HL Jagdpanther conversion to strobe

[SheepStrangler]

Hi all - I'm re-activating my project to upgrade my stock HL Jagdpanther into something a little more sexy, which started life as a cosmetic upgrade, but as usual with me suffered from my desire to fiddle with everything. I have upgraded the speaker, added a number of parts to the engine deck to make it more realistic, and have also removed the old BB unit for one that will recoil and flash the strobe. Here's where I'm in a bit of a quandry due to my lack of in-depth knowledge.

I have the recoil unit in place, and a strobe hooked up to the RX unit, which I think is the RX18 from looking at photos online. The part that I can't seen to do is trigger the flash, so the gun just either winds up and I hear a "SNAP!" sound from the "breech" with no recoil if I press the left stick forward, plus the jerk-back track recoil & sound effect. Pressing K does the same apart from no "SNAP!" from the breech. Do I need to tap into some wires in order to synchronise the strobe to the gun blast, and if so how? I'm afraid I bought the parts thinking they'd just work, but they didn't and I had to focus on something else so it got put up on a high shelf for a while. I'd like to get the barrel to recoil too, but I don't know if I have the right unit for that, and neither will you unless I post a pic. I'll get onto that if it will help

[SheepStrangler]

Here's the promised pic, and since I posted it I've realised that I hadn't yet fitted the recoil barrel, which was lurking on the edge of my bench. I'm just doing that, after soldering in the new headlight & metal bow MG into the Kugelblende ball on the glacis. That was an easy fit really, as all I needed to do was expand the hole to 3.8mm and remove the inner flange so that the gun projects from the ball just the right amount. Held it in place with Blutak and filled the back of the ball with hot glue. Job done. As a result of that, and powering it up for the first time, I now seem to have an occasional flash going on, accompanied by the BB unit still cycling. Is the lack of reliable flash due to the battery power making it slow to recharge? Seems ok if I wait 5-10 seconds to fire again, but if I fire immediately, it doesn't go off.

Before

I'll post an after pic in a bit, all being well.

[SheepStrangler]

Well I never did! It only blinking works, doesn't it? Still a bit hit & miss with the strobe going off, but the barrel is now recoiling like a boss. Only when you shove the left stick forward though, not if you press the button. Is that right?

Now back to fixing/replacing the upper hull

[Jay-Em]

Yep, that's right. The flash only works when flicking the left stick forward, not with the Cannon-button. It also needs a bit of time to re-charge, if Your ears are good, You can here its rising whistle sound when charging the capacitor. Remember that it's making 300+ volt out of 5 or 6 v.

Fitting a xenon flasher to BB tanks is a bit of an art. The wiring -and Heng Long's habit of largely ignoring wire-colour-coding- to get it going is enough to make one grab for some strong malt... And I don't even lìke alcohol..

Sadly I blew my flasher, and had to resort to a flash LED. Luckily I had a loose Recoil unit with a micro-switch. That makes it easier.

[SheepStrangler]

I was playing with the roughly mated hull halves last night as the light was fading, and the strobe looked quite effective in the dwindling light. I wonder whether a LiPo with a higher C-rating would increase the flash cycling? The one I have is 20C,but I've seen suitable batteries up to 40C. Might have to investigate that when my finances have recovered sufficiently.

[Jay-Em]

I don't think so.

Before I blew my flasher, I used it with a 4000mah 70c Python Car pack, and a 1250mah Häcker 20c flight pack, and I couldn't see any difference.

On the stock Heng Long 2000mah pack, it wàs actually slower to recharge.

I think that 10 to 12 seconds is about as good as it gets

Couldn't hurt to try, though, a high c-rating is always a boon with all the electric gizmo's that can run at the same time in a relatively heavy tank.

I browned-out my Clark TK-22 on a regular basis with NimH packs, however good they were, but I never succeeded in doing that with LiPo's. Only drawback is that I need a separate voltage cut-off, to prevent them from bottoming. The Clark TK-22 and Heng Long's RX18 both cut-off at 6v. That's dangerously low for a LiPo. Works fine for the included 2000mah NiMh's. After cutoff I usually could get about 1750 mah back in the pack, which is very reasonable.

[SheepStrangler]

I'm getting recharge rates of a couple of seconds with my 20C LiPo when it's freshly charged, so I guess I'll stick with it and give the loader chance to put another round in the breech.

[SheepStrangler]

I managed to bugger a LiPo the other day by leaving my JP on accidentally, as the headlight wasn't wired up. I did that ever-so-iffy technique of connecting a good battery to a discharged one (outside for safety) for 1 minute 10 secs, and it charged back up after being "jump-started" back up above the 2.5v lower limit on most chargers. It seems to still retain a good 4.1v per cell, with one being a little weaker than the other, however as I'm not really using my tanks for long periods, I'm not worried about discharging them other than in odd situations like happened the other day. I think I have a warning buzzer somewhere that fits into the charging lead and beeps when the voltage drops. I might go and find that

[Jay-Em]

I managed to bugger a LiPo the other day by leaving my JP on accidentally, as the headlight wasn't wired up. I did that ever-so-iffy technique of connecting a good battery to a discharged one (outside for safety) for 1 minute 10 secs, and it charged back up after being "jump-started" back up above the 2.5v lower limit on most chargers. It seems to still retain a good 4.1v per cell, with one being a little weaker than the other, however as I'm not really using my tanks for long periods, I'm not worried about discharging them other than in odd situations like happened the other day. I think I have a warning buzzer somewhere that fits into the charging lead and beeps when the voltage drops. I might go and find that

1, or 2 balance-charges should cure the difference of charge. As long as a LiPo isn't puffed, it can be resuscitated pretty well with some cycles of balancing.