Looking for control unit for 1/8 scale all metal model

[Jib]

I bought the HL 1/8 Abrams, and I’ve been looking around for a better control board than the one it comes with. It’s powered by a 36v (charges up to 40v) LiFe battery like you’d find in an E bike. I’ve got a few high voltage motors on it and I was wondering if the TCB would be able to make this work using a variety of ESCs. I’m not super familiar with ESCs, I’m used to working with the TK7.0, the Taigen V3, and the Elmod FusionX, none of which use external ESCs.

I’ve got two 36v drive motors that get whatever the current battery voltage is when running (up to 40v)

Two (elevation and traverse) 24v motors that get around 12v from the control board)

One motor I’m not sure of (Airsoft plunger motor) that gets the full voltage (up to 40v) when active until it backs into the cut off switch and shuts off and releases the plunger (works exactly the same as the 1/16 scale Airsoft unit).

I’m looking for something that I can use my own radio with and has better sound. I also have three extra servo controlled peripherals (a periscope and the two axis weapon station).

I have read some of the wiki around the motor control and sound. I have seen that the sound module pushed by the site is no longer in business, what would be used instead for a modern tank (Taigen only makes the 2A6)? Also have seen there are options for ESC for drive motors, what about traverse, elevation, and Airsoft?

I’d appreciate any help I can get to see if this is going to work for this model.

[tankme]

Right now there aren't a whole hell of a lot of options out there for large tanks. I'm in the process of setting up a TCB for my 3D printed 1/6th M3 Stuart from Minialand. It's only going to be run at 24V. For mine I will be setting up two voltage busses. The 24V (22.2V Li-Ion) will come off the battery into a buss bar that will connect to the drive ESCs. From there there will be a 24V feed into a Buck (step-down transformer) that will bring the voltage down to 12V for the TCB and the turret ESC/motor. The Buck is only rated for 8A so all of the other functions like LEDs and stuff will come off the TCB. I may have to get a larger Buck, but the larger one I have still only supports like 20-25A. There is no Abrams sound card for the TCB though. You would need to get something like the DasMikro TBS and load it with an Abrams sound set. My TCB will be using my FRSky Taranis QX7 radio. You have to be careful with LEDs on the TCB as the LED ports are fed full line voltage so in this case 12V. I will have to use resistors so they don't blow.

I know there are companies like SG Electronics that cater to some larger tanks, but they ain't cheap at all. All the manuals are in German also. Tried using Google to translate the PDF and no dice. https://sgs-electronic.de/webshop/produ ... -mf-10-mbt

[Jofaur86]

Hello, there are also Elmod type Fusion X cards, programmable with PC and addition of two ESCs, see this forum post Electronics (Elmod) just for info.

[Jib]

Right now there aren't a whole hell of a lot of options out there for large tanks. I'm in the process of setting up a TCB for my 3D printed 1/6th M3 Stuart from Minialand. It's only going to be run at 24V. For mine I will be setting up two voltage busses. The 24V (22.2V Li-Ion) will come off the battery into a buss bar that will connect to the drive ESCs. From there there will be a 24V feed into a Buck (step-down transformer) that will bring the voltage down to 12V for the TCB and the turret ESC/motor. The Buck is only rated for 8A so all of the other functions like LEDs and stuff will come off the TCB. I may have to get a larger Buck, but the larger one I have still only supports like 20-25A. There is no Abrams sound card for the TCB though. You would need to get something like the DasMikro TBS and load it with an Abrams sound set. My TCB will be using my FRSky Taranis QX7 radio. You have to be careful with LEDs on the TCB as the LED ports are fed full line voltage so in this case 12V. I will have to use resistors so they don't blow.

I know there are companies like SG Electronics that cater to some larger tanks, but they ain't cheap at all. All the manuals are in German also. Tried using Google to translate the PDF and no dice. https://sgs-electronic.de/webshop/produ ... -mf-10-mbt

SGS was actually my first choice, I had worked with him before, but something about the varying voltages and Airsoft function seemed to scare him off from working with me on this. He was worried something wouldn’t work and I’d be having to ship the card back and forth between the states and Germany to trouble shoot. It seemed like I could make it work, but he had doubts, so we had to shelf that idea.

Can you use an ESC for Airsoft (40v), traverse (12.9v), and elevation (12.9v) with the OpenPanzer TCB?

[Jib]

Hello, there are also Elmod type Fusion X cards, programmable with PC and addition of two ESCs, see this forum post Electronics (Elmod) just for info.

Unfortunately the FusionX doesn’t support ESCs. You can get one servo, or up to three with the expansion board, but no ESCs. I have several FusionX cards, I emailed him about it and he confirmed that there is no ESC support for that card.

[Jofaur86]

OK, sorry, the old mergers taking into account ESC? I thought it would have been the same for type X

[Tanker1966]

I wish Elmod would have stayed with the Fusion Pro. I'm having issues with the Fusion X.

[LukeZ]

Hi Jib, the TCB supports ESCs not only for the two drive motors but also for the turret rotation and elevation motors. You will not want to provide the TCB with 40 volts, that is too high for it, but it's fine if your ESCs are running at a higher voltage than the TCB, so long as they share a ground connection. Derek has the right idea with his setup using a buck converted to power the TCB.

As for airsoft, since yours also uses 40 volts, I think you'd have to use a relay. If you look at the diagram called "Taigen Airsoft - Modified" on the airsoft page of the wiki, you would put the relay in place of the motor. The TCB will give the relay whatever voltage you give the TCB, so probably you'd want to use a 12 volt relay (relays are tolerant, you don't have to match the relay voltage precisely to what it is given, but somewhere in the range of 8-12 volts would be a good voltage for the TCB). The TCB will turn on the relay, and your relay can turn on the airsoft motor using whatever voltage you want.

The trigger wire would still go to the airsoft unit the same as shown in that diagram, this switch is powered by the TCB so voltage is not a concern there.

[tankme]

Along the lines of what Luke said, I have a servo actuated relay that would work for your airsoft.

Something similar to this:

https://www.robotshop.com/products/dime ... fjpsFEfLt4

You could use one of the TCBs servo ports to trigger the relay. The relay can handle up to 250V at 10A so plenty for the airsoft unit. I'll have to get a pic of mine when I get home from work. I bought it originally to trigger a door actuator for firing a paintball gun.

[Jib]

Awesome! Thanks for the information! I’ll look into this some more and try to come up with an idea of what all I’ll need.