What is a good replacement for a Tamiya ESC Mixer? I think I may need one….
Back in the mid-late 1990s, I bought the first re-release version of the Tamiya 1/16 M4A3 105mm Sherman when it suddenly reappeared on the market. This was Tamiya’s first release of the Sherman that came with two electric motors and gear boxes, controlled by a new electronic mixer. (Replacing the early 1980-ish version with a single electric motor and two clutches.). I was able to use a cheap 2 channel boat-style radio, with a vertical access stick for fwd/reverse and a horizontal stick for left/right steering.
My plan was to build an RC landing craft to carry it around. I built and ran the tank, but never got ‘round to building the boat.
I dug it out last night- it had been in storage since the last time I ran it, probably in 2006 or so. It is in excellent shape, no corrosion or decay. I put batteries in the Tx and a new 7.2v pack and tried it out on my cement basement’s floor. It was running just like it used to- at first. I ran it for a about a minute, forward and reverse, with no trouble. Then it started to stutter - like power was intermittently cutting out. I checked the Tx and Rx batteries- they were good.
I did some more testing on the bench- it was doing pretty much all the time. I suspect the old (sealed) mixer/ESC controller may be faulty.
What woud be a decent replacement for this? I only need 2channels- my old tank doesn’t have a moving turret. I looked online didn’t find an obvious replacement….
I could go find a pair of ESCs and a mixer to let me keep using my old 2ch RC boat- style radio, but I liked the simple plug and play way the original one worked….
Any recommendations?