Taigen tiger 1 battery charging and changing

[percy1510]

Good morning everyone
I have been building the Taigen Tiger 1 kit for the last few weeks. I am at the stage we’re the model is built and painted and I have the ibu2 electronics inside and all is working. My question is this. Is there a better way at changing or charging the battery?
I have installed a lipo battery but to charge it I have to take off the top of the tank and obviously this is quite tricky because of all of the wiring etc.
Another question I have is placement of volume and on/off switch. Both are connected but are floating around loose inside the tank at the moment. I would like to have it so that maybe they might be in hatches or hidden around the outside of the tank so was wondering if any one on here has done anything similar?
Thanks in advance
Glyn

[PainlessWolf]

Good morning,
One thing that I have done is replace the volume control with a better pot and mount it under the drivers hatch with 3M clear doublestick tape ( servo tape ) or scratch built mounts out of rubber or plastic tubing. There should be a ready made mount for the On\Off switch under the radiomans hatch already.
regards,
Painless

[percy1510]

that makes sense. I was thinking of attaching under the front hatches but thinking that I would need to attach to the underside of the upper hull thus making it even more difficult to take the top of the tank. your way is better because all of the wires are in the bottom of the hull.i will do it the same as you, it can be tonight's job
thanks for the help

any ideas regarding not having to remove top of Tank for battery charging?

[PainlessWolf]

Good morning,
Some MATO metal tanks have moving engine door hatches or grills. That idea works great for charging the battery in the tank but only if you are using something safe like a NiMh battery. If you plan on using a LiPO type battery, it is generally recommended that you charge the battery out of the tank for safety. So no getting around removing the upper or hinging it at the front to remove the battery.
regards,
Painless

[percy1510]

yes I know what you mean regarding lipo batteries catching fire. so it looks like I still need to take the upper hull off.
I suppose making all of the turret wiring longer would help so less danger of pulling wires Loose during battery changes.
also I am using a 3 cell lipo so will be interesting to see how long the tank will run from 1 charge

[Raminator]

You can use magnets to hold the upper and lower halves of the hull together, there should be enough slack in the wires to let you separate them far enough to get the battery out.

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I'm using a 2S LiPo in my T-34, I've got 5 mm neodymium magnets holding it all together. It's easy enough to pop the tank open to connect a fresh battery before running the tank.

[percy1510]

I like the idea of magnets. The sliding catch on my hull seems to be a bit hit and miss. Think I will order some magnets as you suggest

[hedgepig]

Hi just to add, on my Tiger I found that 10mm dia round magnets at least 2mm thick were perfect for the amount of latching force required (although I do love what Raminator has done with his and 5mm dia ones!).

HTH

[jarndice]

Percy, Extended cables are already available if you go to the different sites that supply bits for our hobby you are bound to come across them,
I like it because I can not only remove the battery but I can run all the systems on the Tank while it is open without the danger of pulling out any wires.

[percy1510]

extended cables are the next essential purchase I think. the one that causes the biggest problem is the 8 pin plug for the turret funtions