Change your Taigen Sound Cards with the Flip of a Switch

[TankDriver]

Tired of yanking cables to hook up different sound cards with your Taigen V3 board? If you can solder, then get a '4PDT' (four-pole, double-throw) switch from Amazon, ebay, or most electronics parts & surplus stores (mine cost a whopping $3 and locks in place to prevent accidental bumps). Preferably use an 'ON-ON' switch, but an 'ON-OFF-ON' will work albeit with the dead spot in the middle... the idea is to be able to manually switch the 4-pin control cable going from the board to either sound card, while the 3-pin volume and 2-pin speaker cables can just be spliced together in a 'Y' configuration (otherwise you'd have to flip 3 switches), since no harmful voltage will be fed back thru either inactive circuit. See following photo descriptions for more... I could've wired directly to avoid connectors, but I like to do things non-destructively! With "sub-switching" you could hook up more than two cards


4PDT switch by itself


Properly wired to the soundcards


Switch attached to small metal L-bracket behind motors


3-pin volume 'Y' cable


2=pin speaker 'Y' cable, with reverse 'Y' on other end to allow 2 speakers to be used; wired in series so the resistance / impedance (ohms) doesn't drop


Final assembly fully wired, waiting to go back in the tank

[Ecam]

Well done, nice tidy wiring. A pin location on the switch (map/diagram) might be helpful as well.

[TankDriver]

You actually don't need to know the pinout of the switch or the soundcards, as long as you are consistent in connecting color-to-color. On this 4PDT switch, the middle 'column' of 4 pins is the "output" from the switch, while the outer two columns should be hooked up to the 2 "inputs" (sound cards in this case). So as long as you solder all the yellow wires on a common 'row' of three pins, and likewise all the black wires together etc etc, then you'll be good to go!

[HERMAN BIX]

Tidy job, but I dont get the need to change between 2 sound sets in the same tank model ?

[TankDriver]

Just for variety's sake... life's too short to play by the rules!

You may want to switch your Tiger from the Maybach 210 to a 230, for example.

Here's an aerial view of the new switch & the twin speakers

[Herr Dr. Professor]

"To switch your Tiger from the Maybach 210 to a 230." Now that's an interesting idea. I'd bet that in mid-production of Tigers the Maybachs were switched as a running change.

[TankDriver]

"The Maybach HL 230 was a 23 liter (1,400 cu in) V12 that produced 700 hp, and an enormous 1,850 Nm (1,364 ft lbs) of torque at 2,100 rpm. The HL 230 was an upgrade over the 600 hp HL 210, which powered the first 250 Tigers. The 210 had an aluminum block and a 21 liter displacement, and suffered from reliability issues. To make more power, the engine block was changed to cast iron, and displacement increased to 23 liters, along with other changes, resulting in the HL 230." - When possible, they would upgrade the engine whenever a Tiger I was already in the shop for other repairs.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Thank you! With all the various-vintage ("early," "mid," "late") Tiger 1s and Taigen V3 MFU/Sound lurking about this house, I like your idea of an early one that could be "upgraded." In fact, I could even follow your wiring "diagrams." Gee, RCTW has even taught me how to solder. Now, can I remember to do so when the time comes, after this that and a thousand other projects.