Amateur Build. HAYA Centurion KIT

[zooma]

With freshly charged batteries I tested the KIT Centurion today .

Not working is the SOUND and the CUPOLA Turn.

Working is headlamps (!), Main Gun Flash, MG Flash, Turret turn, Barrel raise/lower, Drive forwards/turn/reverse.

Any idea where to look to fix the sound and the cupola turn?

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

Can you hear a very slight sound from the speaker when the tank is stationary?

[zooma]

Can you hear a very slight sound from the speaker when the tank is stationary?

No - nothing at all.

I have just got back from a walk into town (and back!) so I will take a look at the speaker and volume cables and plugs to see if I can see anything obvious that is amiss with the sound, and then check the receiver to make sure the cupola is correctly plugged in to channel 5.

The weird thing is that EVERYTHING worked for a minute or two before it all went "quiet" and I was going to check to see why the tank looked like a drunken man as it was not running completely straight - I did suspect than one of the blue motors was not running as well as the other one and was giving a "pulsing" effect?

I have only tested the tank indoors since re-wiring the headlamps, so maybe it just needs a good run to loosen everything off and run it in - and that is exactly what I will do as soon as I get the sound back and have the cupola working again !

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

I would try swaping your Clark TKs over from one tank to the other to see what happens.

regards John

[zooma]

It just started to show signs of rain, so I took the KIT Centurion outside and gave it it's first "proper" drive before it got too wet and ran it up and down my asphalt driveway, and apart from having NO SOUND the tank ran OK.

I fixed the cupola so that is now working OK.

I could see no advantage when using the BLUE motors - the tank still lacked enough power not to slow considerably when being steered and it also slowed when driving up the slight slope of my drive, so it is looking like the BLUE motors are a waste of time.

The BLUE motors and the standard KIT motors can both "spot-turn" the tank easily enough, but when the tank is running, neither have enough power to overcome the weight of the tracks and turn the tank without slowing the tank and almost stalling it!

I was hoping not to have to remove the gearboxes again, but these BLUE motors need to come out so I have no choice. Fortunately the gold bullet connectors will make it easy to unplug them, and I will fit another gold bullet connector of the same size to whatever motors I try next.

I lost the left hand track on my fourth run up the driveway when the drive socket fell off(!) - so I probably didn't tighten the drive sprocket retaining cap head screw fully.......and this may have been why it was not running quite as straight as I thought it should! I will check this again now I have re-fitted the drive sprocket properly!

If HAYA made plastic tracks to fit the Centurion I would fit a set as it would definitely overcome the lack of power (it worked on the HAYA Chieftain) but at the moment there are no plastic tracks available for this tank.

[zooma]

I have not been able to restore the sound on my KIT Centurion .

The (working) speaker was removed from my RTR Centurion and plugged in - but that did work either.

I checked the leads and plugs on the speaker and the volume control and both are clean and fitted in the correct socket on the Clark board.

The volume control was turned through its complete movement range several times but that made no difference - the tank has NO SOUND.

I removed the Clark Board so I could check underneath to see if any debris had found its way underneath - but nothing was seen - so the board was re-fitted and everything worked again - apart from having NO SOUND.

I am not sure what to try next........could I have a "dead socket" on my Clark board?

[novavoyager]

Thanks for the information.

[zooma]

I have not given up yet.

As I was giving the tank is first run in my office the sound was working - but it stopped suddenly and I have not been able to restore it since.

I think I have tried everything that I can.......except changing the volume control (this may or may not have anything to do with it - but it has to be my last shot!).

The volume control from my RTR Centurion is working and so it will be taken out and fitted into my KIT Centurion.

Like the speaker that I have already removed from my RTR Centurion and fitted into the KIT Centurion, it is known to be working and is the only other item related to the SOUND that I have not replaced. (the speaker from my RTR Centurion did not restore the sound in my KIT Centurion).

Just to double (double) check - I will fit the KIT speaker and the KIT volume control into my RTR Centurion. If they both work in the RTR Centurion then there is nothing wrong with either of them.......so that would effectively isolate the Clarke board as being the only component that may have failed?

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

Would it not be easier just to change the boards over instead of swaping speakers ect

[zooma]

Would it not be easier just to change the boards over instead of swaping speakers ect

The board in my Centurion KIT is brand new, so if it has a fault it should be returned and replaced.

I need to exhaust any possibility that there is anything other than the board itself that has a fault before returning it to the seller - and I am hopeful that it is not the board that is faulty but something else that is preventing the sound from working.

My last chance to find anything other than the Clark board that is faulty is to check the volume control unit by borrowing the one that is known to be working OK from my RTR Centurion. This is a simple plug-out, plug-in exchange that will either work or not. After the test the volume control unit will be returned to the RTR Centurion (as I have already done with the speaker that I also borrowed to make sure that it was not a speaker fault).

If I take the board out of my RTR Centurion, it will prove nothing - other than the fact that it works in my RTR Centurion and so it will work in my KIT Centurion....and I will be taking apart an almost new RTR Centurion that works perfectly for no good reason so I won't be taking the board out of my RTR Centurion.

The ONLY thing that is not working in my KIT Centurion is the SOUND. Everything else is working perfectly, so if I exchange any part that could possibly stop the sound from working with known items from an identical model this will either identify the faulty part - or confirm that the Clark Board has failed.