ElMod vs HL

[wibblywobbly]

If, as Thomas tells me, they have sold hundreds of these boards, and some are running 12v and 18kg tanks without problems, I can only assume that there is a quality control issue? It is interesting that over on the German site Elmod are now listing compatible motors, which makes me wonder if they are getting feedback regarding which ones blow the boards?

I cannot for the life of me understand why two Protech 400's that run amazingly on an RX14 will instantly melt a Thinktank board. It isn't track alignment, everything is smoother than a silk codpiece and I have an Asiatam hull, and metal everything!

It looks like I am possibly going to get a refund for my two 'newstyle' Thinktank boards, as they no longer supply any of the old style kit and cannot therefore swap them. To anyone who has the old style boards I suggest that you hang on to them, they are worth their weight in gold.

Rob G

[Rivetcounter]

this is where I get slapped with a big stick, I have had 2 Heng Long tanks first was a Tiger I lasted about 20 mins before the gears stripped this was given to Roketman for the cost of postage the other is a Panzer III, I have also had 6-7 Tamiya tanks up and running with batteries and radio gear they average £500 and run for over 1.5 hours with a 2600 MAH battery none have ever let me down, a certain Ben Johnston who is well known for breaking parts no one else can, has never fried the DMD in a Tamiya and only ever abuses tanks he has however bust a few gearboxes we came to the conclusion that if Ben cant break it it cant be broken, there will always be some understandable concern that if you have paid £500 for a Tamiya tank then you are going to watch i like a hawk to make sure that it's treated right but if you have initially paid as little as £75 for a Heng Long then you are not going to worry too much but 12 months or so down the line you have spent £800 on a tank that is fragile runs for a short period of time hasn't got much power and still hasn't got the same level of detail as a Tamiya then this beggar's belief.

I have recently looked at getting another Heng Long, a Jagdpanther £100 new then there is that god awful unrealistic hull recoil and the barrel recoil that would want changing then there is Tracks, sprockets ETC ETC by the time you have finished you will have spent more than a Tamiya tank and still be terrified of turning the thing on just in case it goes up in smoke, if you want decent sound units that don't fry ever 5 minutes and sound like the real thing the do yourselves a favor and get Thomas Benadini sound units just like Ronseal it does what it says on the Tin and cost's less than Elmod and Thomas is very helpful 

[Matdragon]

hi guys,

id like to put in my input, as i have all three tamiya hl + el-mod.

firstly tamiya,
these are great electrics with proportional sound (as in it gradually increases with revvs) and they seem to be fairly unbreadable, well ive nenver heard of anybody blowing a tamiya board! yes the boards are expensive, and its hard to convince yourself to buy one! also they are very simple to connect up. also the battle systems are very simple to pug in!

next HL,
a great system, quite good as your basic run around tank, and easily made more unbreakable by adding fans and heatsinks and dues ect... but its a shame they all sound like shermans (even if you have a KT lol). the great thing with the hl systems is you can do so much with them, and there are so many choices. you can add darkiths battle system, the BSU, and now rc command with his new board so they dont sound like shermans, with this board there will be no point getting tamiya or el-mod again in my opinion.

el-mod,
o jeese where do i start... i got this because at the bovvy meet i saw (and heard) grompix's great el-mod sherman, and i had to have it! i also thought that it was cheaper and better than tamiya (boy was i wrong). i managed to source the boards fairly cheaply, i got the booster from Norse who was accidentaly sent 2 by Thomas at el-mod (DOH!) for £30 inc p+p, i got the TLS from Tony (RIP) for £20 inc p+p, and the blaster II from el-mod for £70 (outdated) , so in all £120 quid, wait a minute.... i still dont have the battle system! DAMN thats another 50-60 quid to  find Ive had many problems with el-mod, firsly i had the HL conversion set, so had the wrong cables, and them one of the boards smoked (luckily OK) and no response from anything. when i bought the Balster from El-mod they are sussposed to send you a 4 plug em0net cable, to plug in all the boards plus the power for the receiver, but he sent me a three plug, so had to wait a week for the response e-mail, then a week for confimation, then another week for delivery of the correct calbe. today i got the cable, plugging it in and still nothing as usual, and the el-mod boards were telling me they had no response from the receiver, so in a fit of (mild) anger i slammed my fist on the table and ... chunk chunk chunk...brumm brumm it started uP!!! hazar! loose connection in the board i think, all the wires were connected right!
now i have more problems of the receiver controlls all beingthere side, ie. left is up and down is right but at least it works! howwever from hearing the sounds of the different speed variations, it goes in stages like a HL, which i dont like. The el-mod is for the super pershing by the way, and with all the little bits for the hl pershing ive had to buy, and the electronics, is would actually have been cheaper to get a bloody tamiya in the first place!!!!! :@ :@ :@ :@
My advice to you if your thinking of being the prowd owner of el-mod is, dont bother, you wont be prowed, you'll be bloody p*ss*d off!!!!

what a waste of time and effort,

for now i conclude in my mind that tamiya is the best system, however for the price the n1 has to go to HL, and when the new board from Rc command is released, it will undoubtably be the only option.

thanks, sorry for writing an essay

Matt

[Rivetcounter]

Hear you go demo page, just listen to the Panther and Tiger http://www.benedini.de/Home_D/Demos/demos.html

[Mackem]

Just a thought, but is it possible that we are expecting too much of our tanks?
As an example, the Pz III could only climb a 30 degree gradient and a vertical obstacle of 2 feet.
The Tiger 1 could climb a 35 degree slope and a vertical obstacle of 31 inches.
Not exactly mind boggling performance by anyones standards.

