Sigh. I wish I had the skills of making my own board!
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by Rad_Schuhart »

Jarndice, I just started writting a clean tutorial of how to make the benedini's mini and micro work. From the shop, to full function.
I must confess it repeats a nice part of what is written in the thread, but in a more organized way, with correct instructions and more step by step.

I am not sure how long it will take me, and it will be mostly written and pics (no videos) but I hope some people will find it useful.
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by jarndice »

Hi RAD, As far as I am concerned your time will be well spent,
There are almost endless threads advising me how to replace an ABS part on my Tank with a Metal upgrade or what nozzle is best in my airbrush but apart from your entries there is almost nothing about the radio control side of this hobby in depth and yet with the title "RADIO CONTROL Tank Warfare" it should have a much higher priority.
This hobby is desperate for any help going that will help explain the intimate details of all things R/C in a manner that non technically minded people can understand,
It would be nice to know that I am getting the best from my Radio/MFU etc and to be able to put down my money on a new board confident in the knowledge that I am not travelling blind.
Don't worry about a lack of pictures,
I have never submitted any pictures and I have no plans to begin.
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by wibblywobbly »

Keep the info coming Rad. I have a Mini clone, and two more on the way that seem to posted via a camel...seriously wondering when they will arrive. The sound quality is excellent, and yes, I swapped the sounds around to try them out. I made a programming usb for very little money using Ebay sourced parts.

You are right though, Thomas may have designed an excellent sound board, but his documentation is of no use to anyone who doesn't know what to do in the first place.

I am sure that many would appreciate some very simple step by step instructions to make the most of the Mini, and that more would buy them if they knew that they weren't going to blow something up. The Clark boards are really the only choice at the lower end of the market, but using a Mini to hijack the sounds makes them much better. Strangely I have never had a problem with the esc's, I never get any whine out of mine. :thumbup:
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by Raminator »

jarndice wrote:There are almost endless threads advising me how to replace an ABS part on my Tank with a Metal upgrade or what nozzle is best in my airbrush but apart from your entries there is almost nothing about the radio control side of this hobby in depth and yet with the title "RADIO CONTROL Tank Warfare" it should have a much higher priority.
It's a discrepancy I've often pondered, but assumed it was kind of a combination of things. For the most part, I think that most people in this hobby come from a modelling background and stick with what they know and are comfortable with. There's also a lower skill floor; if your paintjob is no good, you can just go over it again (and again and again and again if you're me). With electronics, once you let the magic smoke out, that's it. I will say though, that it's not as daunting as it seems; if you're careful checking polarity and continuity (just using a cheap multimeter), you can't really go wrong.
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Re: Benedini's TBS Mini V2 Review

Post by Rad_Schuhart »

Yep, I am on it, preparing the text when I have nothing to do while at job.

I have been trying to collect all the info I could from the manuals youtube videos and infinite forums in several languages, and no luck so far.

All what I've found is how to replace sounds (easy task) or to use it in the (boring) autostart mode, but the coolest part, which is to trigger the extra user sounds and lights seems missing and almost nobody seems to be not able to do it.

I can understand it, not everybody is able or willing to install an encoder in the radio (I would not do it), and other options are complicated. At this moment even I have it a bit clowdy in my mind, so I had to ask technic things to those crazy wizzards from the openrcforums. (Do you see? I do need to ask too, lol)

That is not all, for understanding everything I have realized I have to make some sort of radio tutorial. The very vast majority of people does not understand the very basics of how the radio works, what are the signals, the mixes and so on. In order to properly understand the benedini tutorial, I have to explain that too. So yeah, it will take me some time, maybe a month or so. But it is in the works.

The good thing is at the end, you can do your own standard way of controlling your toys. All of my models are controlled exactly the same way. No matter the make of the brand, ASP IBU, elmod, clark, tamiya, benedini or even my own gadjets are controlled the same way, and that is, for example "the top left switch always triggers the machine gun" of course the signal sent is very different, and there is where the radio programming starts. I will explain that too. But beware, guys, you might need a decent programable radio (which again, does NOT mean expensive at all)

Meanwhile, due the inmense effort for the good of all our you, my forum friends, Jarndice, you can share pics of your toys with us! Sharing is caring :haha:
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