Amateur Build. HAYA Centurion KIT

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

Aliexpress or ebay

[tankme]

The volume pot he showed with the 10k Ohm resistance works in my Clark powered tanks. So on my Clarks, the main headlights come on when I put the 1st 3 position switch (2nd switch from the left on the transmitter) in the fully down position. Then you move the second 3 position switch (3rd actual switch from the left) to the fully down position. If the MG light isn't working, you may have it wired wrong. The HL tanks use a common voltage for the MG and the negative line is the side that triggers it; therefore, the Clark boards also use the negative trigger. Alternatively, there is a newer version of the Clark board where the MG has to be enabled in the software.

[zooma]

10k volume pots-l400.jpg

These look like the same ones:-

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3297863 ... 1802UId1Kz

I cant find any pre-wired like the ones you have pictured.

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

There the ones, when i looked yesterday I couldnt find any with wires either, these are a but more robust than the standard
offering, just transfer your wires over from your existing pot.

Regards John

[zooma]

If the MG light isn't working, you may have it wired wrong. The HL tanks use a common voltage for the MG and the negative line is the side that triggers it; therefore, the Clark boards also use the negative trigger. Alternatively, there is a newer version of the Clark board where the MG has to be enabled in the software.

I have only recently purchased my Clark board from Andrew at HAYA, but I don't know what version it is.

The MG bulb is wired with the long leg (+ positive) to the red wire and it lights up OK when correctly connected to a 3V battery.

I am not sure exactly what you mean ref:- "negative trigger", but is there a possibility that if I unsolder the wires and re-connect them with the long leg (+ positive) to the - negative yellow wire (technically incorrectly wired) that it could work?

My knowledge of electronics is virtually non-existent, but I understood that if the LED was wired in reverse it could not light up - but I am happy to try it - as long as there is no danger of causing any damage to the board?

[zooma]

The lead that comes in the kit ready to have the red LED soldered onto it already has the small white plug fixed onto it.

I noticed on a short video that Andrew at HAYA has just sent me that the factory had put the wires in the plug the wrong way around on my lead!

Fortunately I was able to pull all the hot melt glue that I had used to seal the wires into the plug away, and then I was able to use a pin to release the "barb"on the two plugs and put them back into the plug the correct way around.

Now the red machine gun LED flashes correctly. Problem solved.

Now I only have the headlights not switching on/off to worry about !

[zooma]

In desperation, I connected the headlamp wires from another HAYA Centurion tank deck to the socket on my HAYA Centurion KIT build and the headlights on that deck switched on and off from my TX as they should. Everything else remained connected to my KIT Centurion and continued to work OK.

This shows no problem with the Clark system on my KIT Centurion, but suggests that the fault must be with the wiring of the two headlights?

I disconnected the other tanks deck and re-connected the headlamps on this HAYA Centurion KIT deck and they failed to switch on or off but I could hear the light switch "clunk" each time the TX was switched to turn on the lights?

The lights on the Kit tank deck "flashed " each time I switched the power off - suggesting that they are wired together OK .......back to square one - very frustrating !

The two long + positive LED legs from each of the two headlight bulbs on my KIT build have been soldered together. The two short legs (- negative) are also soldered together.

When tested on a 3 volt battery, both headlights light up together.

I think the above shows that my two headlights are wired together correctly...........?

If that is the case, the yellow/black wire that connects the two headlamps to the Clark Board must be suspect?

When I connected the "guest" Centurion tank deck to my Clark Board in my Centurion KIT I used the yellow/black wire that was connected to that tank and plugged it into my Clark Board. - again suggesting a problem with the wiring on my KIT headlights - but what could it be?

[zooma]

2AE924E6-A91F-4287-B0A0-311BE1D8F08A.jpegDoes anyone fit the second (outside) gearbox axle bearing - or just run with the inside bearing fitted?

Everything feels nice and smooth with just the inside axle bearing fitted, but fitting the second (outside) bearing does not feel like it aligns properly - it is very tight and would be a "force fit" to drift it onto the axle shaft.

A decision was finally made to fit the second (outside) axle bearing into the moulded housing - despite being concerned about the possible decrease in smoothness and the expected increase in difficulty when trying to remove the gearboxes in the future.

Recently, it was necessary to remove the two gearboxes when fitting wires to the two BLUE motors that I have decided to use in an attempt to improve the available power (to help the tank make better progress over less than perfect surfaces and to improve the steering) as the heavy metal tracks seemed to be sapping some of the marginal power that the basic kit motors were able to produce.

Getting the two moulded gearbox casings off of the axles was quite a struggle that needed progressively wider bladed screwdrivers to use as levers to prise them off........and this was when I only had the single inside axle bearing fitted!

Fitting the outside axle bearings was quite easy using the metal drive sprockets to drive them in.

Once the ball bearing had been positioned squarely on the output axle, I pushed the drive sprocket onto the output axle and tightened up the optional Allen headed bolt (I fitted these instead of the kit supplied cross head screw) to press the bearing fully into its socket.

The Allen bolts are certainly a good and inexpensive upgrade for this HAYA Centurion that I can strongly recommend. I will be looking at making this similar upgrade on my HAYA Chieftain and checking to see if I can also use it on my Heng Long tanks as well. The Allen head is hidden under the drive sprocket hub caps so I can see no negative reasons for not upgrading.

[zooma]

A new wire for the two front lamps arrived from Andrew today, but unfortunately it was quite a bit too short to reach the lamps, so I soldered on a new pair of wires to the lamps to make an extension.

I joined the new extension wires to the supplied wire (lead with plug) using a pair of small gold connectors.

This made it easy to put a 3volt battery onto the extension lead to check that the bulbs were still wired correctly and working OK - and they worked (they always had done).

When I plugged everything back into the tank - everything worked - except those two headlamps!

I had run-out of things to check and as a final last gasp I unplugged the two gold connectors that I had just fitted (to extend the short new wire) and reversed them. Immediately the lights worked and switched on and off via the transmitter.

This proved that I had two more wires supplied that were incorrectly wired into their plugs.

There is no diagram or picture to show which way around the wires should be fitted into their plugs - and being factory supplied - there was no reason to doubt that they could be at fault .......until all else failed......and reversing the polarity of the wires caused everything to work!

Anyway, I was now able to drive my new KIT Centurion for the first time - and everything worked - but not for long!

The sound stopped - and then the barrel recoil slowed - the gun flash and machine gun flash stopped working and the commanders cupola stopped turning.

The turret turn still worked and the gun elevation still worked......and the two headlamps still worked as well!

I was hoping that the battery had just gone flat - but I tried 3 more batteries with exactly the same things not working, and those things that were working stayed working.

All of my batteries are on charge now (just in case they all went flat at the same time) but I think it more likely that I have another electrical problem to resolve.

[Meter rat]

I have found that the plugs that our models use, can be wired incorrectly from the manufacturers, even from the same batch, and companies.