RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

tankme wrote: ↑Thu Sep 11, 2025 9:04 pm The Heng Long 7.1 can be used with external ESCs, BTW.

Thats good to know
Is the 7.1 lipo compatable as well ?

Since all the new HL tanks come with a Li-ion battery, lots of folks have run Lipos on them. I still run Li-ion batteries, but I use bigger, higher capacity versions than what come with my tanks. I only use the stock HL batteries when I run out of my aftermarket ones. The HL MFUs can take up to 12V, but I haven't personally pushed one to that voltage. I typically don't like running my electronics at the ragged edge of their capabilities. Tends to lead to things like letting out the "Magic Smoke". Once the smoke comes out...there's no putting it back in (unless you have mad electronics skills).

tankme wrote: ↑Thu Sep 11, 2025 9:30 pm Since all the new HL tanks come with a Li-ion battery, lots of folks have run Lipos on them. I still run Li-ion batteries, but I use bigger, higher capacity versions than what come with my tanks. I only use the stock HL batteries when I run out of my aftermarket ones. The HL MFUs can take up to 12V, but I haven't personally pushed one to that voltage. I typically don't like running my electronics at the ragged edge of their capabilities. Tends to lead to things like letting out the "Magic Smoke". Once the smoke comes out...there's no putting it back in (unless you have mad electronics skills).

Maybe what i should have asked do the newer mfu's that run li-on have a LVC (Low Voltage Cutoff) for lipos ?

That's a lot of the big pieces assembled already:



Much easier to install the rear LED's at this point already:



And brass screws for the fancy parts



I intend not to paint the model afterwards. The filament is Bambu Lab PLA Matte Dark Green.
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Wow mate thats really good progress on it

More progress: my AFV now has road wheels, drive sprockets & timing belt driven gearboxes, idlers & tensioning systems. It may not look like a lot but trust me, that's a lot of work right there. Lots of trial and error as well. I think I took off the idlers 4 times to correct assembling mistakes: the sequence of things would be what I did wrong the most I'd say.





And a bit of color reference, although it's hard to capture subtle differences in photos.



1 = PLA Matte Green (Bambu Lab)
2 = PETG Forest Green (Bambu Lab)
3 = spray painted Olive Green (RAL 6003)

I printed the sprockets in PETG initially but then decided to go for ASA which I then painted. Same for the idlers but they might just stay black. I refuse to take off those f**** a fifth time
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you could just brush paint the idlers ?

Stormbringer wrote: ↑Wed Sep 17, 2025 9:56 pm you could just brush paint the idlers ?

I could ... but I'm still mad at them and I'm just too stubborn at this point. I want to move on
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Yeh can understand that mate

Next step: get this set up in a test environment.



Some assumptions:

The LiPo battery has a red/black discharge connection wire (Deans connector) and a red/black/yellow balanced charging connection (? connector).
The battery needs to get connected to the two speeds controllers, using the speed controllers' red/black wires which have a Tamiya connection.
The speed controllers get connected to the motors using the bullet connectors; male on the motor side and female on the ESC side.
The speed controllers get connected to the receiver using the red/black/white wires with a (JST?) connector which plugs directly onto the receiver pins. Taking care here to disconnect the red wire from one of the ESC's!

Anything wrong? Please let me know.

Questions:
The battery needs to feed 2 ESC's. Do I try and find a splitter with a male Deans connector on one side and dual Tamiya connectors on the other side or is that too exotic?
The motors have red/black wiring but the ESC has yellow/blue bullet connectors. What goes where?
The ESC's also have switches. Can I leave both ON and just cut power to all components using an on/off switch between the battery and the splitter?
A switch I find prominently on Amazon would be this one: https://www.amazon.com.be/Switch-Airpla ... _1_24_sspa ... which has XT60 connectors. Should I look further or go for this but buy a Deans - XT60 connector (between battery and switch) and a Tamiya connector/splitter - XT60 connector (between switch and ESC's)? This would then be an alternative to my first question.
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