IBU3

[Tankbear]

Is it tomorrow yet? woohoo!!!

it is now

[Tankbear]

Okay so the IBU3 arrived last Friday but very busy weekend so squeezed in testing the IBU3 when I could. But not only was I testing the IBU3, but also the software and checking the manual.

So first impression of the IBU3 is noticeably more compact with a nice tidier appearance than the IBU2. I would do a side by side picture, but I’m out of IBU2 stock at the moment so for now it have to wait. What is also nice is the sockets on the IBU3 are all labelled on the circuit board.

Now although I have had some inside information on the IBU3, apart from the picture posted by TheIBUMan I haven’t seen it. I only got a restricted copy of the software last week to test installation and the manual end of last week. So as I know most of you don’t like reading instructions I decided not to read the instructions and do everything like you guys would have to. So I uninstalled the restricted software from my computer (win10), downloaded the software and installed it, next installed the USB virtual port driver to communicate with the IBU3 via USB lead. All these will be added to my website closer to release date.

Now I had a supplied USB socket supplied with the IBU3 but it wasn’t plugged in, although I knew where it was to be plugged in I wasn’t certain which way round to plug it in. So not wanting to damage the IBU3 straight away I briefly checked the manual. And whilst I was there I by accident noticed the receiver connections. Unlike the IBU2 where the signal cable for the receiver cables and servos face towards centre of the board the IBU3 is the other way round and face outwards.

So now I connect the receiver up to the full 8 channels on the IBU3 put in my test tank, connect the IBU3 to the laptop, start software, turn tank on and I couldn’t get it to communicate at all. After a few minutes shouting about f#####g windows b######x. I realised there are two USB drivers so tried the other one happy to know I’m on route again. But again nothing, lots of unplugging USB, turning IBU3 on and off, restarting computer walking away to make a cup of tea. I sit down and realise what I was doing wrong, when you open the IBU3 software there is a button with a USB stick symbol, clicking this tells the software what COM port to use.

I was in! IBU3 connected to computer, turned radio on and connects to the receiver. Now to start playing

First step configure radio to the IBU3. This has to be the easiest way ever (once you select the COM port LOL) Select the radio configuration tab then select if your using 6, 7, 8 channel radio, then the software walks you through the setup to however you want it.
1 – push stick to fire main gun, then release.
2 – push stick to fire machine gun, then release.
3 – turn turret left, then release

And so on. So I set it up like the IBU2 driving on right and functions on left stick but if I pushed right stick up first then that would become gun stick. And further more it doesn’t matter what order your receiver leads are plugged in as the configuration auto detects the channels to be used.

Next radio setup, what’s this? It’s to configure all the extra features. My radio channels 5&6 are switches and Channels 7&8 pots so I set engine start on channel 5 switch, machine gun selection Ch6 switch, 4 sound effects ch7 pot, volume on ch8 pot. Yes that is correct volume control from the transmitter.

Also on this page you can assign features to the diagonal controls, so like the IBU2 I assigned lights, smoker, inertia to the diagonals, Plus one more feature servo to the last diagonal. What’s servo? In tank mode there is a spare servo output you can configure and activate from the controller so perfect for opening hatch, commander looking round or a gunner moving.

So now I was configured and ready to roll the tracks for the test drive. Well not quite I was given the option of the IBU3 been sent loaded with sounds or not I decided not so I could further play with software. So select sounds in the software and you get a page full of buttons for each sound file engine cold start, stop, etc. Click a button and a window comes up allowing you to listen, load sound, delete sound from IBU3, download sound to IBU3. So I went though and started loading sounds to the IBU3. The IBU3 has a 16mb memory and every time you download sound to the IBU3 a running total of remaining space is displayed.

There are a load of other tabs to make adjustments but I wanted to test out the beast. So closed the software and disconnected USB. For good measure I also turned tank off then back on, at this point I only have power, receiver and speaker plugged in. I fire the main gun, scare the cat and get shouted at from the wife (I have big grin on my face). It’s loud! So I turn it down via the controller and start the engine give it some throttle and enjoy the sweet sound of the Leo 2 engine I loaded. Next I plug in the motors and put tank on the floor.

Wow, the drive control is smooth. It’s got a soft start so even if you ram it full throttle it moves smoothly, none of that formula 1 race car setting off any more and likewise with stopping with the tank coming to a stop in about a tanks length. You could say this is same as inertia and your correct, but although I tried inertia settings before I could never get use to. This soft start/stop doesn’t feel like inertia it feels like none inertia but eliminates the jerkiness.

And all that was in the first hour I managed on Friday night.

[Tankbear]

Saturday

I put the tank top on and tested rest of the functions, recoil servo was wrong way round, so I quickly connect to the computer and software. Yeah it remembers the COM port, go to the servo settings tab in the software find the recoil servo and adjust the times and directions. Like IBU2 can change direction, speed in and out, plus you can set end points at both end of the servo range which is useful if you find your servo buzzing away as it’s constantly trying to reach too far. And you also get this additional feature for the elevation and traverse servos.

Then I spot something really cool. I had loaded a shot burst and a long burst into the two machine gun sounds, but as my test tank didn’t have a separately wired machine gun LED so I plugged in the LED flash as the second machine gun. Now how’s this for ace, when you fire the machine gun the IBU3 only lights up with the shot, the LED light is synchronised to the sound.

Then decided to play a little more with the software, all the usual settings of the IBU2 are there like lights on at power up etc., smoker power at inertia and now at full throttle. Inertia, can select from 6 pre-set curves and modify your own. A new feature, where IBU2 Pro you can set the forward speed and reverse speed the IBU3 you can also separately set the speed of left and right motors so if you’ve got one gearbox which runs fast can turn it down a little bit so both are equal.

