Max-U52

I've been trying to get around to this since before the snow flew so it was about time.

Sorry about the crappy focus. I need to get a better camera. Any suggestions (besides "use your phone")?

One thing I didn't get to is that I've heard that the airsoft motors are stronger than the turret rotation motors so if you swap out your turret rotation motor for an airsoft motor you'll get faster turret rotation. Has anyone tried this? Results?

This one got a little long, but that's partly because the last five minutes or so are all about the upcoming Hobbygrade video, so if that doesn't interest you then you can bug out early and you won't miss much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_FHLSq5MY

Lord Haw-Haw

Cool Vid, as always...for testing your airsoft: http://www.evike.com/products/38781/

Panther vs Pz3/4, barrels over 4-5 inches seem to loose muzzle velocity, after 4-5" acceleration is almost nill -the air volume in these tanks are pretty small. Could try porting the longer barrels, where? that's the question, didn't work well as the tooling to make a clean hole into the bore was not happening in my garage.

What is most likely happing with your Panther is the bucking seal is weak on the nozzle side and causing air too blow the bb's back into the magazine feed area.

Also the 2014 Taigen firing units have better bucking, thicker plastic body (lowers flex), the receiver/feed has been improved, gears and spring length and it's wire diameter increased.
I find gun smithing on these tanks fun. I've gone as far as reshaping several of my tanks feeds so more constant loading.
Long barrel fix:
On my KT I tried a brass tight bore at scale length worked well for a short time but inconstant due to the spring reaction against the barrel weight -breaking the seal, tried set screws so barrel wouldn't move -plastic crack over time. Thought of an light weight aluminium barrel but the time I spent on turning, fill, sanding and tapping (muzzle break) made me rethink. Had some left over brass barrel...now the KT has a 4" tight bore barrel and a plastic barrel made using 2 HL T1 plastic barrels slips over it tightly.
Brass Barrel and original HL combination:

Two Plastic HL T1's:

4" 6.03mm tight bore with styrene alignment sleeve:

A little fatter then RL scale but not enough to worry any of my end users:

Max-U52

That's a very cool device. I figure eventually I'll want to get more serious about the weaponry and then something that measures speed like that will be very handy to have, but for right now I've got my hands very full with motors and Hobbygrade. This was a crude comparison just to see if there's been much improvement and from what I can see there has. It's also one I said I would do way too long ago so it was past time to get 'er done.

I'm just getting those seals figgered out and I had a little trouble with one this weekend. Got it straightened out, though, and once I get the time to educate myself I'll see what kind of improvements I can come up with. I'd love to see more pics of what you've done, especially to improve feed. I've been using ATRC devices, too, and those really make a difference for me. Once in a while you get a tank that just has a tiny bit of movement, but my luck runs more towards getting the one that want to bounce the muzzle off the dirt they're so violent. The next time I have the Panther open I'll go over that seal. I've got several spares from units that failed for other reasons, like gear breakage.

I think I lucked out because the airsoft unit in my KT is a really good one. I think it's my most accurate and repeatable unit of all, especially at longer ranges. If you've seen video of my tank trail there's a pile of firewood behind the farmhouse and the ends of the logs make great targets. You might even find a paintball spot of two, but keep that under your hat.

TheBennyB

On the motors, don't know why they'd use different motors but could be. I've used these graupner 250's in tamiya recoil and traverse units and have seen quicker speeds than the
stock motors. I've also used stock tamiya elevation/traverse motors in HL traverse units and saw an increase in speed but added noise from the unit even after some fine shimming.
Here's a vid of the difference on a tamiya recoil unit, Panther has the graupner installed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCB3oJCahuY

http://www.modelflight.com.au/graupn...-250-7-2v.html

welchgc

Great vid, as always. I have the same PZ IV and it is by far the strongest airsoft of my lot. Overall it looks like I should upgrade a few of my tanks to the new Taigen units, but might hold out for that new recoil system.

Look forward to the 'hobbygrade' video.

Perry S.

Good vid. You should get a chronometer to measure how fast they are shooting. Feet per second (FPS) is the most common.

Another good mod is to put a UV LED in the hopper and shoot the glow in the dark bb's at night. You will really get a feel for how far they can shoot as you can see the trajectory. Here's a link to my mod;
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...rsoft-bbs.html

Here;s a similar comparison I did on the VS units;
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...n-airsoft.html

I'm anxious to see the new recoiling stuff. I've done a lot of different AS configurations but nothing recoiling yet.

