RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

G'day lads,

I have just been surfing the model shop websites looking for a 12volt high current speed controller.....and I notice how the model suppliers electronics industry has really started to take notice of us modelers for a change. It has started producing really useful pieces of kit that you can't make yourself in the shed...unless you are a real anorak with lots of tools and tallent to boot.

2 years ago I built a fishing boat and installed a sound module that gave me twin Caterpillar diesel motor sounds. The module has given me many problems but has given me much greater enjoyment, mainly cos I'm the only flash git with loud sounds on the pond  ha ha!

Anyway...if you visit the Westbourne Models.com website, you will see that Graupner is producing a programmable multichannel sound module. You can load your own sounds via a pc, and there is a booster amp if you need more watts....£134 the module and £39.99 for the booster. There are other sound modules listed as well, but the Graupner one offers what we need....apart from decent price.

I mention this because it is just amazing how this has progressed over 2 years.... I bet in a matter of months we will see cheaper variants on the market. The big boys have seen the demand for sound modules at the various shows around the country this past year. You have only to notice how the electronic speed controller options have grown...and the prices drop in comparison to where they were 2 or 3 years ago to see what will happen with sounds too.

There you go guys...I'm spending your money for you already.......

Mike

On that topic, I have just witnessed a Creeping Death sound unit. I have no idea how the guy on You Tube achieved those sounds on his Sherman, but the one I was listening to was not impressive. Maybe it was faulty? Despite a high quality 8 ohm 15w speaker, plus the HL speaker, plus 2 x 9.6v packs, plus the 1 x 7.2v pack, plus 5 miles of wires, plus quite a large pcb, all crammed into a Stug, and despite playing with all three sound adjusters (idle, pitch and top end)...

1. It was just a single repetitive tone.
2. It wasn't even loud enough to mask the noise from the gearboxes.

What was interesting was that a quality 1ohm 8w speaker from a CD player made one heck of a difference to the HL sound. It just needs a speaker that will generate the bass more, and not the high end static crackle sound.

We are going to try it with a quality potentiometer (22kb Maplins JM72) I have them fitted to mine) and see whether that cleans the sound up further.

do you got a link to that youtube vid? the t1 should be shaking the plastic on that tank and rev sweet and clean.

I did see on the other site, that a guy was using a setup from Model Sound Solutions in Canada. It looked interesting, and sounded great. You need to get your sounds for it, but it can do CD quality for up to 2 simultanoues sounds, or slightly less quality for 4 sounds. It look fairly simple to plug into a Tamiya, not sure if it would go into an HL though, and it is a bit pricey. I suppose, when it comes to sound, you have to pay to get good quality.
Model Sound Solutions
Cheers,
Rik

This is the Sherman with Creeping Death sound, it sounds pretty good. The unit my neighbour fitted to his Stug could not be configured to produce the same sounds no matter what we did. I have no idea how the Sherman guy managed to get that effect.

Creeping Death Sound Module in Tamiya Sherman

He installed a Visatron FRS7 15w 8 Ohm speaker, which is way loud and very high quality, on my Elmod kit. Yet, even on full volume the Creeping Death was barely loud enough to cover the sound of the HL gearboxes. We never got to find out the reason why, so I left him to it. All that we could get out of it was a continuous noise like a 'pop' at varying pitches and frequencies.

@Grim_Marmazet..The Model Sound Solutions looks like very high quality kit, and he states on his site that it will work on tanks. Do you have a link to the demo?

Here you go;

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_9063787/tm.htm

It does look like good kit. It would be great if it can be set up with good quality barrel elevation and turret rotation sounds as well. I may look into upgrading in the future.
Cheers,
Rik

Sounds pretty good! As regards the Elmod sounds, there are very few out there that have exploited the quality side of the sound to its full potential. The problem is getting hold of authentic sounds free of background noise and recorded on quality equipment without any hiss or crackle. Even using downloaded sounds that people have created and put on the web, I can easily spend 20-30 hours going through them and tweaking the sound files to get the best out of them. My yardstick is a music file, they may only be 8 bit .wav files going through a single speaker but the quality is amazing.

The secret is amplification without distortion, and that can be a long drawn out process. Those Visaton FR7 speakers are pretty good when the sound going through them is high quality.

If I could get the tank sounds to output at the same quality it would be the icing on the cake. When I get the chance I will post up a vid of the T34 and add it to my build thread.

One thing that is interesting about the SFX is that there is potential to connect it to an HL board. If that could be done whilst bypassing the HL sound generator then it would be great. The downside is cost. Buying a first Elmod set-up is not cheap, but for subsequent tanks you can simply switch the soundblaster board into the next tank, change the jumpers and you are away. It would be perfectly feasible to build a complete set-up onto a styrene sheet, and transpose the whole thing between tanks too. The battle system would probably have to be installed in each one though.

Plenty of options out there, and depending on budgets, something for everyone.

yep we'll fix that issue, if it aint shaking the ground somethings off. has your neighbor tried turning the idle all the way in both directions? also the amp switch has to be on at all times before the tank is started. either way we'll get to the bottom of the problem and have his t1 loud and proud in no time flat.

Well the T34 now has a vid, two actually, at the bottom of the build thread:

http://www.rctankwarfare.com/Forums/index.php/topic,3200.20.html

The distortion is the useless camera I used to make the movie!