DKLM Leo 2 Metal chassis, 550 motors & IBU2 Pro

[Tankbear]

Right guys done some testing of the DKLM 550 motors with the IBU2 pro in the heavy metal Leo 2 chassis





And results are, with the IBU2 motor overload set at 10A which is as shipped

7.2v NiMh battery - fine all works great, bit slower than I'm use to but lots of power.

7.4v LiPo battery - Again all fine a little faster than before but not much

11.1v LiPo battery - awesome, fast and great turning lots of power even on grass.

Here's a short video, sorry not great in the dark.



Ian.

[DNAR]

Wow great test Tankbear! Do you have to tension the left? A bit of a slack a also noticed.

So a good combo will be 11.1 V lipo? no need to tweak the IBU 2 pro? Thats good news then.

[Tankbear]

Hi Dnar

Yes one side is a bit slack and tracks comes of the drive sprocket. Haven't looked at adjusting the tension, not certain how too at moment.

The IBU2 is fine on the basic settings, my plastic Leo with metal tracks and 480 jp motors I have to crack up to 15A overload setting so I guess the 550 motors used don't draw much current.

Using 11.1v battery is down to you it runs great on normal batteries just wasn't fast enough for me.

And the gearboxes even have the same mounting points as the heng long gearboxes so should be easy swap into the challenger 2 guys

Ian

[MichaelC]

Ian, I have been running the Leo chassis for a while now. The tensioner is quite rudimentary. You basically need to take the track off as well as the front idler, and then adjust it via a metal screw to push against the idler mount. So basically it is completely loose towards the front, and you adjust the screw so that the idler mount can't push back when you put the track back on. You cannot adjust it with everything on.

MichaelC.

[Tankbear]

Cheers Michael I give that I go.

Ian.

[DNAR]

Thanks Tankbear.

[Tankbear]

Hi guys,

Update

Did some more testing today, about 45-60 minutes on longish grass. Using 11.1v 5500mah battery.



Quick video



Still need a little more tension in the tracks as coming off the drive sprocket on hard turns.

Did a speed test on patio.

5m in 4.6 seconds I'm sure someone can work that out and compare to speed of real tank.

Overall performance on the grass at both low and high speed is very good (apart from track tension) considering how heavy this tank is.

Also voltage checked the battery afterwards and got 11v so just under 3.7v per cell so rough estimate I used half the battery capacity in the 45-60 minute run so overall looking at an estimated 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours run time.

[spongehoobtank82]

Looking good dude! One thing to note and I had this problem with my Leo, in long grass the rear sprockets act like a mower and chip the grass of which then gets trapped and compressed between the idler, sprocket and inner/ outer road wheels. If you have a track inducer on the sprocket out greys really bad and can force the track off it, I also found that clocking the suspension helps keep the track in in tight turns but how you do this on the DKLM.

[silversurfer1947]

I reckon 5m in 4.6 seconds equates to 62 kph or 39 mph when scaled up, but if anyone has a better calculation, I won't argue. A quick check give 72 kph or 45 mph maximum speed for the real tank.

[Tankbear]

Thanks for the answer guys.

I don't normally run my tanks on grass now a days but I know it's a true test of a tanks ability so worth a good run. Will look into the grass build up issue as it defiantly chewed up a lot as can be seen in the picture.

I've yet to run the motors and gearboxes without tracks attached to see how smooth or quiet they are.

Ian.