Perry

Imex-Erik

I see a paintball on a tank I have always wanted to test them... If someone will send me some I'll gladly put them through a vigorous test... and by test I mean I'll chase everyone in the office with it! Great job on the video as always Gary, let me know when you want to upgrade that Panther G, I've got all kinds of neat stuff I do not sell on the site I hoard back here. That is the same for all you guys, just ask me, you never know what I have here.

philipat

Gary...nice video and gun comparison.

Perry...I remember that thread. Thanks for the link. I was looking for it and couldn't find it in my bookmarks. Question: what wavelength did you use for the UV LEDs? I've done some looking and noticed that there are several types out there with different wavelengths. I've read that some items' fluorescence aren't activated by certain UV frequencies, but they are by others. Was wondering if you knew of a frequency that worked best (or not at all).

Perry S.

I can't remember, I just bought a bag of them on ebay. I think the glo bb's are pretty insensitive to the wavelength but no guarantees on that.

Perry

philipat

Okay...no problem. Do you remember if they have a purple glow at all, or are they pretty much invisible when they're on? Some hit the near visible spectrum and leave a purple glow...

Max-U52

I've tried the paintballs and the problem I ran into is that the airsoft units in our tanks don't have the power to break the paintball on impact. Most of the time they just bounce off without breaking. When the weather breaks I'll try them in the new units and see how it goes. I've heard a lot of people express concerns about the paintballs breaking inside the unit, but if I can't even get them to break on impact I don't think there's much danger of breakage in the magazine. Could be wrong, but my experience is that the paintballs are pretty tough and require a good deal of force to make them break. I think the larger balls may break easier, but when they're this small it really takes some velocity to get them to explode. I gave some to my nephew to try out in his airsoft rifle so we'll see how that works out. You can get them on evilbay for about five bucks a bottle.

If I had known I'd have sent you a bottle, Erik, but I guess now we'll have to wait til the next time I send a box to the tropics.

afv aficionado

Hi Maxu52
Yep, experienced the same problem with airsoft paintballs, they would only break reliably when fired at concrete - we were airsoft wargaming, so the targets of choice were soft bodies - or break when in the gun, which wasn't fun to clean out. Did this years ago, got my first airsoftgun in 1986, having seen a Tokyo Marui Catalogue from 1985.

Hi Philipat
Re the UV LED's, I've ordered some from here - http://www.dx.com/p/5mm-uv-led-emitters-20-pack-2398 - they say they're used in UV flashlights - I've got one - so i know they're visible (purple) & work on glow BB's. Just waiting on delivery, prob another week.

Mal

Perry S.

Oh yes, they definitely had the characteristic purple glow. Perhaps the glo bb's are not as sensitive to freq or perhaps they are and I just lucked out. I think AFV has the right idea with what he has selected above.


I can attest that paint balls can be a real problem in these little tanks.I have spent many lost hours on this. Stock guns are by nature and size limitations, not able to perform the task. Due to the limited displacement of the puff of air they can offer you really need to have a tight tolerance barrel to drive any velocity. Paint balls are NOT precision at 6mm. There is a decent seam and they are often oblong. This, coupled with the tight barrels can cause a lot of barrel jams. Figure on needing 100-150 fps to break them against a hard flat surface. 150-200 fps is much better. 250+ fps can be really fun, allowing some bounces of sloped surfaces but breaking easily on others.

I had to use a loose barrel while creating a much bigger puff of air in order to get a reliable system for paint balls and the project is definitely not for all.

Simple vid here. This was before I had the hopper figured out and just loaded the pb's into the tank one at a time. And just for the record: 1. My aim is not that bad, I was demonstrating. 2. There is a piece of cardboard against the wall that is hard to distinguish. People think I am shooting at the walls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjfcGGm3f38

afv aficionado

Hi Perry
Says it a Private Video?

Mal

Perry S.

Give er a try now.

Perry

afv aficionado

Hi Perry
Thanks. Cool vid, was waiting for the HL recoil, but it didn't happen. Good thing.

Mal

philipat

Nice video. Thanks for info, guys.

Edit: an alternative to paintballs might be the marking BBs. They leave a chalk mark behind when they hit. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...+bbs&FORM=IGRE