RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi Ross at the Dunstable meet Dave (forgebear) had a tiger 1 tank there that was by far the best sounding tank I have heard send him a pm and ask what set up he has.
Stevie

Hi Ross, have you sent a pm to Rob yet????

As I have already said, he is the Elmod master, he built Forgebear's Tiger and advises most folks on Elmod problems. Rob will also be able to explain it at ground level so you will be able to understand what you need and what your options are.

The following facts will help you understand a bit more about Elmod:

You can not install part Elmod.

You have 2 options, you can install Elmod and use the HL transmitter and rcvr, or you can use an after market transmitter and rcvr ( by far the best way to go).

You can't use the HL RX18 card and attach the Elmod sound card. You need to use the 2 main Elmod cards which give you tank controlls on one card and the sounds on the other.

So in the tank you need the following:
1. A rcvr of your choice. ( HL rcvr or say a Hitec rcvr. If you use the HL rcvr you need an extra Elmod card, this extra little card converts the HL type signals to signals the Elmod cards understand)
2. Elmod main card (thinktanK) which controlls tank drive motors and and turret/gun movement
3. Elmod sound card ( blaster ) which gives all tank sounds (motor start and run/cannon /machine gun/ voices/music etc)
4. Optional Elmod battle system card if you want it
5. Optional Elmod muzzle flash attachment if you want it

You are where I was a year ago....confused because you don't understand the Elmod setup.... but not to worry, everyone here will give what ever knowledge they have in order that you don't waste your hard earned dosh.

The above is really all you need to know, so you should be able to chose from this what you need to buy. When you buy the cards (modules) they will each come with the appropriate cords and connexion info so take no notice what anyone else has suposedly bought. The statement that other people have bought such and such, is often something that the company adds to entice you to buy extra kit that you won't need.

My advice would be to go full Elmod and use an propper radio trans and rcvr setup, preferably a 2.4 gig set so you wont get interference.

If this is still not enuff info then ask for more.....and if I am wrong in my advice someone will put me rite very quickly.

All the best

Mike

Mike you're a marvel!
thanks for the info cos that clears a whole lot up for me, now I've a clearer picture I'll see what I can get. I've got an unused 5 channel tx with accompanying rx unit so I can start from there!
cheers
Ross

There you go.... us old folks have the odd use after all.

Before you make a final decision, ask if anyone has built the kind of tank you want to build, ask for fotos of the inside of their tank so you can see what you need to replicate. I think most of the fotos you need were lost in the changeover to this new site server, but I bet lots of folks will be happy to show off their work and post their work again for you. I will attempt to foto the inside of my Tiger for you so you can see a MK 1 Elmod installation..... the MK 2 will be similar.

Don't forget to look at the Elmod section on here and pm Rob for advice if you need it.

I will pm you a few fotos shortly. Good luck and ask lots of questions.....Mike

Ok, ok I am home from work now!

Elmod now only supply one system. As previously stated it consists of three units:

1. Think Tank board
This is the one that you plug the receiver into.
You need this board as a starting point as it controls all of the tank motors and lights.
It will take the HL 8 pin plug straight from the turret, though this is not as simple as the old RX14 as the RX18 uses different plugs.
What I have done with both of mine is simply cut all wiring from the HL system and solder new ones in as follows:

1. +/- barrel elevation
2. +/- turret rotation.
3. +/- for each drive motor.

I also fit a
Maplins YH70M IR 5mm emitter for the battle system 'gun'
and a
Superwhite 5mm led for the muzzle flash.
The Elmod boards do not require you to fit resistors etc.

You then have the option of wiring in the following:
Brake lights
Machine guns
Head lights
Rear lights

All that you have to remember is that each led has a +/- and the Elmod manual shows you where the sockets are. If you have a soldering iron and some heatshrink it really is a simple task to hook it all up. They supply everything except the solder and the heatshrink.

2. Sound Blaster Card

This one plugs straight into the Thinktank board. Voila, you now have multichannel polyphonic sounds.
You need a speaker. I use the Visatron FR7s. I make a speaker box using a plastic component box from Maplins. Elmod supply the lead, you just solder the wires onto the speaker.

3. Battle System

This is the 'mushroom', and a circuit board, and a linking cable.
You need to mount the mushroom in a hatch, and plug it together.
A supplied ribbon cable links the battle system to the Thinktank board.
The IR emitter plugs into the battle system board.

