john z

Hello everyone. Well I finally found time to do a smoke and sound installation in my t-34. After checking and double checking for correct wire positions and soldering, I plugged in a freshly charged pack and was off.... for about 25 seconds until the smoke started to pour out of the tank. I'm not quite sure if it's my fault or I just got a bad board. Has anyone ordered from Mato and had this experience? Will mato replace parts after they have been installed (and burned beyond recognition) ? Regards, John Z

Richard L.

My Feedback: (24)

I doubt it. However, it's worth asking them. Did you accidentally use too much heat too long when soldering the wires to the boards?

shenlonco

My Feedback: (2)

[X(]I bet he soldered that jumper wire onto the board from the switch....that's a no no..

ArmChairGeneral

I would have done a test run of the new board before I did any modification, it would seem now its hard to tell who could be at fault. Bummer.

KhiaRAWR

Mato will replace the defected board. It's their policy. Contact them, and they'll ask you to mail the board back to them, and from there everything will be fix. Good luck.

john z

Thanks guys. I opened up my bulldog to get the correct wiring for the new boards, I know that everything was good. I also read the thread about that jumper wire and didn't even bother with connecting one. What I don't understand is how it could work flawlessly for a short time and then totally self destruct. I also e-mailed mato, and the reply I got was "once a part has been modified we can no longer warranty the part". I don't see how using something for it's intended purpose is considererd modification. Any way, It wasn't a lot of money and maybe this time I'll just order new boards and keep my fingers crossed. Regards, John Z

john z

Richard L. I thought about the soldering heat issue and for delicate work I use a small weller 15 watt iron. I don't know if this is still too much heat for pc boards. I try to heat as little as possible for fear of solder melting on the board and causing a short. From the looks of it, I couldn't see any melted solder shorting any terminals after I was finished, but that was a whole other story afterwards. Thank for the input. Regards, John Z

john z

Well, here is what I discovered with my first electronics mod: 1. Make sure that there are no small screws trapped under the heat sink for the fet's( I was wondering where that screw went) 2.Never assume the part is faulty (the person doing the mod is more likely to be the defective component)and 3. If the person doing the work needs prescription reading glasses, all work should stop until said glasses are found. Yes , sometimes I'm such a knuckle head I amaze myself. My apologies to Mato. Regards, John Z

YHR

AHAHAHAHAHh. Good to see you keep your sense of humour. I've had my fair share of moments like this

PS not laughing at you , laughing with you!!!!!

swathdiver

I've got more blown boards then Richard has tanks! I know some of them were my fault but some just started smoking, that big grey resistor on the bottom or the transistors for the motors would get hot and start popping.

darkith

Lol. Yeah, I've been the faulty component in "the system" more times than I'm willing to admit.

Keep the board. You can either fix it, or use it for parts when another board goes south (hopefully for a different reason, right?

D.

SNOWTANK

Hey guys I installed my new boards in my Panzer and my Tiger 1. The Tiger 1 would start up then suddenly stop. Horrors thought Oh NO either I blew the board with bad wiring or the board was faulty. Neither. In fact found that my original board was not defective at all. The problem?... The drive motors were touching each other. HOW? The rods that hold both walls of the gear box together were loosening up and beginning to sag. The wall with the upper motor was allowing the motor to sag and the can of the motor was making contact with the can of the motor underneath. Hence a short was being created. It may explain why the board was fried afterword despite the correct wiring or a new board installed. We pulled the gear box out and tightened up all of the cross brass rods with screw inserts and applied BLue loctite. That didn't cure the problem the motor still sagged a bit. Simple solution - Wedged a piece of cardboard between the upper and lower motor cans and the tank ran perfect. I ran the tank for about 2 hours hard driving with a couple of flips and falls from high rocks and the Tank performed flawlessly with improved power.

Hope this helps in figuring out what is going on with the circuit boards... blame the motors.

SNOWTANK - PANTIGER - THUMBS UP - TIGER 1- THUMBS UP -PANZER3 - THUMBS UP- T34/85 THUMBS UP- PERSHING THUMBS UP-WALKER BULLDOG- THUMBSUP - CONCLUSION..... YAYYYYYYY!!!!

john z

I've always been able to laugh at my own mistakes. I laugh quite a bit too. Those little screws that hold the boards on can get in the darndest places. After I saw what happened, I decided to give it a go again and pull the electronics from my bulldog and see if I could get it right and, presto.. worked like a charm. The new boards are on order and balance has been restored to the galaxy. Live and learn, right? Best regards, John Z

WhiteWolf McBride

My Feedback: (3)

Re: bonehead mods...

I did something similar and spectacular years ago when I was an electric boater. I had tried to go cheap and made a home-built ESC (still have the plans) with the help of some of the guys at the club. Well, the first outing was good, PT boat ran rather well, until I lost top end speed, and then all forward way. Then someone noticed my hull was sitting below the marked water line... ***?

I'd decided to go all scale and wanted to bolt my PT boat mufflers to the transom, so had drilled the holes out. I forgot to put them back in before the run, and was taking water slowly through the holes. When the water level hit the bottom of the board, it shorted the forward fets. Barely made it back to shore on reverse.

The second run two weeks later (after replacing the fets) was even more spectacular... pushed the boat out from the dock before giving it power to show off its speed, and someone asks " When did ya put in the smoke generators... " and I see smoke is pouring out the transom! I'd hooked up the 12v gelcell in backwards, and blown the board again... *sigh*

At that point I gave up on ESC's and put a pair of Tamiya MSC's in. A year later, I sold the boat, and a month ago I re-acquired the same kit (Dumas #1203 PT-109 kit 33") to do it better... but without the theatrics!

off to clean spotty-kitty #3 (its covered in oil/grease/dust)

test_hardware

I see from your post that you are building a Dumas 1203 kit. I'm new to boat building and I'm at the point where I need to select radio, receivers, motors and drive-line components. Do you have any advice? I'm thinking that two separate motors make more sense than one motor and the Dumas gear box butI don't really know.

Wozwasnt

test_hardware the last post is dated- 5/21/2007

no12skyline

There's a reason why Tamiya puts their electronics in plastic cases

Ern

deleted...