RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I'm Jim, a new old guy to tankers. I have had 30 years of experience with RC, flying planes and racing cars, electic and nitro. My reflexes and my eyesight aren't what they once were, so I figured something slower and more scale would be fun. My modeling skills have suffered with age too, but I've recently purchased 3 Heng Long tanks, so far a M41A3 Walker Bulldog, a Panzer IV F2 that just arrived and a Tiger 1 Early that's on the way. At this stage I'm too cheap to buy the fancier models from Tamiya or Taigen, but that may change with experience.

My Bulldog arrived with a broken hatch hinge that I need to pin and the Panzer's remote works but is heating the double A's to boiling in minutes. That's a mystery to me, but I'm not afraid to pull the remote apart to see if a problem can be spotted. Of course any advice is greatly appreciated! I'm grateful for the knowledge here and inspired by the talent!

It's great to meet you all!
Jim

Hello and welcome to the forum Jim

I know where you're coming from re slowing down on one's hobbies, happens to all of us.

Sounds like you have a short in that controller. Can't you contact the seller and ask for a replacement?! I would.
Although it sounds like you may know your way around a controller, and these ones aren't anything special.

Yeah, this is a great place to be for talent

Enjoy the forum.
Mick.

Welcome along Jim great site for tips, advice/ info and general banter sounds like you are off to a flying start with your collection, enjoy fixing them up and modding them, that's the fun part

Cheers, Lee.

A warm welcome, Jim (and how well I remember your records ). If it's any comfort, my joints need WD40 in the mornings and I almost need to wear a helmet to stop my head banging into cupboard doors, and the like these days, (bifocal issue)...but the M43 German one I have scares the local sheep, and neighbours too..
At least you should have plenty of Sun to paint your models in. We get around 6 hours of daylight, up in the Far North, at this time of year..
Have a good Christmas, and treat yourself to a nice tank, truck, or half-track perhaps.

Welcome aboard from the Motor City. Always good to see another Yank join the Forum. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you happen to be very, very close to the imex model company, the US distributor for taigen tanks. Erik Edwards is our man at imex and if you tell him you're a member of The Forum he will usually give you a little discount.

I'll be looking forward to seeing photos of your tanks. The Bulldog happens to be one of my favorites as well. One day I'll show you how I took mine and turned it into an anti-aircraft tank by mounting a quad 50 in place of the turret. Gotta love those paper panzers.

Oh yeah, back in the eighties I lived in Sarasota so I'm kind of familiar with your corner of the world. Is Big Tim's Barbecue still the very best in St Pete?

OK. Given that the remote works, you obviously have the batteries in the right way. Could be the type of battery, maybe? For example, I buy a lot of things at Costco, but I now steer away from their Kirkland branded batteries. All the ones I put in my earliest acquired remotes leaked after a few months. Luckily, I caught the problem in time before the TX terminals were badly corroded. I now use Duracell AAs or Panasonic rechargeables. There are Lots of battery brands out there, but some are better than others. It's worth checking online reviews of AA batteries.. I did.
Another problem with batteries: sometimes when the TV, Hi-Fi, and Hard disk recorder remotes appear to have no effect; just rolling the batteries round in situ, in the remote, is enough to restore contact. Condensation or humidity issues can affect electronic contacts ( It happens with Car ECUs as well.. ).
Put simply, maybe there some sort of unwanted film on the battery terminals (protective coating), or the contacts in the TX aren't bright...such that you're getting too much resistance and therefore unwanted heat.
It's worth cleaning the contacts up with contact cleaners, or (with care) isopropyl alcohol. Ditto with the battery terminals, or just try a different brand.
It could be a faulty Transmitter, but it's best to check out the cheapest 'repair', or replace option first...
Anyway, welcome again, and hope you don't get your fingers burned. Mind you, out of doors in Winter, an overheating TX could be useful Oh, I forgot, you don't get much of a Winter down there do you.

Thanks all for the warm welcome. I did contact the ebay seller, Mediatech, and without hesitation was sent a new transmitter! Excellent service, highly recommended. Glad to be a member of the battalion!

Welcome Jim, I am new here myself. I also had a hot battery issue with my controller, i had installed the Duracell Quantum AA's, the batteries got so hot it was blistering the coating of the batteries, I pulled them out and put energizers in and have not had any problems since then.