RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Ok, I tried it. The turret turns faster, but I wouldn't say that the performance was vastly improved. It still struggles on gradients, or stops altogether. It is nowhere near an RX14 in terms of performance.

The battery lasted a few minutes longer though.

Grrr...It crossed my mind that there may be something set within the tx that is reducing full throttle (It's a complex Hitec 7 QPCM), I couldn't see anything within the menu's (and there are lots) so I figured I would reset it to factory defaults.

I have now lost all my damned settings, I can't even start the tank. Its late so I will have to sort all of that out again tomorrow.  >:(

Do you have a Watts Up Meter?  I used this to measure the voltage and amperage draws when hooking up the motors and El Mod.  I posted a video on youtube and my findings at RCU.  Battery life has been over 2 hours, never maxed it out though.

You're right, the HL radio and signals coming from the board probably didn't mesh well with the 3-1 gearbox and Jamara 480s.

Ohh, originally when I was speccing the system, Thomas did say El Mod was calibrated for original gearboxes and black capped motors.  This was around late 2007 or early 2008.

I think that Perry S. also runs Speed400s through custom gearboxes and El Mod with success.  The high reduction gearboxes reduce the amperage load on the motors.

Our Walker BullDog runs Speed400s through stock gearboxes and the TK-RX13 with success.

Unfortunately I don't have a WattsUp meter, though I have seen your video. There is no way that the tank would run for 2 hours?? Jeez. I checked last night and it's actually a 3900 battery, designed for car racing, so it's matched cells and constant power output. I have tried other batteries, but none will last more than 15-20 mins. 2 Hours? How did you manage that?

It's not running HL tx, its the Thinktank 1.00, plus plug in Soundblaster III, with the CSI battle system. I am using a Hitec Eclipse 7 QPCM, which is massive overkill for the job. I may well see about getting a simpler tx as this one is designed for advanced acro, heli, gliding and has so many interlinked controls that getting the settings right for a tank is a nightmare.

Just to add to my misfortune, I cleared the memory on the tx last night and couldn't figure out why nothing was working apart from the sounds on the left stick. After trying everything I could, I swapped the Thinktank board out with a spare..and it all worked perfectly. Somehow, just at that opportune moment the onboard fuse that controls all of the turret functions and auxiliary functions had blown. The spare board works fine though.

I think that this is the 3rd time that this has happened, so it will be going back to Thomas yet again.

I did the same trick with the Bulldog (it has a Darkith unit in it) and I have to say that it performs flawlessly, the battery lasts for ages, and it will climb over anything. It is far and away the best tank I have...and the cheapest?

Cheers

Rob G

I don't remember the full load amperage draw but its posted at RCU and can be seen on youtube.  The battery in that tank was a 4600 I think, geez it's been a long time since I was able to play with them I'm forgetting many details!!

Here's a request, do you have the old and new style boards, and can you do a back to back Watts-Up test on them using the same motors? It would be very interesting to know whether there is a difference between them, especially when the motors are under load from a standstill? It would also be interesting to know how they compare to an RX14?

Thomas tells me that both the old and the new boards use the same esc's. If this is the case then the only thing that can cause a difference in performance is the power that gets through the boards to the motors. Now, as the new board has a plug in soundblaster, I am wondering whether the current draw required for the amplifier saps it away from the motors, just when it is needed eg when doing a standing start on an incline. The sound chip will generate a lot of 'change down a gear, and rev the engine noises' under those conditions...but is this drawing power away from the motors?

I would love to know!

Rob G