RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Would a stock IR emitter be able to fire through a 1.5mm hole?

What is the most commonly used battle system?

Does anyone know an FPV camera that can see through a 1.5mm hole if its mounted behind the hole?

In order:

Maybe? I used to use 3mm emitters back in the day, but your trade off was a narrower cone of fire and shorter range - you would likely find that you could only battle in your living room against similarly set up tanks at best, and anyone using the accepted club standard set up (5mm emitter in a 5mm ID tube, crown of the emitter 9mm deep from the end) would have a considerable advantage, to the point where you would very quickly give up on that idea

Anything Tamiya compatable - Tamiya, El-Mod, Clark, Open Panzer, IBU

Unlikely, but I'm no expert? It would depend on how close it was to the opening - assuming you are behind the mantlet of a standard Heng Long, I suspect that you would struggle to see much of anything.

Tiger6 wrote:In order:

Maybe? I used to use 3mm emitters back in the day, but your trade off was a narrower cone of fire and shorter range - you would likely find that you could only battle in your living room against similarly set up tanks at best, and anyone using the accepted club standard set up (5mm emitter in a 5mm ID tube, crown of the emitter 9mm deep from the end) would have a considerable advantage, to the point where you would very quickly give up on that idea

Anything Tamiya compatable - Tamiya, El-Mod, Clark, Open Panzer, IBU

Unlikely, but I'm no expert? It would depend on how close it was to the opening - assuming you are behind the mantlet of a standard Heng Long, I suspect that you would struggle to see much of anything.

Is there any way to get around the range and cone limitations?

I am trying to fit the IR emitter and the FPV camera side by side in the gun sight holes in my Panther Ausf D's mantlet as i would like them to be hidden

Short answer - not really much you can do other than try it? Maybe having the emitter close against the back of the mantlet would give you a reasonable brightness and cone angle against near targets, but I was advised that too short of a emitter tube would just cause the IR signal to wash out in bright sunlight (indoors you might do better?)

For the FPV - how about mounting it in the chest of a figure in the turret hatch? I've seen that work.

Tiger6 wrote:Short answer - not really much you can do other than try it? Maybe having the emitter close against the back of the mantlet would give you a reasonable brightness and cone angle against near targets, but I was advised that too short of a emitter tube would just cause the IR signal to wash out in bright sunlight (indoors you might do better?)

For the FPV - how about mounting it in the chest of a figure in the turret hatch? I've seen that work.

if it helps this is the only image of the mantlet i have so far, Woz is 3D printing a large number or parts for me so that i can make my Panther as accurate and detailed as possible It has 5mm holders behind the holes

Best way I can describe the problem

The standard club set up looks like this: Your set up would look like this - notice the significantly narrower cone: (the LED and tube shown are the same size, just the picture is more zoomed in)

Testing by others (and Tamiya's own documentation) demonstrated that the IR beams have a roughly eliptical shape (or area of effect if you prefer). The stock Tamiya (and El-Mod) shoot out past 120ft (green area), systems with smaller emitters or different tube lengths will get a different cone - for example the red area is an approximation of how I originally set up 2 DBC equiped tanks back before I joined a club, 3mm emitters in about a 20mm long tube of ~3mm diameter. It all worked great battling in my own living room with my own tanks, but suffice to say that as soon as I tired to face tanks built to the accepted club standard (i.e. the stock Tamiya IR configuration) they mopped the floor with me to the point where the tanks were immediately ripped apart and rebuilt before the following meeting. I guess the question is - what do you want to do with your tank? If you want to FPV in your own basement/living room/church hall against your own tanks your arrangement might work ok?

Let me scale the comparison a bit better here:

I would like to be able to battle both inside and outside as there are no rc tank clubs anywhere near me as far as i know so i would only have my house and back garden (both small) and the local park

I was looking at using the gun sight holes because it traverses with the gun barrel and the FPV system would also allow me to aim accurately

I put my emitters in the mantlet and just live with the fact that the hole would oversized for a regular telescope sight, but this is one area where I personally put a higher value on function over asthetics - I need my toys to work with other peoples stuff, you don't have this restriction.

At the end of the day as long as everyone has the same equipment, and it works reliably, then its entirely arbitary what standard they are built to. You are just going to have to experiment and find what works for you.

Tiger6 wrote:I put my emitters in the mantlet and just live with the fact that the hole would oversized for a regular telescope sight, but this is one area where I personally put a higher value on function over asthetics - I need my toys to work with other peoples stuff, you don't have this restriction.

At the end of the day as long as everyone has the same equipment, and it works reliably, then its entirely arbitary what standard they are built to. You are just going to have to experiment and find what works for you.

Ok, i think my best option might be to use the Tamiya battle system that can just clip onto the barrel that way i can keep it realistic looking and just attach the battle system when needed or i will try and figure out a way to hide it

Do you have any suggestions on where i can get some for a reasonably low price?

Also if it helps the Panther will be fitted with an El-mod controller