RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Well, I got the tanks out for the first time this year. After about 20 mins of driving round the garden there was an odd smell. It got worse as I drove my tank closer, then noticed a wisp of smoke from around the turret. I quickly switched it off and picked it up, there was a definite horrible smell from it. We had to go out to look at a house so I left it, but when we got back I took the top off and was surprised to it all looked ok inside! My son then asked what the big box with all the wires was for, so I picked it up to show him, and saw a gaping hole melted into the underside of the control unit! I should mention this is a Heng Long Bulldog, with what I think is the 1st of the Heng Long 2.4GHz sets. It's had metal tracks, drive cogs, and gearboxes, and ran fine for around 2 years. The only thing that's changed since I used it last year is a different set of metal gearboxes with some different motors. I'm guessing these new motors were too much for the board.

So now on to my question. I need advice on how to move forward, I can't see the point in getting a replacement HL board, as it'll probably just burn again. So it's either swap it for a Taigen set, but will this be likely to burn too? So what is an easy (and most importantly cheap) board that I can fit that won't burn up but allows simple set up?

Thanks

Don't quote me as I'm fairly new to all this, but Taigen include a fan on their boards to keep them cool. You could mod one yourself onto a HL one, or just take this as an opportunity to get something better.

The boards are ok for a good running palstic model, but as soon as you stress them with weight and metal running gear or you run with any load e.g. up a hill etc the control boards get hot quickly and burn out.

I wouldn't replace like for like, take opportunity to upgrade. I cannot suggest the best replacement, but Clark or other aftermarket setups which include other additions would be a worthwhile spend

I have the latest HL set of the control board on an HL Tiger that's been upgraded severely. All suspension is metal, including gearboxes. The tank is surely many times heavier than the stock all plastic version. Still that setup holds up well. The thing with the good aftermarket boards is that they require a new transmitter too. An upgrade to let's say Elmod would cost at least 250EUR. Plus shipping costs.

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Thanks for the replies. This tank was running down for a couple of years with the metal tracks and drive sprockets, and a set of HL gearboxes, running up and down our fairly steep garden without issue. Then last year I swapped the gearboxes for a different set with different motors, but never got around to putting it all back together until last weekend. So I think it must be that either the motors just draw more power, or the gearing was different enough to cause an issue.

I didn’t realise the Taigen had a fan, so might well look at that. The radio set for an aftermarket board shouldn’t be a problem, I assume they work with anything with sufficient channels? I’ve got my old spectrum dx6i from my model boats which should do the job.

I’ll have to have a look around and see what’s affordable at the moment, about to put our house on the market so trying not to buy things at the moment unless they’re essential.

Hi biker dude,

I've got the taigen v1 boards in my taigen panther and can confirm it has a fan.

As a small aside I sold my bike,retired from motorcycles and moved into RC tanks.

Dunno if it's that's much cheaper,but definitely safer!

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Greetings,

You can get a fan to update your heng long mother board . Follow ebay link below. Plug and play for 5.3 gen boards.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Henglong-1-16- ... 2749.l2649

Elephant wrote:Hi biker dude,

I've got the taigen v1 boards in my taigen panther and can confirm it has a fan.

As a small aside I sold my bike,retired from motorcycles and moved into RC tanks.

Dunno if it's that's much cheaper,but definitely safer!

Sent from my Lenovo YT3-X50F using Tapatalk

Thanks, I'll have a look at them sometime.

I've got too many hobbies, bikes and tanks, railways, model boats, my car...

Everything is on hold at the moment anyway, house is now up for sale.

Navy chief wrote:Greetings,

You can get a fan to update your heng long mother board . Follow ebay link below. Plug and play for 5.3 gen boards.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Henglong-1-16- ... 2749.l2649

Thanks, I'll give that some thought too, cheers.