Option to connect external speed controllers. I’ve not played with this yet but I’m planning on trying some brushless motors in my Challenger 2 tank so that be my test.

As well as a setup section in the software there is a testing feature. So I tried, this was a simple 2 tab window first tab checked the IBU3 wiring, second the radio. So the wiring test page, allowed me to tick boxes for machine gun etc and the IBU3 would eliminate the machine gun LED to prove it is working and wired correctly, but you had options for all the features from turret left and turret right, smoker, drive gearboxes and all the servos outputs. The radio test page allowed me to move radio stick and switches and see what value the IBU3 was interpreting i.e. full throttle stick was seen by IBU3 as 100% not 97% or something else. It was interesting on this page my volume pot was on 4% which is what a found a good volume for driving the tank around the floor, might need ear defenders at 100%!

[Tankbear]

Saturday night

I read the manual. I should of done this first because the errors I made are clearly explained in the manual. As like the IBU2 the manual will be a constantly updated item so check website and download latest version.

Couple of items I learnt from reading the manual first was the ability to rev the engine with out driving off, and the smoker output has 2 outputs a switched 3Amp supply for a heater element and a proportional output (configured through the settings) for the fan.

[Tankbear]

Sunday

Okay I wanted to test the features I read about in the manual, so quickly rewired a TARR smoker with two plugs and connected to the IBU3 and wow works great, I had idle power set to 20% and because heater is constantly heated I got lots of smoke. I then tried the neutral revving. To do this need to quickly push throttle stick from neutral to full reverse, and you get a the engine revving sound played AND the smoker kicks in as well so get a nice plume of smoke. I’ve also contacted Janus today to see if he can produce a special IBU3 edition of the TARR for me with high power heater and already wired ready for the IBU3.

[Tankbear]

Sunday afternoon

One of the new features of the IBU3 is easier engine sound, basically you’ve still got your engine start, idle and stop sounds but only need 1 sample for the running the IBU3 then modulates the frequency to suit throttle. So I had previously loaded Leo 2 engine sounds onto the IBU3, I had a nice sample of a challenger 2 tank slow driving so resampled it so was the correct format for the IBU3 (22khz, 16bit, mono) and loaded onto the IBU3 and tested and sounded good although at full throttle the IBU3 was playing my sample of a slow moving tank. So connected the IBU3 back up to the software and went to the engine sound tab in here I could make 3 changes

Frequency – relates to how much it ramp up or down your sample
Volume – like above but with volume because a faster engine is louder
Insertion point in relation to throttle stick.

The default settings been

20%
50%
100%

Meaning the sample played without any adjustment is when the throttle stick was at full throttle (100%). It would then adjust the frequency done by 20% for 1% throttle and likewise volume decreased by 50% and everything in-between so proportioned. But my sample was of a slow moving tank so adjusted the insertion point to 50%. Now when throttle at 50% the sample would be played without adjustment, 1% would have 20% frequency adjustment and 50% reduced volume, 100% throttle increase of 20% frequency and 50% volume.

This sounded better but at full throttle it still sounded slow so I moved insertion point to 20%, increase frequency to 30% and volume to 75% and now sounds about right.

Ideally a sample of tank running at half speed would be better then it equally adjust up and down but this was my first play and very happy with how quick and easy it is to change the sounds.

So I have a Leo 2 sounding tank with a slow challenger 2 driving sound that would sound a mess wouldn’t it? I thought so but no, not only does the IBU3 adjust the running sounds it mixes the samples into each other for a smooth transition. My mash up does sound a bit odd because the idle sound is louder than running so you pick up on the volume difference but if you get your samples from the same source or video that shouldn’t be a problem or you can tweak in audio editing software. Or even might be able to do through the software I haven’t found yet.

[Tankbear]

So any bad points?

I did identify a couple of issues which I have informed TheIBUMan. But all are firmware or software related, so shouldn’t delay hardware production of the IBU3 as the firmware and software can be sorted whilst waiting for IBU3 production.

I will be doing more testing through the week and carry on posting.

Ian.

[Big N00b]

WOW!!!

Exciting, can't wait for the release.

Great job on review Ian. One question, what voltage did you run card with? (Asking because earlier specs gave big operating range).

Thanks and well done.

Terry

[Tankbear]

WOW!!!

Exciting, can't wait for the release.

Great job on review Ian. One question, what voltage did you run card with? (Asking because earlier specs gave big operating range).

Thanks and well done.

Terry

I was using a 7.4v Lipo battery. Software said battery was at 7v

But will work up to 12v and supports ni-cd, metal whatever, lipo and lead acid batteries.

I’m going to put it in my Leo2 next as I use 3S lipo in that for a more realistic speed.

Ian.

[Rad_Schuhart]

So any bad points?

I did identify a couple of issues which I have informed TheIBUMan. But all are firmware or software related, so shouldn’t delay hardware production of the IBU3 as the firmware and software can be sorted whilst waiting for IBU3 production.

I will be doing more testing through the week and carry on posting.

Ian.

Everything looks good, specially the capability of powering more or less the motors in case they are not equally working. Its one of the best ideas I've ever read on a tank electronics.

Just one question: How does the airsoft works?

And one VERY BIG bad point at least for me: Only 16mbs memory? Once we discovered we were able to put big sound files on the Ibu2Pro, this is a killing step back for me. Considering the sound has now more quality the files would be bigger, so less (shorter) sounds and music we could play on the board. Hope there is any way of fixing it. I think Im not asking too much (I am not an electronic expert, so please dont kill me ), something about 64mb would be enought for me.