Intro to the Open Panzer Project - and a new Control Board

[Rad_Schuhart]

Hi Luke, I was going to send you a private message but then I saw you dont want them (and has total sense, lol)

I was going to open another thread but I guess you will see my question here sooner. But if you consider I am derrailing your thread I'll delete the post.


So, I have a benedini micro clone and never tested it until now. After hours trying to connect the board to the computer I have seen that the programmmer comes bad wired from factory, so I had to swap the wires... But the last problem is some peopel says it wont work in windows 10, and I have no other windows. Do you now if it works in windows 10?

And also last question, I have seen two kinds of benedini programmers. One has 3 wires and other 4. I have the 3 wires one. What is the difference?

Thank you for your help and sorry!

EDIT! FIXED

Well guys, ignore my previous post. The micro board clone works, and works very good. And also I can change the sounds and functions at will... I recommend you to stay away from the overpriced and faulty programmer (comes bad wired from factory) and to buy a 2 euros free shipping programmer at ebay and wire it as follows. The VCC wire is not needed. So now it works perfectly, tested in my windows 10.

[LukeZ]

I'm happy to answer questions when I know the answers, but in this case I probably don't. You might want to start a new thread on this topic so that others with more experience will see it and chime in. You can always post a link to other threads here if you want me to see it.

I don't actually own a Micro, either from Thomas or one of the clones, I've only tested the MIni. The Mini programming cable is 4-wire, so I'm assuming the 3-wire version must be for the Micro, though again I don't have direct experience with it.

I haven't tried TBS Flash in Windows 10 either, though I would be surprised if it didn't work. Since you have Windows 10 why don't you try it and see what happens?

EDIT: Just now saw your update! Glad you got it working.

[wibblywobbly]

I think I am right in saying that although the Benedini brand is known globally, and many may think it is some huge factory producing them, it is in reality a kitchen table operation. If this is true, it explains the cost, as if he dropped the price he couldn't increase production, so logically he makes as many as he can, and sells as many as he can make, even at the current cost.

The only way he could increase production is to use China, and that would be the last he sees of any copyright, so he has my sympathies in that respect. As has been said, it is his design, and his genius, the boards are very simple, Luke is right, it is the firmware that is so damned clever. A trade friend has chatted with him, and he is indeed a very honest and helpful guy.

I see that the Open Panzer sound card is still under development, there must be a few challenges down that road, SD cards present all sorts of read/write problems due to the limitations on data transfer speeds, and the need to use high quality cards. I am having all sorts of problems trying to get an ultra simple 'one sound - gunfire' sd card to work how I want it to!!

[Raminator]

I received my TCB today. It looks like it's a refurbished board, but whoever did the soldering has done a really good job. I'll try and test all the functions in the next couple of days, but I think it's looking good.

[c.rainford73]

I received my TCB today. It looks like it's a refurbished board, but whoever did the soldering has done a really good job. I'll try and test all the functions in the next couple of days, but I think it's looking good.

That is great news!

[Smaily]

Well well well, I had hard time to decide to which board to invest (as budget is tight), but now I have two TCB's and four ESC's in cart at HK So I will join OP community.

[c.rainford73]

I wanted to let everyone know that the new Open Panzer board that I just received from Hobby King on sale is correct and has the proper mosfets already installed

They are exactly the ones I purchased to repair my original board

Very nice!

[c.rainford73]

Hi Luke, I was going to send you a private message but then I saw you dont want them (and has total sense, lol)

I was going to open another thread but I guess you will see my question here sooner. But if you consider I am derrailing your thread I'll delete the post.


So, I have a benedini micro clone and never tested it until now. After hours trying to connect the board to the computer I have seen that the programmmer comes bad wired from factory, so I had to swap the wires... But the last problem is some peopel says it wont work in windows 10, and I have no other windows. Do you now if it works in windows 10?

And also last question, I have seen two kinds of benedini programmers. One has 3 wires and other 4. I have the 3 wires one. What is the difference?

Thank you for your help and sorry!

EDIT! FIXED

Well guys, ignore my previous post. The micro board clone works, and works very good. And also I can change the sounds and functions at will... I recommend you to stay away from the overpriced and faulty programmer (comes bad wired from factory) and to buy a 2 euros free shipping programmer at ebay and wire it as follows. The VCC wire is not needed. So now it works perfectly, tested in my windows 10.

Hi Rad So it's safe to say the micro clone will work with my open Panzer boards and I just need to get the proper programmer and off I go?

Thanks

[Rad_Schuhart]

Hi mate, Luke explained it in this thread better than I can.

The mikro clone will always work in wathever you have. You will have motor sounds and you can trigger the ton of extra functions, but it wont work with the open panzer in a satisfactory way. The motors will work perfectly but not the cannon sounds, machine guns and so on...

I am afraid for the open panzer you need the benedini mini, which has no clone so far and is expensive...

[Max-U52]

Or you can use the new Taigen sound card. When they get into full production I can't see that board being more than about $10. They added it to the MFU package and still dropped the price so they can't cost all that much to make.

I understand the sounds in the new taigen board are so close to what's in a Clark board that Clark thinks they were stolen from him, but taigen purchased them legally so there's not much he can do.