pzrwest

At the request of Panzerfaust77 I'm reposting my antenna modification for the HL Tanks

Want to eliminate the long out of scale antenna that comes with the HL RC tanks? Well after talking to my brother the "HAM" nut he said why not just replace the antenna with an internal antenna and proceeded to explain to me how to do it. Here's what he said " just measure the section of antenna you want to replce then cut a section of laquered copper wire like you would find in a choke or coil from an old radio or power supply the same length as the anteena that comes with the tank. So I tried what he said and "HOT DAM!" worked like a charm. I place the tank at one end of the house and tested it out works perfectly. I could start and stop the tank activate the machine gun, the cannon fire drive train responded as it should. I paced off the distance from the tank to the transmitter and was 20 good paces which would be approximately 60ft. This should work with other RC tanks. Here is how I did it:
1. I measured the antenna and it measured 13-1/16"
2. I cut a section of the laquered wire to that length
3 I took a piece of 1/4" hollow styrene tubeing 1-5/8" long drill a tiny hole near the one end.
4. I inserted the one end of the copper insulated wire into the hole and brought the end out of the end of the tube approximately 1/4-3/8".
5. I then wound the wire around the tubeing and secured the other end to the tubeing with some cyano
6. I then glued short standoff's on either end feeding the end of the wire through the one end
7. When the glue had dried I then un-soldered the antenna wire where it is soldered to the anntena stub keeping the 2 sections of black wire.
8. I then soldered the end of the black antenna wire to the end of the coil and tack glued it to the right inside panel of the hull.
Then I was test time... and it passed with flying colors.
Here are pics of the modification:
Pic 1 This shows the coil I used to get the laquered wire from I took the coil out of an old AT computer power supply. This pic shows the top view of the coil

Pic 2 side view of the same coil

Pic 3 Coil instslled in the HL PzrIII L

Panzerfaust77

Thank you very much! The original post no-longer had the pictures attached and I needed to seem them to get a sense of the dimensions because I don't know imperial units of measurement.

Can this be pinned?

Ern

Harold...
Thanks so much for this idea and design! It worked perfect for me. I haven't got the treads back on the tank yet because I'm still working on other things, but I started it up last night to test it out and was amazed. 50 feet in the house was about as far as I could get [because of room sizes], but I even took the tx with me to my basement with the tank upstairs and it worked through the floor! I can't wait to get it back together and get it outside to check how far this thing will go... [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Leon01

Great mod thanks for the repost I never seen it the 1st time. The things you guys are able to come up with and help us RC challenged guys is great.

pzrwest

Thanks Leon01 this mod works perfect for me and many other but there are some that it doesn't why I can't say

Ern

I've seen that too in their responses. I wonder if the gauge of the wire being used could be a factor, and maybe it's where they are installing it? I followed your instructions, busted up an old computer and ripped out the power supply for the wire as per your instructions. Mine had three different sizes of wire wrapped around the little donut thingy, and I used the middle one that looked like the wire in your pics. I don't have the massive supply of styrene that you have but saw an old Bic pen laying on my computer stand - it was perfect. Almost the exact diameter that you used

Anyway, thank you again... awesome!

pzrwest

Sounds good Erm glad it works. yes a plastic pen barrel would work fine. Almost anything will do except metal(ferrous), even a piece of wooden dowel would work, one chap used a section of a hot glue stick.

Silverwheelz

Thanks for the mod ,works great ,put it in my panzer III .i used the copper inner cable from some spare tv coax cable .works great.Im new to these great forums and to hl tanks
thanks again pzrwest
Pete

fv432

welcome to the mad world of RC tanks[)][)]

Rob

pzrwest

You don't have to be crazy here but it does help ..... lol

brel

this mod sort of worked for me but I can only get to twenty feet away from the tank and then it stops responding to the transmitter.
so I am going to try a 600mm piece of coiled copper wire and cut 20mm off it a piece at a time until I tune the new antenna to the transmitter

Ern

Where did you place the antennae? I have mine in the left rear corner, standing upright. I've read that motors, etc can cause interference. Location might be a factor.

I think I have spare wire left... trade you for the volume switch? [)] I'll rig up one like I made and send it to you if you want. PM me if interested

971wright

Brel start with 660mm of wire 660.4mm should be spot on according to my calculations




regards pete

brel

thanks for the info Pete
Ern send me your address again I have deleted your pm by mistake, the trade for the switch is a fair deal to me

pzrwest

If you are replaceing the silver metal HL antenna the length of the wire should be 13-1/16 inches(331mm) long. Make sure it is insulated either with the plastic coating or laquered. As for positioning on my pzr3 I mounted it verticle mid way between the right hand motor and the receiver board as you can see in the piture at the top of the page. On my 3 tigers the first was mounted horizontal on the left rear sponson above the track, on the other 2 tigers I mounted them verticl on either side of the rear bulkhead. One was on the right side the other was on the left side. in all my tanks the positions i have typed here have worked perfectly with no problems. In the small town I live in there are no industrial or buisnesses places that can cause interferances. There is only one store and it is about what big city people would call about 5 blocks away. There are no cell phone towers, telephone answering services here.

brel

I have tried 660mm length of wire and got twice the range that I was getting, so am now going to try a 990mm length of wire and then a 1320mm length to see what happens to the operational range

update I tried the 1320mm length first and got the same short operation range, then I cut 330mm off it and got the same results so I cut another 330mm off it and got the better range as outlined above, so I am going to use a 660mm length of wire for the antenna.

971wright

Hi brel 1320 mm is 1/8 wave length it should be better than 660mm if 660 is working better try moving as far as high as posible andas far away from any motor this means smoker as well fit metal cover over motor to screen the ariel aluminum foil should stop rf interfereance.when you coil the wire try to make sure it has a gap between the wire otherwise if they touch it could shorten the length of ariel.



regards pete

brel

thanks for you input Pete I am using insulated wire so there won't be a problem with the coil shorting out

samarkh

Pete is correct. Its not a question of 'shorting', its to do with radio interference. That is the electrical motor noise could/can be enough to swamp your transmitter signal.

Yours Simon M.

matthewpeter

this is all very interesting. I am going to have a go, simply because dad will have loads of these coils to plunder

brel

would the magnet in the speaker affect the radio reception, because I am thinking of fitting the antenna in an upright position on the rear bulkhead of the Tiger on the opposite side to the speaker.

samarkh

No, in a word.

By the way I have seen this type of aerial made using 'ribbon' cable, the sort you find in PC's connecting IDE devices. The trick is to make sure that the cable connects to its neighbour at the far end. eg, the red cable is the start, far end is connected to its neighbour start.

Yours Simon M.

Leon01

I had to bump this its such a great tip and has made my Tank RC so much better.

matthewpeter

I have finished assembling my one of these antennas. As soon as I finish soldering up the new S&S board to the motors I shall test it.

brel

I worked for a computer firm years ago, putting main frame chassis together before the sparkys wired them up and was given some scrap ribbon cable it has a small core about half a millimetre thick and has seven strands I was wondering if it would be any good to make an antenna from