Installing Asiatam recoil unit in a Tiger 1 - help needed!

[tanks_for_the_memory]

Having bought one of these for my HL Tiger almost a year ago, I have finally plucked up the courage to start installing the thing - but as a novice with electronics I really need some help...

Now I always knew that this wasn't going to be easy. I bought mine from Welshdragon (always good service) and it came without any instructions. He kindly sent me some but these were actually for the HL Panzer III - not exactly the same. Then I found some for the Tiger 1 on-line. Unfortunately they take the form of fuzzy photos with poorly translated captions. To make matters worse, photo 9 turns up again where photo 19 is supposed to be.

I have had no trouble physically installing the thing.

I also worked out that the pair of shorter wires which run out from one part of the unit are simply to attach to the turret switch (the one in the loader's hatch). Since mine has gone I just soldered them together.

I have even managed to solder the three thinner wires (red, white and yellow) to the small square circuit board in the correct order.

However, so far all I have is the gun elevation working. No flash, no recoil.

The first of my problems seems to be that I am missing the trip switch (if that’s what you call it) to be installed in the hand controller.

When I took mine out of the box it looked like this:

Here's what comes out of the box.jpg (19.54 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

I thought that was the switch on the right, but in fact it’s an LED of some sort:

Can anyone tell me what this bit is supposed to be for.jpg (10.39 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

So there’s no trip switch at all.

Do I need one? If so how can I get hold of one? I have only just asked Steve at Welsh Dragon so it may be he can help...

And what am I supposed to do with the LED? Is it for turret MG?

Two other questions if I may.

First, neither set of instructions show me clearly where to attach the second, thicker red wire. It has an attachment which is a little like the internal aerial connection. It's the blurry one in the picture below.

Above are the 3 wires from the recoil unit attached to the square board. Below (sticking up) the stray wire which needs to be grounded.JPG (26.15 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

I believe it has to be grounded somewhere. The 'instructions' seem to suggest I attach to a wire coming from the motor. Elsewhere on the web I have read that it needs to be attached directly to the RX18 board. Wherever it goes, I obviously want it to be detachable so I can still easily remove the hull and turret.

Secondly, the instructions show me nothing at all about the plug arrangement which comes out of the flash / battery.

Here's mine:

These 2 plugs appear on the flash circuit.JPG (26.33 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

In the pic on the Welsh dragon website it’s the larger one on the black card at the bottom:

Asiatam recoil Welsh Dragon pic 1.jpg (38.33 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

Is this supposed to plug directly into the RX18 board? It certainly looks like it should. If so, where?

I sure would appreciate any help on this!

Regards,

Tim

[tanks_for_the_memory]

First mystery solved.

Steve says: "The transmitter switch is no longer supplied with these kits, it is not needed for the newer smoke and sound models."

Let's hope my other problems can be solved as easily!

Tim

[Johnf]

The LED is the high voltage flash and fits into the 88mm gun. The white socket does fit into the rx18. Cannot help you much there as I use elmod but I think the port on RX18 is marked CN3. The mystery wire does connect into one of the motor connections but not sure which one.
This link explains it. Panzer 111 wiring is same as Tiger but I have had problems with the panzer 111 and none with the Tiger. I am away from home for a while so cannot access my tanks at present to assist. Hope above info is of some use.

[mustclime]

I thought the big thick red wire conected the battery to charge the flash unit....but I am most likly wrong.

[Johnf]

I'm going from memory. my set up would be different as I have fitted an Elmod.

[jukebox]

The thick red wire connects to the negative battery feed to the RX18, I soldered a wire to the corresponding socket pin underneath the RX18 main board and solder/crimped a connector on to suit the wire from the recoil unit. This connection is needed to reset the recoil position.
As for the random LED, don't know, I don't remember getting a loose LED in my package, the gun flash LED should already be connected to the high-intensity flash circuit inside the black insulated "lump", usually with red, yellow and white wires. Hope this helps!

[tanks_for_the_memory]

Just to clarify, my flash LED is already connected - so the other one looks like a spare.

I think I get the drop on connecting the thick red wire to the negative feed - but would welcome a pic if someone can can post one.

And still need to be sure where to plug in to the RX18 board...

Thanks guys - but keep it coming!

Tim

[jukebox]

Hi Tim, the plug from the recoil unit goes into socket CN3 on the RX18, labelled as M.G. Fire. I'm away from home at the moment so can't send a picture of how/where I connected the red wire, but that's only one way to do it, I'm sure someone else will come along soon with a less fiddly way of doing it!

[Tankbear]

I connected the red negative wire to the main switch termial. Would of been nice if it was black and not red to confuse everyone. The LED I would say shouldn't of been included as you have the high tension flash unit.

As for plugging flash into the RX18 there is only two ports with 5 pins. If you hold the RX18 so these are at top it goes in the right hand side one.

Ian.

[tanks_for_the_memory]

Just to update with my progress - or lack of it.

I plugged the white plug from the flash unit into the 'MG fire' socket on the RX18 multi-function box and immediately got a faint high-pitched whine which I took to be the flash unit battery (the thing inside the black pouch) warming up. That was exciting.

However, nothing happened when I pushed up the left toggle switch - baah!

So I really need to see a pic of someone who has successfully installed to show me where to attach the red grounding wire.

Elevation still works fine though.