Getting new smoke for my King tiger!

[tankme]

The 7.0 comes with the Tamiya bullet connectors, but the 7.1 comes with a Deans connector. I replace (or sometimes use an adapter) to connect to an XT60 as all my batteries are XT60. I do run 12V on the Maus with a 7.1, but haven't been running it long and I don't use a lot of stuff on the board as of right now. The only thing is the rotation as I don't use a smoker.

[Jib]

Yeah I’ve always heard not to use 3s on TK7.0/7.1, but it says you can on the MFU case. The drive/traverse motors and the LEDs are fine with the MFU getting 12v, the only thing I could think of that would not be good are smokers if they passed 12v directly to them, or maybe the Airsoft motor getting 12v instead of 8v? Even with the latter I’d think it would just make it shoot a little faster.

But if the smoke heater is getting 12v then yeah that would probably destroy it.

But, I’ve found that even 7v makes my metal ones run super hot and make too much smoke, so there is probably a BEC in the TK7.0/7.1 that’s steps it down to 6v. Would be easy to figure out though, just hook up a multimeter to the port and see what it’s getting.

Well come to think of it I have had my 540s with a 3s LiPo in my 1/16 Abrams cause an overheat shutdown (with an Elmod MFU) from running at top speed for a long time. I guess thats why they send those blue cooling fins with the 550 metal gearbox leopard kit. Maybe over time it’s bad for them?

[tankme]

Well as soon as my geared 550 motors arrive for the Maus, I'll get to test it out at 12V. I think I might add a fan to the 7.1 just as a precaution. It has a fan port (CN2). BEC = Battery Elimination Circuit...I think you mean "Buck" as in a voltage step down.

[Deathcrusher]

Sometimes I’ve found that smoke left in the tubes when the tank is switched off condenses back into fluid and an air bubble forms and blocks the tube. Flooring the tank at full speed for about 10 seconds or so usually fixes it.

I’ve had experience with three different smoke systems, hopefully this might provide some useful information. The first two were with the Taigen V2 electronics and were the original piston driven Taigen smoker, and the Tarr Mk4. The third is the Heng Long CNC J4 smoker with HL 7.1 electronics.

Taigen Original Smoker – Uses a reciprocating piston to push air into the smoke compartment. Extremely noisy, doesn’t produce much smoke and won’t last long before it breaks. Utter rubbish – avoid.
Likes – Easy to install, plug and play.
Dislikes – Not proportional, very noisy, doesn’t produce much smoke, unreliable, easy to overfill.

Tarr Mk4 – A fan driven smoker that allows for proportional smoke with V1 and V2 systems as the heating element is powered by the MFU while the fan is connected to the gearboxes and powered that way. Unfortunately Tarr made the Mk4 out of plastic and while it kicks out a decent amount of smoke the heat was warping the smoker and outright slowly melting the top. It stopped working so well after a while but by this point I was replacing the electronics in my tank so wasn’t interested in finding out why and rectifying the issue.
Likes – Proportional, quiet, impressive amount of smoke, very difficult to overfill.
Dislikes – Complicated to install (requires soldering to gearbox terminals), plastic construction gets damaged by the heating element over time.

Heng Long CNC J4 – By far and away the best smoker I’ve ever used. This is designed to work with HL 6.0 and up so the heating element and fan motor have separate connections that plug into the MFU. Unlike the standard Heng Long smoker this has an electronic motor that pulls in air connected via a tube to the smoke chamber housing the heating element. Both are made from metal and this puts out the most amount of smoke I’ve seen, plus its been in my Tiger for nearly a year now and works just as well as it did day 1. Plus it was only £19.99.
Likes – Proportional, quiet, impressive amount of smoke, very difficult to overfill, reliable, robust metal construction, inexpensive.
Dislikes – Can be awkward to install due to size.

If you know your way around with a soldering iron I would seriously consider changing over to HL 7.1 electronic and installing the J4. Below are a couple of clips before and after it was installed in my Tiger to demonstrate how much it kicks out.

I got the heng long CNJ 4 with a splitter cable and i can say it runs very well, i have just got to find space for the giant motor on the end. But does anyone know of a higher quality smoke oil that lasts longer? it absolutely drinks the current oil i use.