Proportional smoke units... how to connect them?

[Crispy]

Hi, I've had a look around the forum and YouTube but can't find any guides on how to wire up these proportional smoke upgrade units.

http://bit.ly/1h8AlhC

I bought the eBay items in the above link and they arrived today but there's no instructions and the plug into the RX18 board just fires up the heater element. I assume I need to connect the pump into the tanks drive motors somehow and had assumed these would come with either some loose end, pre tinned wire connected to the board or at least a diagram, but no. Has anyone done this before or can point me towards a pic or clip of what needs to be done, I'd be much appreciated.

Nic

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
Did you get the On\Off switch with these? It's a silly question I know, but the HL smoker takes two ports to work properly. One for the two pin plug on the unit like you have there and an additional On\Off switch that is also a 2 pin plug into another designated port on the RX-18. That one starts up the pump. I just bought one of these smokers from OZ armor for the Mato Sherman I am re-doing. Silly me tho', the Mato Sherman version of the RX-18 only has one spare port so no smoker for that tank unless someone knows how to make the HL smoker work on that board.
regards,
Painless

[jarndice]

Hi Nic, If you scroll down to the ELECTRONICS site and click on HENG LONG, when the first page comes look to the top right and click on "2" the first item is headed PROPORTIONAL SMOKE UNITS, DO read the whole page as there is an important amendment to be found at the bottom. PS, It is easy peasy to fit a proportional smoker if you have a soldering iron. shaun

[MichaelC]

Crispy,

The four open square solder point needs to be connected up to the motor wires. You need to snip/split one wire from each motor and then solder them to the four square solder points. Basically the idea is that the more juice goes to the motors, the more power drives the smoker and supposedly more smoke will be generated. This is what I have but I have no idea where it came from and not responsible for any damages to your tank..........

PIC_0034%20aa.JPG (50.33 KiB) Viewed 3114 times

MichaelC.

[Crispy]

This is great guys thanks, just what I wanted. God knows how I missed the bit in the lecy section

I have a HL Sherman stripped down for a Firefly project so I just swapped the standard smoker plug over with this one and fired it all up... was a little concerned that the pump didn't move but then remembered reading somewhere it needs the wiring to the motors to get the "proportional" input. Makes sense when I think about it now. I'm planning to eventually swap the noisy, pants pump for a mini fan but I'll get it working first before trying anything too clever.

Looks like my soldering iron is gonna earn it's keep this weekend!

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon,
Apologies for misunderstanding your question, Crispy. I'm looking forward to seeing what you did to it. I'd really like a smoker on the Mato.
regards,
Painless

[ALPHA]

There is a thread... I actually asked a similar question...more regarding how they worked and if they were good... I've bought four to date...have installed three...basically plugging it into the normal port on the RX ...how I found it works is.. at no movement idle it will smoke..a little throttle the pump begins to move...as you move..it pumps more like normal.. once you hit a certain speed it shuts down so there is less current draw when you are at speed..thus prolonging the life of your battery charge
Hope this helps

Good luck Crispy

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

Painless... for your Mato... what you might want to do is wire the smoker directly to your on/off switch or.. directly to your battery with an on /off switch on the Positive lead ...you could also go the route of getting a secondary small lipo and run a separate unit all together ..it's the usual hook up for the super high grade aluminum bodied super smokers..as hooking them into the RX could cause heat problems...not to mention draw heavily on the batteries

Carpe Diem Sir

ALPHA

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
I was considering the above hookup with a direct connection to the motors but upon reflection will wait for whatever smoker Mato has dreamed up for this tank. The HL one will be a direct plug in for the Pershing and it needs a new one. When Mato brings out those metal models of the Sherman and variants this year, they may have the smoke set to go with their board then. I'll drop one in the M4A1 if such is the case.
regards,
Painless

[Crispy]

Thanks for that discription Alpha, helps me plan my build. So is it possible to sit still for a while building up smoke and then nail the throttle and get a nice big cloud out the back as you move off? That's what I'm aiming for. I'm thinking to remove the pump and build a smoke box around the existing box. Wire the fan into the old pump electrics and maybe include a simple flap valve to stop the smoke leaking out when the fan isn't running.