Some questions about electronics

[Athelstan]

Hi guys,

Since taking the plunge and ordering a tank I've spent a lot of time reading up "about stuff". With my initial tank faulty and a fairly lengthy amount of time wasted in trying to sort it out I've had plenty of time to be researching instead of tinkering but I've got a few queries that I would really appreciate some help with.

Some years ago I ran a number of RC cars and had a lot of confidence with them. I knew that if I bought an ESC it would fit, if I upgraded some servos they'd fit, if I upgraded a motor it would fit and so on. With tanks, however, I have no such confidence.

Let's suppose I bought a 2.4ghz 6ch radio (with receiver); would it be a straight fit to wire up everything or do you need to work a lot of magic to get things connected?

EL-MOD! I really, really like the idea of the EL-MOD system, especially the notion that it simulates the physics of a real tank. I have to confess that I'd like to explore the idea of upgrading to this piece of kit; is it a straight swap for the RX18 board? Is it literally a case of "unplug everything from the RX18, put the RX18 to one side, fit the EL-MOD, connect the plugs to the EL-MOD, have fun" or is there more to it?

Combining those two questions; if I fitted an EL-MOD system to the tank would it be directly compatible with a more advanced radio system?

I'm afraid that, such is the law according to sod, I've forgotten the other questions I had... I'll have to update this thread as and when I remember them

Thank you in advance

[Johnf]

Elmod is a worthwhile upgrade. It is a quite simple upgrade. You will loose all the heng long boards including the receiver board. You cannot use the heng long radio with it. Any decent 4 channel upwards radio receiver should be ok. I use a futaba 7c. If you want the sound you will also need the elmod blaster. Also an upgrade speaker. I use a visaton 8. A lot of the heng long wiring connects straight to it. Power wires, speaker wires, switches,receiver wires come with the elmod. The end result is great. I have some videos posted.

[Johnf]

Just one other thing about the elmod. It handles a heavy tank without any problem. Mine weighs nearly 20 lbs. No fans required. The heng long boards might struggle with this and would need a fan. There is no plug in point for the smoker but the heng long smoker is useless anyway. The super smoker seems to be far superior and can be wired into the elmods electrics. I do not have a smoker connected at present.

[Johnf]

Did I mention that you can add music files. This is a little more difficult and I am still learning. This was my first go. The recoil went a little crazy atone point. This was due to a left stick that needed some adjustment for tanks.



You also loose the tank judder when main gun fires. You keep the super turn feature but if you get one of the elmod configurators you can adjust the tank movements as much as you want.

[CHIEFSONN]

Hello Johnf I have a question for you since you mentioned that with the weight of your tank a heng long and it being 20 lbs I would like to know how it drives, You see I have an heng long Jadg panther,it weighs 16.59 lbs. I am using tamiya gears ETO large black motors(480) mato metal tracks, 7.2v 5100ma battery with a the elmod pro board and sound card, and I'm using a rds8000 airtronics transmitter with 7 channels. i have it programed in the easy tank mode, my problem and some of the other guys in my club also having heavy tanks had to remove there track and go back to using the plastic, with the metal tracks they could not make much of a turn,unless it was a very large radius turn ,this is not good when using the tanks to battle. I have not at this time changed back to using the plastic. So have you had any of these problems,and are you using metal tracks ? a larger battery ?.Thanks for your reply.

[Johnf]

Hi,

I use metal tracks,sprockets,idlers and road wheels. Asiatam metal tub. large speaker. added weights. I have a problem with one of the road wheel bearings locking occasionally. It will be fine when the bearing is changed. Battery is 7.2 volt 3800amh. Iget good running time from this. Receiver gets it's power from this also via elmod board. I do not know how it would do in battle as I have nobody to compete against. Gears asiatam 3:1 metal gears. Bearings fitted to the sprockets.

[Athelstan]

Your videos have made me want to test my overdraft to the limit, JohnF; your tank looks and sounds fantastic

So would I be right in thinking that a Futaba 7C would work with the Heng Long electronics?

Obviously once you start looking at a new radio and a complete EL MOD set up the cost begins to go skyward very quickly but an upgrade path of:

Default radio + RX18 electronics > Futaba 7C + RX18 electronics > Futaba 7C + EL MOD

..means you can utilise the new radio and then look to buy an EL MOD somewhere down the line (when I find a buyer for my left kidney).

What recoil system do you use? The effect looks really nifty.

Chiefsonn, I am sorely lacking in experience with model tanks but would different gearboxes help your situation? Sounds like the model is struggling with torque but, well, I don't know!

[CHIEFSONN]

Supper job on the tiger,really looks drives and handles it's self well in the snow.and this tank weighs twenty lbs. fantastic... What setting are you using, would it be German tank metal gears?I tried all the settings. it maybe the gears with mine,hope not but my other friends they are using Asiatam hulls wheels etc.Asiatam 321 gears, and theirs also weighing close to 20 lbs changed there tracks. I will be getting my tank worked on tonight, going over my all the settings on the transmitter,and will also have the elmode fine tuned using the configuator made for elmode that you hook up to your computer. Hope this works. thank you for your thoughts and the fine videos showing how your tank preforms . I let you know how I made out.

[Johnf]

Hi Guys,

There are still some issues to sort out with this tank. I got it as somthing to learn about rc as I wanted to get into 1/6 tanks. The futaba 7c works well with the elmod set up. I do not know how to hook up the futaba receiver with rx18 but am sure it can be done. Yes costs get out of control when you get int elmod upgrades and upgraded receivers. The 7C can at least be programmed to operate up to ten models. The elmod in the tiger is the pro model hence I can have a mantlet mg and convoy light. One thing about the 7C is the left stick does not come with a centering spring. They can be hard to get but my local supplier can get them and they are easy to fit. Without it the control of the gun elevation is difficult and as can be seen in one of the videos the recoil can go crazy. Simple to fit the spring and it only costs a couple of pounds. The recoil used is the asiatam with high voltage flash. Works well with the Tiger but is giving me trouble with the Panzer 111.