DRAGON ATRC question

[Tankbear]

Hi Mike

I don't have a direct e-mail for Kevin, I'm also a member of the RC Tank Australia forum and I normally message him through there. But he's also on this forum although not often. Search for RCTankAustralia and hopefully he respond.

Ian.

[RCTanksAustralia]

HI Mike

Quite simply the Dragon is not meant for install into IR tanks. It is meant for install into BB tanks only. For proper blocking of all of the automatic track functions when using IR you need a MAKO/ATRC. Sorry no cheap option here. Why???

Ok ..... With BB the ONLY automatic track function is the recoil and this is all the Dragon blocks. It blocks this when the Dragon receives a signal that the IR fire has been activated. This signal is not used if you have a BB tank so it is put to use in the Dragon instead. If you are using IR you ALSO have to contend with he Hit Shakes and the Death Spasm. These two functions are worse that the recoil especialy the Death Spasm which can send your tank carerering into walls, other tanks,... To block these you need info from the IR mushroom as well. Hence the MAKO/ATRC combination.

Even if you do manage to get the Dragon working with connections OTHER than what it is designed for it still will not block the other gearbox destroying functions associated with the IR hit responses.

Also you are quie correct in your findings about "that the Taigen/RX-18 MFC is not putting out enough juice to drive both the IR and the Dragon ATRC". That is significant difference between the Heng Long MFU and the new Taigen MFU's. To get around this issue the lead used to connect your Dragon the the MFU has 2 diodes inline HENCE it much be connected directly to the battery supply of 7.4 volts. Since voltage drops by about 1.2 volts when going through a diode the 7.4 volts of the battery is reduced to 5 volts to power the Dragon & the onboard Relay (7.4 -1.2 -1.2 = 5). Powering from the 4.5 V supply will result in only 2.1 volt going to the Dragon not enough for the micro nor the relay to operate.

OF course there is always a way to modify something to work in a way other that how it is designed. If you really want to do it this is what I would do.

First forget connecting to the MFU as such. Get power direct from the battery. Make sure before you to this that there are infact 2 x diodes in your connecting lead. To get the signal required to activate the relay all that is needed is a short connection to ground. Now you 'should' be able to get this by connecting the signal wire (yellow/orange) to the triggering microswitch on the back of the recoil unit. From memory the new MFU units all trigger the main gun when this switch closes providing a connection to ground.

@ d170sam - The Dragon is available from RC Tanks Australia

http://rctanksaustralia.com/shop/index. ... cts_id=216

Welsh Dragon Modes also stock the Dragon as the unit was developed particularly from a request by Steve (hence the name). If WDM is out of stock that will soon be fixed as I am shipping a box of 20 units today to WDM. But PLEASE remember the Dragon is for BB tanks NOT IR.

Cheers
Kevin G

[MichaelC]

Kevin,

Thank you so much for your response. It was my fault that I didn't read the disclaimer properly to begin with. I completely forgotten about the "hit shake" and the "death spasm" but I bought this mainly to reduce the excessive recoil in couple of the tanks that I have. Unfortunately all of my tanks are IR, so I might have to take your advice and try to "retro" fit the two Dragon I bought already just so that they don't sit in my spare bins.

I am still a little confused about the inline diodes you mentioned. Are you saying that the Dragon right now has two in-line diodes built in to deal with the 7.4V coming in from the Taigen 2.4G MFU ? If this is the case, then why would I need two diodes if I were to run a line directly from the battery ? Also, this doesn't explain why when I hook up the double tap IR leads the Dragon stops working (Well it kinda does because the IRs are sucking the power from the MFU ?).

Don't mean to bastardize the Dragon...... I just want to see if I can savage the two I have. If not I will try to sell it. I really appreciate the product and I am very impressed with the quality (and the technical support !)

Mike.

[RCTanksAustralia]

HI Michael

I hate that darn track recoil, death spasm and so on more than making money So this is what I'll do for you. Contact me via RC Tanks Australia Shop ( http://rctanksaustralia.com/shop/ ) If you send back the 2 Dragons direct to RCTA I will send you 2 x MAKO/ATRC replacements. Let me know if you are using the standard Heng Long MFU or the Taigen MFU. The setup is a little bigger since there are 2 boards involved but I have them in all my PzIII s so you should be fine.

As for yor diodes question. When I say 7.4 volts is coming from the Taigen/Heng Long MFU what I really mean is that the 7.4 volts is coming direct from the battery via the MFU. Can't answer the other question as I am not sure what double tap IR leads are. Still MAKO/ATRC = no fuss & no worry.

Again for everyone else Dragon is for NON IR users specifically be that BB/airsoft users, scale modellers and so on. The best use of a Dragon by one of my customers was in converting his Pantiger to a camera platform. With the track recoil eliminated he could then use the fire function to trigger his camera.

Cheers
Kevin G

[MichaelC]

Kevin G,

Thank you so much for the offer. That is some amazing tech support and customer service.

I will contact you via RCTA and we can go from there.

Michael.

[d170sam]

Can you use the dragon on a IR tank if you have no intention of using the IR function, for example I have a asiatam tiger one lower hull with the matching metal IR upper hull, I don't want the track recoil and il not be using the IR, if I conect the dragon to the IR port on my control unit and conect the upper hull to the usual upper hull slot will the turret recoil still work as well as the other turret functions? I hope so because I just ordered a dragon, if anyone can give me advice it would be much appreciated

[MichaelC]

Yup. It plugs directly into the 5 PIN IR port (i.e. where the IR emitter and receiver goes into it). It didn't work for me because I was trying to connect the IR send and receive at the same time. When I plug the dragon directly into it works perfectly. You also need to snip the two red power lead to the motors and connect them up on the Dragon but no soldering require. It was actually quite an elegant solution. The other 5 PIN plug has the recoil stuff (i.e. flash and trigger) which stays the same.

[d170sam]

Awesome, thanks for the help

[tanker 242]

hi d170sam i have fited the dragon into my tiger & pzr 1v just cut red motor wires & connect too dragon then plug in to i/r port & hey presto barrel recoil [iff u have recoil unit fitted ] & anoying track recoil gone tanker 242

[tanker 242]

ps got my info from michael c as well & it was very helpfull , thanks michael c . tanker 242