RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I'm working on installing the system on my t-34 and slowly I'm making progress.

Tonight I ran into an issue with the drive motors. I've setup the sabertooth 2x5 as directed and set all the switches on the speed control as required. I've attached a picture of the sabertooth in the tank. The engine turns on, the transmission shifts into and out of gear no problems.

When I go forward or reverse the green light on the open Panzer board lights up and then when I release the throttle it turns off. (as designed I assume)

When I go reverse the red light turns on the engine sounds and no motor movements. ( again I assume this is correct and the board is sending a signal to move the motors.)?

All the connections to the sabertooth are sound. I'm getting proper voltage to the sabertooth and the small yellow and black signal cable to the open Panzer board is tight and I'm getting the 5v proper signal voltage at the sabertooth and the open Panzer board.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.



Picture attached

Carl, I don't see anything amiss in your photos, though I can't see the TCB side, but I assume that's fine. The LED behavior you described on the TCB is correct - green for forward and reverse, red for brake.

There is also a blue LED on the TCB near the motor serial connector - when communication is sent to the Sabertooth, it should light up or flicker.

Although this is obvious I would double-check to make sure you have the Drive Motors set to Sabertooth in OP Config. Also if you have high levels of acceleration constraint (inertia) defined, it may take a few seconds from the time you move the stick to the time you notice movement on the motors. The Tansmission Engage Delay can also restrict movement for a short time after first starting the engine (this is to allow time for the startup sound to complete).

It is also theoretically possible to create some conditions where the motors may not activate depending on how crazy you got with the function triggers, so you might check those to make sure you don't have anything weird (for example if you had the Engine Turn Off function assigned to Vehicle Speed Increases Above 0% then obviously you would never get anywhere).

I'm sort of grasping at straws but probably when you find the issue it will be something very simple that was overlooked.

Another thing - make sure your Sabertooth is powered by the battery! It looks like you have a switch in your tank, make sure you remembered to turn it on.

The Sabertooth can get enough electricity just from the yellow/black signal wires from the TCB that it will turn on, or appear to, but the only thing running on the Sabertooth is the processor and the motors won't do anything.

LukeZ wrote:Another thing - make sure your Sabertooth is powered by the battery! It looks like you have a switch in your tank, make sure you remembered to turn it on.

The Sabertooth can get enough electricity just from the yellow/black signal wires from the TCB that it will turn on, or appear to, but the only thing running on the Sabertooth is the processor and the motors won't do anything.

Thanks Luke. Everything is powered. I will go into the open configuration program and check everything. I know with this version of the sabertooth you only need to set the dip switches as I have them. Is the baud rate not to be changed like the other versions?

Also what I've noticed is in forward the green light comes on, not in reverse.

In reverse I have a red light on the open Panzer board.

Is that amiss?

I'll keep at it and let you know

Thanks bud

Carl

Hello Carl,
the red LED is correct when reverse, also the green LED when move forward.
Did you flash the newest firmware at Sabertooth?
It´s possible by OP Config...

Cheers
Jürgen

jhamm wrote:Hello Carl,
the red LED is correct when reverse, also the green LED when move forward.
Did you flash the newest firmware at Sabertooth?
It´s possible by OP Config...

Cheers
Jürgen

No I will do that thank you!!!

c.rainford73 wrote:I know with this version of the sabertooth you only need to set the dip switches as I have them. Is the baud rate not to be changed like the other versions?

Correct, the Sabertooth 2x5 auto-detects the baud rate so you don't need to configure it. Some of the other Sabertooth controllers do require a configuration which is why there is a utility for that on the Misc tab in OP Config, but you don't need to worry about it with the 2x5. The Serial 2 baud rate should be set to 38400 on the TCB but this is already the default so unless you've changed it you don't have to worry about it (this setting is also on the Misc tab).

c.rainford73 wrote:Also what I've noticed is in forward the green light comes on, not in reverse. In reverse I have a red light on the open Panzer board. Is that amiss?

My apologies, you are correct - green for forward, red for reverse, and both for braking. A complete LED Key can be found here. It can also be helpful to operate your TCB in Snoop mode, it will spit out the direction you are moving in along with a million other things.

Carl, have you confirmed the Blue LED on the TCB is on when you are moving (indicating serial communication with the Sabertooth)? If you are still having problems, you might also post your OPZ file so I can examine it (in OP Config connect to your TCB, read all settings with the green down arrow, then go to File->Save Settings to File and upload the results).

jhamm wrote:Did you flash the newest firmware at Sabertooth? It´s possible by OP Config...

Actually this is not correct - the firmware on the Sabertooth is set by Dimension Engineering and can't be changed (and doesn't need to be). Perhaps Jürgen you are thinking of the Scout ESC which can have its firmware updated through OP Config. But the Sabertooth should work out of the box.

Hi Luke,
youre right!
Scout is possible by OP Config....

Hi Luke yes the blue led comes on. I'll dig into tomorrow and report back.

Well..... I am beyond excited to see it all functioning

My big mistake (Luke thank you you were right)

I had the esc setting for Scout now at correct setting and saved all works seamlessly.

The programming and functions are great and I'm learning as I go.

I have the board working flawlessly with my Flysky i6s 10 channel with rx. Radio is from Stain and has self centering sticks on both sides.

Video of first start the drivetrain is very realistic and responsive to stick functionality.

https://youtu.be/3TSLA6rj6ao

LukeZ you are incredibly helpful. Once I have the benedini mini this tank will be ready to go!!!!!

I will now setup my second open Panzer board