Anti-funk project; Heng Long/Andy's HHQ Achilles RC

[Rob1970]

Lately (and that's putting it mildly) I've been in a bit of a building-funk. Lack of time, inspiration, motivation and Life seemed to interfere. I've had 3 weeks of from work now, and slowly I am getting the itch again, but not enough to pick up one of the going projects. So what do you do in that case? You start a NEW project...

The victims; Andy's HHQ's Achilles...


...and an innocent Heng Long Sherman, thoroughly gutted...



Aaaand done...



Thanks for watching...

Well, not quite. First was picking which diff cover to use. I pondered using Andy's, but it would need a lot of (possibly impossible) hacking off the HL gearbox. So I butchered the HL diff cover, making a new attachment point to fix it to the full and sanding away some so it matches up with the Achilles hull...



Close enough for goverment work...



This contraption fits between the two gearboxes and hooks the front under the bar of the diff cover. The rear will get screwed down into two new posts onto the original HL hull posts.



A HL King Tiger turret ring looks like it is gonna work just fine...



A bit of Tinkercad later and I had myself an adapter ring that would fit seemlessly under Andy's turret ring. I printed the final version from ABS and welded it to the kit part...



Job done... I fitted the kits firewall and cut out a slot for the turret ring.



Oodles of space for the HL turret motor behind the firewall, even if it did need some surgery to get close enough...



The floor of the turret hang from the firewall and comes for maintenance if needed...



...but it looks good from the top.



Next if finding a place for all the rest of the gubbins. Speaker at the rear, smoker on it's original spot in the HL hull, on/off switch under the radio-operator's hatch, and the battery and mainboard in the bottom of the hull probably. You can also see the new posts I made to screw down the hull.



Still pondering if and how to manage gun elevation, since I don't feel like getting a 7.1 just for the servo control.

TTFN,
Rob

[Kaczor]

Great thread because I'm planning exactly the same build

[Ecam]

Wow that ring is huge! I've done three TDs (M10A1, M10 & a M36) but I used the HL Sherman rings you will have much more room for a detailed turret floor than I did.





You can run servos (by-passing the servo's board - running the two wires from the MFU directly to the servo motor's tabs) or even the airsoft motors (two wires) off the standard lift and turn ports on the HL MFU 7.0, 6.0 and earlier versions.



Above is the winch from my M32 ARV and lifts 2KG from the barrel lift port on the HL and the Tamiya MFUs.

[jhamm]

Great thread because I'm planning exactly the same build

Me too

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Oh what a great advantage over the Mato M10 with its cramped turret and stubborn tracks. This will be exciting to watch.

[HERMAN BIX]

"You can run servos (by-passing the servo's board - running the two wires from the MFU directly to the servo motor's tabs) or even the airsoft motors (two wires) off the standard lift and turn ports on the HL MFU 7.0, 6.0 and earlier versions."

Gday Mr Ecam, can you dive deeper into the exact method of that please.
Am I to understand you cut the plug off the servo cable and replace it with the plug for one of the MFU functions and it runs ?

[Ecam]

Sort of... These MFUs are typically two wire out puts DC but the polarity reverses so the motor will run both directions. Servos are similar but include a signal wire (the centering aspect or following the stick position). The MFUs are going to run until the stick is centered. The HLs are on/off but the Tamiya are proportional (at least the turret turn and barrel lift are). Some of the older servos I tinkered with pulling out the signal (red) wire in the servo harness and it worked. But the newer ones (and possibly because they are digital) did not work that way. So simply remove the bottom of the servo and it will expose the circuit board and motor end. I cut and remove the input wires at the board and de-solder the board to motor connection (sometimes wires other times tabs). On one example the board helped hold the motor in place so it stayed, all the other times the board can be removed. Then it is just a matter of using a HL or Tamiya lead running from the appropriate output and soldering those to the servo's motor tabs.

If you'd like it clearer I could mod an unused one and post a couple pictures...

The other thing to pay attention to is the travel on servos, generally a servo offers 180 degrees of travel (90 each side of enter). Using a HL controller the servo will reach max travel in a blink. It is a simple matter of using resistors to slow them down but I tend to remove the "stop" in the servo's gears, so it becomes a continuous rotation in either direction. Then gears can be introduced to advantage whatever motion you are after (whether a turret turn motor or winch or a slow moving lift arm).

[HERMAN BIX]

" If you'd like it clearer I could mod an unused one and post a couple pictures..."

Yes please mate, Im sure other will benefit from this tutorial as well.
Perhaps in a dedicated place in the Electronics section so as not to derail Mr Robs magnificent build thread any further.


Im not Sherman fan but these AHHQ versions are peaking my interest.
Especially the melding of AHHQ with H/L

[MrChef]

" If you'd like it clearer I could mod an unused one and post a couple pictures..."

Yes please mate, Im sure other will benefit from this tutorial as well.
Perhaps in a dedicated place in the Electronics section so as not to derail Mr Robs magnificent build thread any further.

Ohhhh yess Ecam do this please. You guys finally got me diving into electronics and I'd definitely appreciate your description/example for help in my inevitable future

[Ecam]

Will do.

Edit (8/17/24)

And did: viewtopic.php?t=36319