RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Good day all,

I am looking for advice on a budget upgrade of a 2015 27MHz non S&S Panzer III.

I have been trawling the web, this forum and other places for information and there is a wealth of information out there but as a new starter to this hobby I realise I may be missing some points. I am pretty new at this so am looking for a pretty hassle free upgrade while still learning.

My initial idea to mod this PzIII (TK01 control board) would be to add capability for sound and smoke and from there improve sound using amp/better speaker and then paint and weather. May go further by looking into recoil. Speed control would be nice but not essential.
I want to be able to do this within my limited budget and have come up with a few routes to this for which your comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

1. Find an RX18 27Mhz board + Cables + TK reciever + crystals corresponding to my transmitter which is the non S&S transmitter.
Looking at costs of these parts this looks like a very cheap option at around £30 for parts unless I need a new transmitter which could add another £20.

Problems I might hit here include where to get the correct (older?) version of RX18 as I understand the newer versions may be problematic as some wiring has changed.
I note there are plenty of these for sale on ebay without much detail, but would rather find a source recommended by the community.
Also would the original transmitter work with this setup if the crystals are the same frequency?


2. Upgrade to RX18 2.4GHz - So I have read of the advantages (no aerial, range etc, no TK reciever?)
- TBH not sure if the cost of doing this outweighs the benefits to me personally but was looking at the RC2HL adapter. I guess this could be used with the same RX18 board as above but reading on some of the posts I may be biting off more than I can chew at this time with my limited RC knowledge.
There is alot of information out there about this topic but not sure how current.
I also understand there are some Taigen kits which may be available to do this but cant seen to find where to purchase.


3. IBU2 Base - This looks pretty Awesome and might be the way to go for future upgrades.
It looks plug and play but alot of the info is upgrading from the RX18 board so not sure if I will face any issues from the TK01.
Not sure if I would need a new transmitter for this or indeed what would work with it without costing the earth.
I get the feeling this route may cost in excess of £120 which is slightly out of the ballpark at the moment.


I did also look at the OpenPanzer project which tbh looks great but at this stage in my development having to purchase an additional speed control and maybe build a soundcard is biting off more than I can chew.

So there it is and I must admit my head is spinning.
I already have ideas for what I want to do with future projects involving another (possibly 2) PzIIIs and a Panther G idea I have.
The PzIII is my starter for 10. Just a simple upgrade but at this stage do require some help so any opinions or suggestions about a good route to go down for this first little tank would be appreciated.

TiJai Hi, I know what you mean about guarding the costs but honestly I do not think that 27 Mhz has any future,
You already are aware of the positives for 2.4 Digital, This pretty much means an aftermarket Control board and an aftermarket Transmitter/Receiver unless you are prepared to rewire and replug your Tanks to go with the latest Heng Long Control Board,
So the £120 limit has not much chance of being unbroken BUT the great thing about an aftermarket Transmitter is that you can use it for all of your Armour which the Heng Long /Taigen Transmitters cannot do,
For them it is one transmitter per Tank unless you are prepared to re-bind them each time.
The aftermarket transmitter just needs a separate receiver for each tank,
The thing about an "ASP 1/2" or an "IBU 2/Pro/3" or any or all of the "CLARK" range of boards and of course the "ELMOD", all of these boards offer the potential for speed control as well as recoil and they are all wired for Smoke and sound and many other qualities which Heng Long for all that they are a world apart from the early days still do not match the aftermarket competition.
Do keep an eye out for members of the Forum selling their pre-owned Radios and other useful bits and pieces that will always be cheaper than E-Bay/Gumtree etc.
Shaun.

Thanks Jarndice,

The more I look at the IBU2 base the more I think that might be the wise choice.
I'll keep an eye out on the forums for anyone selling.

I guess all I will need is a receiver and will see if my 2.4G transmitter for my Heli works with it. If not guess I should be able to find one somewhere.

If you are interested in the IBU series I would suggest you go to
http://www.rctankelectronics.com
"Ian" or as he is known on this Forum "TANKBEAR" is the main man at this dealership and his help is legendary, If you click on "STORE" you will find complete packages for sale,
Example, Transmitter/Receiver, (Which includes Tank Software instead of the Helicopter/Drone/Aircraft software of a normal transmitter), Control Board and speakers all in.
Of course you can buy individual parts and make up your own r/c system. But talk to him. He is one of us.
Shaun.

I guess all I will need is a receiver and will see if my 2.4G transmitter for my Heli works with it. If not guess I should be able to find one somewhere.

It should work just fine, pretty much any 4 channel 2.4ghz tx + rx will work on any aftermarket tank board. Anything over 4 channels adds a couple of bells and whistles but the main controls are all off the basic 4 channels on the sticks.

I would avoid replacing the HL boards with new HL boards, the tank will not be worth any more than a cheap used one, it will add nothing to the value. Using an aftermarket board will transform the way it drives and sounds.

Not sure If I should necro this thread or create a new one but here goes...

Finally got back to the Panzer III and got a paintjob on there and some aftermarket bits.

I was looking at the IBU2 control board as that seamed the best but been thinking about the openpanzer board again.

I would like to get a few hints if possible.

Initially I am really just looking for decent sound and smoke if possible with the ability to add recoil later if possible.

As far as I can see with the IBU2 for just sound I would need the following bits:
IBU2 (£80), Transmitter(£40) and receiver unit (£10) which should set me back around £130

With the openpanzer project I guess I would need:

OP Board (£45), Transmitter + receiver included (£40), speed controls (£20) ... but the sound card has me stumped .
The Benedini and Taigen ones mentioned seem to run upto £100 (unless I am looking at wrong ones?)

If any of you learned gents could give me any advice on the way to go or any benefits of the different systems that would be really helpful

Remember with the op board you need a ppm capable tx/Rx with makes things a little more expensive.

Also remember with the op board you need separate escs, the recommended hobbyking X car 45a are about £8 each plus post. Sound card wise if you can live with just engine and cannon sounds the das mikro TBS micro clone is about £20. With the open Panzer on offer from hobby king my setup has been £24 for the board, £16 for ESC, £16 for the das mikro and £10 for a pwm to ppm/ppm sbus converter. So £66 which isn't bad for what you're getting.

Thanks tomhugill, that sounds like a good deal.

So once I have the OP board I was looking at the Turnigy 9X 9Ch Transmitter w/ Module & iA8 Receiver which is about £37 atm.
Not sure if I need the SBUS with this radio setup. Still pretty new to this so not sure if correct but looking at the OP wiki this looks to be plug and play.

After the X car 45s which look readily available just the sound card.

I noted there seems to be some info on the web regarding the OP board incompatibility with the chinese TBS micro clone.
This only seems to be available from banggood as far as I can tell. Is this the only retailer or would there be any closer to home (UK) ?

I think the new version of the turnigy 9x has the ppm capacity without modification, so you should be ok there. I bought my dak mikro from bang good and they got here ok. As I said you don't get full function and are limited to engine sounds, main gun and machine gun. However for £20 is 1/4 the price of a normal benedini so if you can live without the elevation and rotation sounds I think it's a good deal.