4.I am not about to start a 'Tamiya' v 'Elmod' war, but will say that the Elmod system allows you to do the following:

All tank movement controls are on the right stick, eg forward, back, spin right, spin left, slow turn right, slow turn left. Let the right stick bounce back to centre and the tank slowly coasts to a halt, gentle reverse pressure applies brakes for a braked stop, and full back does an emergency stop.

On the left stick, left and right are turret controls, full up is main gun fire, and diagonal is the machine gun. The opposite diagonal starts your tank engine, and the same cuts the tank engine.

This allows you to control the tank and fire at the same time. This is a great advantage in tank battles, there is no fumbling with switches and trims at all.

5. Installation

The simplest way is to buy a sheet of 2mm styrene and cut everything out of the HL hull. Make a new flat bed using the styrene. Buy some Maplins standoffs and mount the Thinktank board clear of the base using these. The soundcard simply plugs into it. The battle system is a very small board and can be mounted anywhere that you can find space. I have used double sided tape and foam and stuck it on top of one of the IC chips.

Just plan it out before hand so that you can see where cables need to run, where the speaker box will go, and where the battery and receiver will fit. The tx referred to above works perfectly with Elmod. I have one tx and two receivers, with one in each tank. As they are both 2.4ghz it makes life very simple and its a very cheap way of doing it.

My advice is to stick with stock HL motors.

6. Tweaking

The Think tank board has a row of jumpers. You simply arrange these to select the type of tank dynamics you want. My advice is to select the 'Fun Tank' mode. You get full power to the motors and the battery will last for hours.
The Soundcard comes preloaded with a long list of tank sounds that you can select, again using jumpers. If you are feeling adventurous you can create your own and store them on the chip as it is a sim card that you can plug into your pc.
The Battle system can be configured for different armour, reload times etc using a bank of dip switches.

If you want to see a few installations, simply open You Tube, type 'WibblyWobbly1' into the search box and take a look at the videos that I have put on there.

Oh and just for the record, although two of my tanks are Elmod, the other two are HL with Darkith battle systems, which offer an excellent budget entry into IR tank battles.

Have fun

Rob

thanks Rob and Mike, I've now looked at the elmod site and have selected the Thinktank module and BlasterIII, so here goes.
cheers

Ross

To add to Rob's post:
My Tiger has stock Black Cap HL motors with RC Commands 3:1 steel gearbox - this doesn't work too well as the El-Mod system expects a certain torque curve when moving away from a standstill which when they programmed it, didn't consider that combination (and so it accelerates like a snail ). Forgebear demonstrated the Mato brass gearboxes in his Tiger with el-mod, and I much prefer that solution (might even go that way myself after doing some testing here )

The standard ratio gears are useless for IR combat in my experience as they leave you a sitting duck after a couple of hits . Maybe Somebody else can shed some light on how well El-Mod reacts with the standard gearset - the only time I tried this was with the basic Nylon gears in long grass, ie lots of slipper clutch action

HTH
Mart

P.S. For those of you who have/want the RC Command 3:1 gearboxes - they work great with the RX-13/14, but if like me you are in a club that complies with the RCACN combat rules (i.e. no exceeding scale speeds) they are much better suited to the Pershing/Bulldog The Mato gears are a close match to scale speed, tho slightly over with plastic tracks. I hope to retest with metal ones in the next few months.

What is the cost of these systems compared with tamiya systems
I have a couple of Bandai 1/15 with tamiya motors but waiting DMD's.

the thinktank module plus the BlasterIII will cost you £196 but don't know about the Tamiya.

Mart, have you tried the 'fun tank' settings on the Thinktank jumpers? Elmod were made aware of the lack of power on the other settings and have apparently boosted it on the latest boards. The fun tank settings allow full power to the motors, rather than choking it at 5v.

I run both of mine on fun tank, the Tiger weighs 13lbs and runs ok now on standard HL motors and boxes, the Stug is running Forgebears low ration boxes and runs great too.

If anyone has the cash to buy the 'Configurator' they can reprogram the settings themselves.

I seem to recall from Thomas's postings on Panzerketten that they also changed a few other settings so that turns etc are more realistic, though Google translate didn't do very well I am afraid.

Cheers

Rob G