RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

If this is your problem--98 percent of the time the problem is going to be a "bad Crystal" either in the transmitter or in the receiver board in the tank.There has been a time or two where I have seen a few posts where the crystal was found not to be making good contact in the socket for it.So it is worth trying to pull out the crystal in the receiver and transmitter and slightly bend one of the legs outward slightly (not very much--) and re-insert them making sure they are pushed in as far as they will go and try restarting the tank.If the problem still exsists it is most likely one or both crystals are bad.

In this case if you have another model (same brand of tank ) that is a working tank it is easy to pull both crystals out of the working tank and radio and put those in the non-working transmitter and receiver board.If your tank now starts up you will know it is a bad crystal and problem solved,short of having to get a set of new crystals.



NOTE==  I had this happen to me with several new tanks right out of the box.They sometimes get off the assembly line with out getting tested (don't know why or how ).I received two different tanks from the same on-line store with this problem (  "ABOYSTOYS" was the seller and the owner was the one who put me on to the problem and told me about the crystals being the problem ).I have posted this info many times on another forum,but it was never put in the "FAQ" section there.I bought several sets of crystals (3 sets for about $18.00 dollars ) and this seller contacted me back and I told him I had bought the new crystals and he told me for having so much trouble that he was sending me a check for $25.00 dollars and also a new S&S tiger tank for "FREE"--------------And five days later I got exactly
that.I like to repeat this story because there are some honest people out there that do care about the people they sell a product to.

              Reguards                BIGMIG

alternatively...
when you press the key button to turn on tank and lights flash but nothing else happens, wait a few seconds before you press ANYthing and then see if it actually moves...
then check the VOLUME control knob...
say you've fitted a new board, and been tinkering about inside of tank, you've spent ages being careful with your connections/soldering, everything looks right and you try to switch tank on...just flashing lights nothing else happening...you don't hear the engine start up noise and after spending hours getting it to this point you're thinking no way..  you check the aerials on, the aerial lead inside tanks connected,etc etc but you don't check the volume knob..! who would..? 
well i didn't for at least half hour yesterday..      and in the end..new board came with volume turned down and cos i didn't hear anything and lights were still flashing i pressed the start up button several times, so switching tank on and off...over and over..
how embarrassing...
worth a check guys 
rgds stu

Hi, We've also had the same symptoms with a Walker Bulldog S&S after trying crystals, the tank could only be repaired by swapping the RX18 board.

Hi, I have this problem with a new/faulty Bulldog I have just bought on eBay. Is there any UK member who would bewilling to test my crystals? I will pay reply-paid postage of course!

Jamieboy

hi jamie cyrstalls are not that costly £5.99 a pair dave

forgebear wrote:hi jamie cyrstalls are not that costly £5.99 a pair dave

Hi Dave, Thanks for that! I notice you have an eBay store - if I buy a pair from you, could you give them a final test before dispatch, in a known-working tank set-up? Also, is there a forum member discount?!

Jamieboy

I have had the same flashy light syndrome, and you are correct, a crystal switch works. Sometimes, the 'bad' crystal will work in one tank but not the other..??!!

Just a quick note to say that, after reading Bigmig's post:

BIGMIG wrote:....There has been a time or two where I have seen a few posts where the crystal was found not to be making good contact in the socket for it.So it is worth trying to pull out the crystal in the receiver and transmitter and slightly bend one of the legs outward slightly (not very much--) and re-insert them making sure they are pushed in as far as they will go and try restarting the tank.... BIGMIG

I pulled my receiver board and noticed that indeed the crystal was seating poorly. After widening the pitch slightly and putting in a few notches on the legs, it made a much more positive engagement and I now have a working tank

Jamieboy

Other problems which also cause the same flashing headlights but no reaction are
1) Broken receiver cable
2) Non working Receiver
3) Transmitter not working/failed

I usualy go through the crystals then check in the order above

Pete

Hi
Don't know if its only me but when I've had lights flashing on my tank its telling me to recharge the battery,
any one else had this.
Gerwyn