Hiding IR sensors

[wibblywobbly]

I had a quick play around yesterday and had a go at hiding the sensors in a Bulldog/Pershing road wheel. They are hollow behind the rim so it seemed a handy place to put them. I just drilled four holes around the 'rubber', and then dremelled out enough plastic to slide the sensors in so that the raised domes were showing through the hole. I then drilled up through the hub centre to fit the flashing led.

There are three wires on each sensor so I used the same colours on each one, and then soldered each colour together. Then I just soldered a single wire in the same colour to each of the combined ones, so I only have three wires going down to the 5 pin plug on the board. I will also have two wires for the led.

I filled in the back with milliput, and just have to sand that down and paint the wheel, it will then go on the turret roof of the Chieftain and not look too much out of place.

Total cost, about £5?

[Rad_Schuhart]

Very nice job. I working on my IR battle unit but it seems to not to work...

Also I would like to install 5 sensors instead of 4. (My idea is to hide them in the panzer III cupula windows) do you know if it would work?

[wibblywobbly]

Ok, two things.

Firstly, get it working with four sensors, then add the fifth. If five doesn't work then you know that you can only use four. I can't think why five wouldn't work but you really don't need them. The sensors will detect a hit from a wide angle, so they don't have to be exactly 90 degrees to each other. I seem to recall that the P3 cupola should be rotated from how HL have fitted it so that one slit faces forwards, but I am not sure. That would solve the forward facing sensor, the other three will be 'almost' 90 degrees. if not just drill small holes. they won't show up when its all back together.

If the sensors are not working, get hold of the spec sheet for them, and check the pinout. There are three. Output, Gnd, VCC. These three go to the 5 pin plug, however, Clark and IBU use a reverse order to each other, and both need a crossover on the pins as they do not run in parallel to the plug.

With the sensor dome facing you the pins are probably:
Sig Positive Negative

Eg
Clark:
1. Positive
2. Sig
3. Negative
4. Led -
5 Led +

IBU:
1. Led +
2. Led -
3. Negative
4. Sig
5. Positive

Elmod: (the IR emitter is cleverly wired through the 5 pin, there is no seperate 2 pin plug).
I haven't got the schematic to hand, but can find it if you need it - its on one of my threads somewhere I think??

If you look at the manuals for the boards they show which way around the plug, and therefore the wiring, needs to be.

If that doesn't solve the problem it could well be a broken solder joint. A quick way to test that it isn't the board is to clamp an led and one sensor into a block connector, and a 5 pin plug to the other side of it. Check the wiring is correct, and plug it in. If the test rig works then the board is ok, and you know that there is something awry with your handiwork. I've wired them up wrong in the past, but not done any damage to a board...yet!

Rob

[Rad_Schuhart]

Hey, you are right about the cupola, it came rotated 180 degrees, thats already done. And due to you said I dont need more than 4, I will stay with 4 then.

Anyway I did not start with five sensors, I did start with just one. I have a IBU 2 Pro, and a Tamiya Sherman.

If I shoot with my IBU, the sherman receives the hits and the two leds that I put on the sherman brights. Also the reload leds on the IBU too. That works correctly, but when I shoot with the sherman to my IBU it does not work and I have no clue why. Maybe due to I was trying with just one IR sensor and I blew it with too much current, dont know...

I dont know what does not work, the sherman beam or the IBU receivers. I`ll try installing 4 receivers in the IBU to see what happens and also I will test the board with the led as you told me...

Just one question, the order in the IBU and in the tamiya is the same, righ? At least the two first pins are for the leds.

[wibblywobbly]

Unfortunately I don't have the Tamiya wiring schematic, but hopefully someone will see this thread and tell you what it is.

You won't overload anything by only having one sensor, the systems are designed so that only one sensor will detect an IR beam, so that is ok. All of the sensors have a permanent live (+) feed going to them. Then, when it detects an IR beam the signal connects the + and -, and allows the current back to the IR driver on the board, the board then processes the 'hit' sequence eg sound effects and reducing 1 life.

Clark has a guide on his site for making a single sensor test rig. Just remember that the wiring is reversed for the IBU. It's very easy to get it wrong.

My guess is that either the wiring is incorrect, or there is a bad solder joint somewhere. Also ensure that you use heatshrink as none of the legs or the wiring must touch each other.

[Tankbear]

The IBU2 wiring schematic is in the manual. The tamiya sockets match the tamiya and the HL sockets match the HL and taigen wiring.

Check the Sherman IR emitter with a digital camera it should show up as a white light on the cameras screen. Note though my iPhone camera doesn't show the IR beam not certain why but worth checking the camera sees it by checking the ibu2 tank also as you know that works.

Ian.