Tongde Matilda

[Kaczor]

That's cool. It would be nice to have this modification done to the Churchill as well.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Well, well: I have the other Wiha tools for working miniature hardware, but not for sockets. I hope to get some soon. Thanks for the link.

[SoCalBobS]

Awaiting mine as it crosses the Pacific. Regarding the choice of metal or plastic running gear, I've chosen metal. I don't have a strong preference, but we run ours through some pretty rough terrain so I went metal for my Churchill. Those small road wheels have thin flanges and I was worried they'd chip or break, which is not an issue with large, rubber tired roadwheels. I ordered the tan version, as I want to paint the Caunter camo with accurate colors. Thanks HDP for the preview!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

I have run the Tongde Matilda a bit. The low speed control is fine, something I should like to have on all WWII AFVs. At first everything functioned well. Unfortunately, after a short time, the cannon elevation and recoil stopped functioning.
I have since
1) done a factory reset
2) checked all the other functions
3) checked all connections to the Tongde 3.0 board to make sure they are secure and correctly placed
I have not dug into the turret to see if both the recoil and elevation connections are secure on that end, but they seem to resist any gentle tug on the wire. The cannon recoil is on CH1 and elevation on CH2, and I wonder if these connectors are somehow failing on the board. I will test a bit more, but am ready to contact the seller (from which firm I have had good service) to ask for advice as a lead-in to asking for a new Tongde 3.0 board. Stay tuned...

[ColemanCollector]

Oh, oh! Fingers crossed it's just some connectors that loosened in transit.

Mike.

[PainlessWolf]

HerrDr.Professor,
Let us know what you find out, please. The Elevation on the Crusader stopped working ( even though it still dips on its own when the tank is started ). I checked everything including taking the Servo apart and checking the gears movement. The only oddity is the Servos micro Board gets very hot when the Tank is on and the Elevation is tried, so I think that the Servo just packed it in. I have yet to find that exact type of Servo for replacement, either from Toucan or anywhere else.
regards,
Painless

'Lord Save Us from Beasties and Cheap Chinese Electronics that go 'BOOM' in the Night....'

[Kaczor]

In my experience, cheap servos could be failing. Try connecting a separate servo to the appropriate ports.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Yep, that's right in this case, too: "even though it still dips on its own when the tank is started" Uh-oh! I will be using my servo tester and checking micro-servos from the board a.s.a.p. I am trying to figure out if its the servos or the board.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning Gentlemen,
I bought some new small metal gear Servos to test with and they use a standard flat plug connector and there are open ports for that on the main MFU in the Crusader. Of course, the Elevation Servo plugs into the Daughter Board in the Turret and uses an older style of 3 pin Plug-in. I'll try the original Servo using my Tester to see if it is still capable of full range of movement. If so, that points to the Daughter Board. Something else that I have been unable to source as it does not correspond to the Boards in other Users Crusaders. Otherwise the newer type of Daughter Board is available at Motion RC. Something to check to see if a new Elevation Servo can be run off of the main MFU using another switch on the Radio.
regards,
Painless

[SoCalBobS]

Confused; are we talking Crusader or Matilda?