Disguising the TBU

[grompix]

Thanks for the help, I can understand what you are saying. Is there any way apart from shielding or covering the receivers to compensate for armor thickness. EG: Hard to get a kill head on, easy from rear, a bit harder from side?

No - unfortunately. IR receivers work by being triggered by the correct ir beam that hits them. There's no way to accurately or consistently modify the ranges. They are either triggered or not - nothing in between. So, other than modifying the internal logic controller in the Tamiya Multi-Function Unit (or the equivalent), there is no way of doing it other that some form of shielding on the IR sensor itself. And that is very difficult (impossible even!) to do consistently.

Not you hoped-for answer I know but I hope it helps anyway.

Cheers
Chris   

[oztruck]

Any answer is a good answer, all it means is that we have eliminated a possibility. I guess I will have to work with what there is. But in the back of my mind I think I saw that someone was doing a unit that would be able to tell from which direction the hit came from. That will teach me not to put info like that into my "Favorites"

[971wright]

Hi Guys been reading your posts and have thought of a way that may increase the armour if the sensors were mounted with a tube over the sensor(about 6mm dia) the lenght of the tube would depend on the tank and position  if the sensor is flush with the end it would take hits from any position if it was say 5 mm back it would need to be more direct to hit it and say 10mm allmost imposible to hit,so you could on a Tiger have the front sensor 10mm back sides 5mm and rear flush all these sensors would have to be mounted in the hull ,otherwise the tank would be imposible to knock out (if mounted in the turret all you would have to do is rotate turret towards any threat and your safe ) Tigers could be knocked out from the front by a lesser tank but it would be a lucky shot 131 is one such case but most tanks could knock a tiger out from the rear .These diamensions will have to be tested just an estimate to give you the idea of what im thinking.


              regards pete

[grompix]

I've just remembered that the Elmod CSI has two options called 'Compatible Mode' and 'Extended Mode'. Compatible mode is the same as Tamiya. Here's a quote from their CSI manual on the extended mode :-

"In the extended mode a hit can damage one or both sides of the drive or the turret
depending on the direction of the shot and a random component. There is the possibility of
a coup de grâce which means that the tank is destroyed immediately."

Might be something like what you are looking for Oztruck

Cheers 
Chris

[Ex_Pat_Tanker]

If memory serves they have a couple of magnets fitted to the turret ring so that they can determine which way the turret is facing when the CSI takes the hit - thereby determining which direction the shot came from and which side of the tank would have gotten hit?

[grompix]

If memory serves they have a couple of magnets fitted to the turret ring so that they can determine which way the turret is facing when the CSI takes the hit - thereby determining which direction the shot came from and which side of the tank would have gotten hit?

Yes, you're right Mart. I'd forgotten about that.
Cheers
Chris

[oztruck]

Thank guys. Just hit my "favorites button" Now I have it and won't loose it. Looks like I am going to have  to get a couple of units and have a play with them till I get something that works for me. Thanks for all of the help and ideas.

[sparks]

Just seen this thread,
Great idea I will try it on my sherman build, if successfull, will convert all my tanks (eventually)
Well done Chris.
Any chance you can repost some of the pics, as not everything is showing.
Thanks
Alan

[grompix]

Hi Alan
Glad you like the mods. Just about all my tanks are done that way now. They work fine and look much better without the 'mushroom'. You do suffer a bit of a disadvantage v standard Tamiya TBU-equipped tanks though as you don't get the deflection effect caused by the inverted pyramid mirror in the TBU.
I think all the pics are in place on this thread - just a few smiley icons are missing.
Regards
Chris

[sparks]

Thanks Chris,
One question, maybe I missed it on the thread, but why do you need new IR detectors, can the Tam ones not be re-used
Alan