Elmod take 2

[wibblywobbly]

"I think that customers giving them feedback is a good thing so they can work on any weaker areas."

Funny you should say that. I was in close contact with Thomas a few years ago, and used to pick his brains all the time, I also made several suggestions about the system. I had problems with blown esc's and onboard fuses etc, and he was always helpful. This even went to the point of me using metering kit and temperature sensors to prove to him where there was a problem.

They do take feedback on board, and the latest boards are evidence of this. They changed from fiddly jumpers to dip switches, they now use USB connectors, and the connections are much easier to use. They have also beefed up the amps handling so that bigger motors can be installed.

I have been reading his comments regarding the sound output on Panzerketten, and it seems that he knows a great deal about the different speakers, and how they perform, and how to get the best out of them. As he has pointed out, although the speaker box should ideally be a vacuum tight one of certain proportions, some people leave airgaps that create a bass woofer by accident. In general, the bigger and more airtight the box, the better the sound, and he explains why. His recommendation is still the Visaton FRS8 for all round performance, though some use the FRS7 series.

[Yellowshaker]

Rob, you know, I never thought to ask you this. I could never find those speakers here in the states. I use speakers from parts express.com. Usually tang bang or peerless. Correct me if I am wrong, but it is best to use a full range speaker right?
I have a 3 inch 2-way speaker on order to try out. He syas it's best for the speaker to be in a completely enclosed box? Ok. I will see wha I can do with that. It is hard at this scale to get the right bass in my opinion. I can see a larger scale tank with a 6 inch or 8 inch woofer for bass really making some noise, but a 3 inch is usually the best you can fit in these tanks. I am wondering what kind of speaker Tamiya uses in theor tanks.

[wibblywobbly]

The difference is that Tamiya always have large speaker boxes, and it is these that make the difference. If you connect an Elmod board to a Tamiya speaker/box the difference is very noticeable.

[Yellowshaker]

Yes, that makes sense. I have a Tamiya speaker in my Israeli Sherman and plan to take out the Pershing electroincs and sell them. I will replace with an elmod unit.
I tired those 2-way speakers, but they are very low in volume. I know elmod recommends 8ohm, but seems the 4 ohm speakers work better. Iknow the rating on these 2 ways is 50 watt. Maybe a small external amp? The sound quality is very good, just too low.

[wibblywobbly]

I used Google translate to get this info from Thomas's contributions on Panzerketten, which may help a bit, unfortunately when I tried to copy the translation into here, it reverted to German?

http://www.rc-panzerketten-forum.com/wb ... adid=12168

[Yellowshaker]

Ah, thank you for that link. I translated it too and from what I see they are using 4ohm speakers for more volume too.
I know that the elmod system is rated at 10 watts, but what I began to wonder is if that is at 12v, not 7.2. I noticed that elmod now has a new blaster IV available for 2 speakers as well.
On a different note, I awoke today to 26 inches of snow and no work. I haven't seen such a mess as this in over ten years!

[wibblywobbly]

It will be at either. The amp will be running on a common voltage regardless of the power going in, probably via on board resistors.

I had one solitary light dusting of snow about 2 weeks ago, and it is supposed to be 12 degrees on Wednesday.

[Yellowshaker]

Well, thanks for setting me straight on the amp. I didn;t realize that the voltage input would not affect it. Makes sense though.
A dusting huh? Well, we have a total of about 26 inches without the drifts, which are 5 feet in some areas, with the norm being about 3 feet. My poor Jeep is buried!

[wibblywobbly]

Just been doing my Panzer III soundfile, and think I may have stumbled upon something regarding that 'clicking' noise that was mentioned.

I used to use old versions of Audacity and dbPowerAmp to create my files, and they worked just fine.

Owing to a total hard disk boot problem a few months back, I had to download all of the software again, and that is what I was using this time around.

I spent hours working on the files, loaded them up, and the engine sounds were just a staccato burst? I couldn't figure it out as the checker system had not found any errors. I then spent ages looking at the files, and trying it all again, same result.

Then I happened to glance at the properties box, and there was the problem. The newer version of Audacity automatically tags the files, and the newer version of dbPowerAmp does not automatically remove them. The Elmod system cannot read the files if they have tags.

So, back to Audacity, Export, and then delete anything that was populating the tags fields. Then 'save' in 'any uncompressed format' for 8 bit, and bingo, the sound files all work, and no ticking noise.

I will post a video when the tank is finished...still a bit to do yet.

Rob G

[Yellowshaker]

Yes, I noticed that as well. I always remnoved the tags before exporting the files. Strange that no errors came up in file checker. I look forward to seeing the new video. Your work is always inspirational.