More confused than ever

[Glory71]

Fellow tankers,

first of all, forgive me for my stupidity.  . After reading almost everything here that can be read about El Mod...I am more confused than when I started...LOL.

This El-Mod thread pretty much cover everything but I have a few more questions...

I really would like to try the Elmod on my Tamiya Jagdpanther...can this be done? I ask because I am about to rebuild my HL Tiger I tank anyways so if it does not work...I goes to my HL. If it does...I'll buy another one for my HL Tiger I AND Tamiya Sherman and probably sell my Tamiya MF04 and T03 units from my Jagdpanther.

What do I need to buy? Everything that I need to buy.

The main gun swivel, elevation, and recoil motors, flash unit, AND machine gun lights....would it still work? Tank is about 5 kgs heavy.

Lastly, I have both 5 (DX5e) and 6 (DX6i) channel spektrum radios.

I really like the sounds of Elmod and I like to try new things anyway.

Help please.

[grompix]

Hi Jon

In a nutshell - yes! You can use Elmod to replace the Tamiya DMD/MFU units. They will work with all the Tamiya gun-recoil, turret-turn, gun elevation units too. (Not the TBU though). I have two tanks fitted with the older Elmod system and up until now they have worked faultlessly (my HL PZIII gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago - don't yet know why).

Several people on this forum have experienced severe problems with the new units though (Matdragon & Wibblywobbly for instance); so at the moment it seems to be 'buyer beware' when considering Elmod.   

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Chris 

P.S and the Spektrum radios will work fine.

[wibblywobbly]

As Chris has said, yes the Elmod can be used to replace the Tamiya kit....though as the Tamiya Jagdpanther is pretty good as stock, you have to be an enthusiast to want to!

The only things to remember are:

Elmod only approve the HL motors or Jamara 480 Pro's, not the the 480 BB HS's with the new style boards (the ones that have a soundblaster card that plugs directly into the thinktank board).

The Tamiya motors are quite powerful little beasties, so it may be worth asking Thomas at Elmod for advice before hooking them up.

There are only 4 things to buy:

1. Thinktank board.
2. Soundblaster board.
3. CSI Battle unit board.
4. CSI Battle unit mushroom.

All cables and connectors come with each board.
The CSI unit may need some jiggery pokery to make it fit, the Tamiya unit is a purpose made unit whilst the Elmod board will have to be installed to allow the mushroom to go in.

The Tamiya speaker is an excellent piece of kit for Elmod, I tried one and it was great.
You have numerous additional options with the Elmod for machine guns, lights etc.
Battery life is short. Just how short depends on the battery you get. a 3300 lasts about 20 mins?

Any other questions - just yell.

Rob G

[Matdragon]

go for it if you really want to replace the tammiya electronics, but from my experience with el-mod i would advise you not to go with el-mod. Its ok i susspose replacing HL electronics with el-mod, but in my honest opinion replacing tamiya electronics for el-mod it a bit of a silly thing to do, its like downgrading.

Thanks,

Matt

[grim_marmazet]

I loved the features of el-mod, and the sound modification is excellent. I had a set of the new boards and the ran superbly, just the battery life is attrocious.

I actually went the other way from you, and changed to Tamiya. They may not have as many features, but there far more robust, you get better battery life, and you also get a lifetime warranty with them. So should you ever break the DMD or MFU as long as you've done no mods to them, Tamiya will replace or fix them.

Cheers,
Rik

[STEINER]

Stick with your Tamiya electrics until the new Elmod issues have been sorted out. I took out the latest (2nd generation version ) and it was inoperable. I had to return it for a refund.

[Glory71]

Thanks so much guys for all the reply. It was enlightening. Although Tamiya electronics does not offer versatility when it comes to sound...it does compensate for its robustness.

Thanks again for the assist.