1/8 Scale HL Abrams

[Jib]

Am I crazy or did/does Mato make a full metal 1/16 scale Abrams? I swear I saw them for sale online somewhere once upon a time.

[tankme]

Am I crazy or did/does Mato make a full metal 1/16 scale Abrams? I swear I saw them for sale online somewhere once upon a time.

There was basically a full metal Abrams, but I think most of the parts were made by Canshuo and it was sold by Toucan. I haven't seen them for sale in quite some time. My guess is they stopped making them.

[Jib]

Finally getting around to putting a camera in the starboard rear tail light.

Used a 5mm drill bit on a drill press to try to get the hole in the center. Used a 6mm drill bit on the press to open up the inside some. Used some dremel bits to clean out the inside hole, try to square it out some. Used a pointed dremelt bit to try to delete some of the raised parts on the outside of the tail light.

Hot glue to secure the camera how I wanted it. Camera is the TBS Ultra Tiny Camera. Here is an example of the resolution from an older video I did with my 1/16 scale Tiger I. It’ll probably be a while before I get this one plugged in and running.

Next up will be putting one of these in the middle drivers periscope slot. Should be much easier and not require any modification.

I know this modification is not ideal, but the layout is similar. I’m getting a 3D printer over the summer, so redoing this will probably be one of my first projects on it.

[Jib]

Another sound update. This time I have a cheap 100w amp from Amazon on the speaker, bigger speaker and speaker box, and I’m able to play what I believe to be the main gun, 7.62mm coax machine gun, and the .50 cal machine gun that will be on the LPCROWS. There are also some user sounds at the end. For some reason it is difficult to play user sounds 5 and 6. User sound 1 and 2 play easily, had to drop plans for user sound 3 (have to choose between 2nd machine gun or user sound 3) and user sound 4 I’m still unable to select on the OPConfig program for the TCB.

https://youtube.com/shorts/HxKr_gSon6M ... Ju-e3ZmFa8

Doesn’t seem as loud as with the original 100w amp (I did not make a recording of this before I fried the amp and the DasMikro unfortunately), that I believe was better quality than this Amazon one. I will probably go back and get a better amp and speaker, and make a custom speaker box at some point, but for now I’m calling the sound done.

The wiring in the chassis is done. Next step is going to be putting the top of the chassis on, plugging everything in (FPV VTX, two smoke heaters, two blowers, gun stabilization unit/traverse ESC, elevation ESC) to see how many amps I am going to be drawing through the slip ring, before installing the slip ring.

[Jib]

Update time, she lives!

https://youtu.be/Q_D0ySeJ_Os?si=fG5YFYvkMeA_M3OV

At this point I have replaced the stock HL TK-8.1 with a variety of equipment:

Open Panzer Tank Control Board
Radiomaster ER8 Receiver
SGS B100 Dual Motor ESC
SGS TVC-GSU-12 Gun Stabilization Unit
DasMikro Mini Sound Unit
Cheap Amazon 100w Mono Amp

The tank doesn't look any different, and for the most part doesn't perform a whole lot different (the exception here being the sound, TX/RX range, and the turret stabilization), but almost everything under the hood is new. I plan on doing a video showing the difference on the inside in a while, but I'm doing some custom daughter boards first that should help me clean up the rats nests on the inside.

Future projects now are:

Hooking up DasMikro Mini V3 (Benedini V2 clone), it has an amp port!

Cleaning up the rats nest inside with some custom daughter boards.

Replacing the standard 1/16 scale air pump and oil heater used in for the 120mm with the leftover 1/8 scale air pump and oil heater.

Fixing/replacing the VTX to get the cameras running again.

Putting a camera in the gunners auxiliary sight and the dog house.

Buying a better speaker and making a custom speaker box.

Moving the gun barrel control from ESC/motor to servo so I can use the gun barrel stabilization on the GSU-12.

Attaching the LPCROWS unit.

Rigging the doghouse doors to be operated by servos.

3D print detailing.

Paint.

Got a lot left to do, but sure feels nice to have it running again finally.

[Jib]

Gun smoke upgrade:

https://youtu.be/4boy-GkorCQ?si=ELWj_7Vud1PYfi4K

So in this video you see the difference between a normal 4-5V gun smoke air pump and the large 12V air pump that came with the Henglong 1/8 scale Abrams. Originally for the exhaust smoke, I don't really care for smoke exhaust on modern tanks, so I removed it and repurposed it for the gun smoke set up.

Before with the 5V air pump, it did the job, but was kind of lack luster, just sort of vomiting out the smoke. With the 12V air pump it looks a little more realistic, and creates a neat little thingy I didn't really expect when putting this together.

The 1/8 Abrams also came with a 24V smoke heater but I didn't really notice any difference in smoke output between the 24V and the 7V heaters, so I'm sticking with the 7V as the 24V one is huge.

I use Mega-Steam Smoke Fluid for all my smoke heaters, I think it looks much better. I also mixed in some gun powder smoke scent in with my bottle, so if you get down and huff the burned smoke oil out of it kind of smells like gun powder. Yeah.

[Jib]

Installed a 4 channel 5V relay today. With the flick of a switch this turns off the two heaters for cannon and machine gun smoke, and prevents power from going to the air pumps when the relay is off. That way when I’m just testing things or when smoke isn’t important I can just turn it off from the TX, save some wear and tear on the gun smoke components and smoke oil.

Also installed the knock off Benedini Micro V2 and it worked like a charm. Now I don’t have to have a second battery just for the amp, I can just run it off the main power.

Next up is hooking up and mounting an 8.4v high torque servo for elevation so I can use my gun stabilizer for both elevation and traverse.

Please don’t crucify me over my rats nest. I promise I’m going to fix it soon. I know it’s bad.

[Jib]

Update time finally!

https://youtu.be/r_ZiBfBHrcE?si=7pfoLrQUpwQHbZZw

So this is all first person through the CITV camera. I meant to shoot some 3rd person video of the gun barrel stabilization in action afterwards, but my tank died and I had to push it home. Still having some issues with large power draws by the turret ESC causing under voltage resets in the control board, but I'll figure it out eventually. I need to get the sound kinks worked out as well.

Stabilization of the turret and gun barrel is achieved through the SGS's TVC-GSU-12. To get the GSU-12 to stabilize the barrel I had to use a servo instead of an ESC. Because the barrel weighs so much, I had to get a honkin 180kg 24v servo and balance the gun barrel with about twenty four or so adhesive steel one ounce tire balancing weights. It was a lot of work figuring it all out, but in the end I think it was worth it.

As I've started printing my own accessories for the tank. It's not sanded or painted, but in the video you can see the spare tire and mount underneath it. Not pictured are another spare tire, spare tracks, holders for each, and a jerry can.

I also replaced the burnt out Airsoft motor, but all my pellets got exposed to air or something and they don’t work anymore. I’ve tried to find replacement pellets from someone other than HL, but nothing I’ve found works, so I’ll have to buy more from them.

Next step will be attaching the LPCROWS. I'm going to have to do a little print work I think, as the holes from the DKLMRC doghouse don't quite line up with the doghouse mounting holes already in the tank. Also plan on making the doghouse doors servo controlled, along with the LPCROWS.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Wow! The view inside the turret is in itself amazing! And given the amount of wiring, a remarkable display of "wire control" neatness. Wow!

[Jib]

Thanks!

Yeah I tried to make it look as nice as I could, but there’s a lot going on. I might go back and wrap everything with wire covers once I get all the kinks worked out, but I’ve got a little more to do yet.