John

[YHR]

Well I have all three, and was right at the front of the line for Elmod when they were first avaialble.  Then came Darkith and his battle circuit that was not compatible with the EL MOD.  SO I backed off on EL MOd and converted everything to HL and Davids battle circuit that got rid of the HL recoil, added momentum and provided a Tamiya compatible battle system.  Without doubt this is the best value out there.  I added heat sinks to all my HL boards and they have functioned fine.  Bill at RC command is bringing out a sound system to work with Heng long.  When this happens I think we will have utopia on the 1/16 scale tank front.

I have one fully tricked out Tiger with EL-MOD.  Better listen to it quick, because it sure uses up battery power!!!!!!!.  I won't bad mouth them as they have always been helpful and the product has worked well for me.  Just be aware you better plan on a high amp battery, if you want to run it for longer then 10 minutes.  My two EL MOD tanks both have the old  boards, and I have no idea what their new board is like.  The Blaster III is nice and the sounds are great.

For me the ultimate mix will be Heng Long, Darkiths DBC and Bill's sound card,(If of course it sounds good ) or buy a Tamiya.

I think if I were EL MOD right now I would be focusing in on the sound card and CSI battle system, with the intent of gettng them to work with the RX 18.  With the new Heng Long boards, and 3:1 gear reduction I don't really see a need for the drive component of the EL MOD system anymore.

For those of you who have never tried a DBC, you are really missing one of the best things out there.

 

[hatakashi]

Maybe buying a Tamiya Tiger was a better option, after all.
A Tamiya Tiger plus lots of metal bits would only be around the same price

[grim_marmazet]

The tamiya tiger would have a more accurate turret as well.

I've ordered an asiatam tub, and futaba radio. When they arrive i'll try and set it all up with the el-mod. If it doesnt work, I may just bite the bullet and get a tamiya kit.

Afterall I thought I was saving money with the hl tiger, lol. 

[wibblywobbly]

@Rivetcounter - Those Benedini units sound awesome! Is there any info in English on them anywhere, I can't figure out what I need to buy. The Stug on their site is amazing??

@Mat - If the motors are running the wrong way around eg up = reverse, then simply swap the wires over +/- on either each motor, or where they connect to the board. If the turret functions are the wrong way around then most tx's allow you to reverse the control using inbuilt functionality. I had to do this on some of mine. It isn't an Elmod fault, it's just the way that tx's are configured when they leave the factory.

@All - Tamiya's are great, but £ per £, it is perfectly feasible to build a very strong, Tamiya compatible HL tank for less than £150. Simply pick up a cheap HL tank with metal gearboxes, fit decent motors. metal tracks and sprockets, and a Darkith unit. Job done. I will take a video of my Bulldog sometime and you will see what I mean (and Tamiya don't do a Stug, T-34, or a Bulldog?).

@YHR - "I think if I were EL MOD right now I would be focusing in on the sound card and CSI battle system, with the intent of gettng them to work with the RX 18.  With the new Heng Long boards, and 3:1 gear reduction I don't really see a need for the drive component of the EL MOD system anymore." ...Now that the RX18 is a reliable powerplant, there is little to be gained by using the Elmod Thinktank board, if the guys at Heng Long had any sense at all, they would be working on a decent sound system/Tamiya compatible battle system that could be produced at Chinese prices?

I would also say that if my Elmod kit worked reliably I would be over the moon with it. The theoretical performance of the latest Thinktank and the Soundblaster should put it head and shoulders over anything else, and what I have been able to achieve with the sound system impresses anyone who hears it. My only gripe is the melting esc's. It's always the same esc, and it has happened with the whole system running outside of the tank, with no load on the gearboxes, and using HL motors?

Rob G

[tankman]

Seems to me guy's there is one more option out there for about the price of an El Mod system why not get the Tamiya control and sound system boards ( £105 each from Welsh Dragon £210 total ) and a cheap or expensive 4 channel RC system depending on your wallet. Quite a few people have gone down this road and it seems to work well. Also the Tamiya system will work with heavier models and uprated motors without to many issues. I am looking at fabing up a tray for my Tamiya Tiger 1 electronics and swaping them between the Tam Tiger 1 and my Matorro KT. I have found that the connectors for the turret and elevation systems are standard male JST connectors, its just the recoil system three pin connector that's a pain. However it looks just as cheap to pick up a Tam recoil unit at £27 from Welsh Dragon and drop that in ( and before you ask I don't have shares and I am not any relation to Steve at Welsh Dragon models  ). I am not knocking El Mod or HL systems in any way it's just another option to look at for a balanced discusion. Depends on what you want YOUR model to do and how much you want or can afford to spend. All the best for now
Alan