How to make a battle system
Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 6:11 pm
Part 1, Part 2 is below
This seems like a topic that confuses members, and if you have never dabbled in soldering or electronic parts before, you would probably go and buy an IR battle system ready made.
If only you knew how cheap the parts are, you would probably give it a go. This same process works for Tamiya, IBU and Clark. The Elmod system still uses a 5 pin plug, but they run the emitter led through theirs which cuts down on wiring.
So, a brief explanation of what a battle system is:
In non-scientific terms
An IR emitter sends a coded pulse of invisible infra red light when the gun is fired.
An IR sensor detects the pulse.
When the IR sensor detects the pulse it does two things.
1. Flashes the hit led's.
2. Sends a signal to the pcb to reduce power to the motors.
You don't need to understand why, how etc, it is all done automatically. All that you need to do is make the battle system.
You will need:
4 x IR sensors. These have to be the same spec as these, which are what I use:
http://uk.farnell.com/vishay/tsop4838/i ... dp/4913190
1 x IR emitter. The same spec as this one. This is what I use:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/940nm-infrare ... iode-yh70m
1-4 normal 5v led's (it doesn't matter whether you use 1 or 4, as long as the led is visible when the tank is hit).
You can buy them on EBay, either 3mm or 5mm, 5v led's and any colour you want.
I will use a Tiger 1 cupola as an example of how to hide the sensors.
Drill 4 holes around the cupola. In this instance the cupola hinge has to be facing in a certain direction, so make sure that the holes are facing forwards, backwards, left and right.
To leave room to get the cupola on when the sensors are behind it, I needed to carefully remove a part of the retaining lip.
The wiring for the sensors will be directly under the hatch, so to allow a commander to be glued in place, I cut a circle of styrene and glued that under the hatch.
Then carefully glue the sensors in place, and trim the legs back.
Ok, that's the sensors all mounted.
Next I need to attach the wires.
The Clark site shows the pins 1-5 on the 5 pin IR socket.
What he has also done is describe the pins in the table underneath in non-standard terms.
You wouldn't have a clue how to wire IR sensors using his description.
This is what you need:
Clark board 5 pins described in correct terms
1 VCC Black
2 OUT Brown
3 GND Red
4 LED- Orange
5 LED+ Yellow
TSOP 4838
1 OUT Brown
2 GND Red
3 VCC Black
LED's
4 LED- Orange
5 LED+ Yellow
Emitter (Seperate plug with Green/Black wiring)
1 LED+ Green
2 LED- Black
Clark supplies a 5 pin plug as an optional extra with the colour coding as shown above. He also supplies the mini-plugs for the muzzle flash led, and the IR emitter, these have green/black wiring.
This is as far as I can go today with this how-to, I am waiting for a new supply of heatshrink, when I have it I can solder some wires onto the sensors, and continue with the mini-saga....
This seems like a topic that confuses members, and if you have never dabbled in soldering or electronic parts before, you would probably go and buy an IR battle system ready made.
If only you knew how cheap the parts are, you would probably give it a go. This same process works for Tamiya, IBU and Clark. The Elmod system still uses a 5 pin plug, but they run the emitter led through theirs which cuts down on wiring.
So, a brief explanation of what a battle system is:
In non-scientific terms
An IR emitter sends a coded pulse of invisible infra red light when the gun is fired.
An IR sensor detects the pulse.
When the IR sensor detects the pulse it does two things.
1. Flashes the hit led's.
2. Sends a signal to the pcb to reduce power to the motors.
You don't need to understand why, how etc, it is all done automatically. All that you need to do is make the battle system.
You will need:
4 x IR sensors. These have to be the same spec as these, which are what I use:
http://uk.farnell.com/vishay/tsop4838/i ... dp/4913190
1 x IR emitter. The same spec as this one. This is what I use:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/940nm-infrare ... iode-yh70m
1-4 normal 5v led's (it doesn't matter whether you use 1 or 4, as long as the led is visible when the tank is hit).
You can buy them on EBay, either 3mm or 5mm, 5v led's and any colour you want.
I will use a Tiger 1 cupola as an example of how to hide the sensors.
Drill 4 holes around the cupola. In this instance the cupola hinge has to be facing in a certain direction, so make sure that the holes are facing forwards, backwards, left and right.
To leave room to get the cupola on when the sensors are behind it, I needed to carefully remove a part of the retaining lip.
The wiring for the sensors will be directly under the hatch, so to allow a commander to be glued in place, I cut a circle of styrene and glued that under the hatch.
Then carefully glue the sensors in place, and trim the legs back.
Ok, that's the sensors all mounted.
Next I need to attach the wires.
The Clark site shows the pins 1-5 on the 5 pin IR socket.
What he has also done is describe the pins in the table underneath in non-standard terms.
You wouldn't have a clue how to wire IR sensors using his description.
This is what you need:
Clark board 5 pins described in correct terms
1 VCC Black
2 OUT Brown
3 GND Red
4 LED- Orange
5 LED+ Yellow
TSOP 4838
1 OUT Brown
2 GND Red
3 VCC Black
LED's
4 LED- Orange
5 LED+ Yellow
Emitter (Seperate plug with Green/Black wiring)
1 LED+ Green
2 LED- Black
Clark supplies a 5 pin plug as an optional extra with the colour coding as shown above. He also supplies the mini-plugs for the muzzle flash led, and the IR emitter, these have green/black wiring.
This is as far as I can go today with this how-to, I am waiting for a new supply of heatshrink, when I have it I can solder some wires onto the sensors, and continue with the mini-saga....