Today I took the Leopard out to a ¼ mile running track to do an endurance test, to see how far it would go on a fully charged DTX 3800 battery. I’ve always wanted to do something like this for a little while and today would be perfect, a pretty good breeze and not to hot, 68 degrees when I started.

The day before I charged the battery for 16 hours, the longest I ever charged a battery.

The goal here is to run the Leo NON-STOP until the battery is drained. At 12:47 I started up the Leo and begin walking with the Leo about two feet in front, I walked at a normal pace keeping that two foot distance, the Leo was at 2/3 power, matching my walking pace.

At more than 9 and 1/4 laps the Leo came to a stop and shut down, I turned off the transmitter. I looked at my watch and time was 1:44, or 57 minutes of non-stop running. After the last ¼ marker the Leo went an estimated 660 feet, or halfway around before shutting down.

Total distance in that 57 min run was 12,540 feet, running at 2/3 speeds.

After writing the distance and time I turned the transmitter back on and the Leo powered up, but only went about 10 feet and powered down. I changed the battery and at full speed (me going at a fast walk) went back to the starting line.

The Duratrax or DTX 3800 pack a lot of power, but there are even more powerful batteries http://www.teamorion.com/Products/Batteries/Lipo think I’ll get one of these and put it to the test, but first have to make sure it'll fit in that already overcrowed turret.

calvinwill

you must be a rocket scientist.

People had to think you were insane following a toy tank around a track for almost an hour. [8D]

I get over 3 hours with my HLs, of course they do not run as fast and are equipped with smaller motors. I use Venom 3600mah batteries.

That's incredible! I'm glad someone finally did a test like this.

Scale Model tank, not toy!!!

calvinwill

To everyone but us they are toys.

It ran 38 scale miles.

BTW, What mode were the lights in?

Endurance Test??? that was a Sunday drive.
Giving my neighbor's 5year old son a ride on my 1/9th M1A2 up a 40 degree slope is a endurance test.

38 miles is not enough for a loepard !!

exemple :
a tiger1 could ran with 1 fill up a 100miles off road.

3800 ma battery = 38 scale miles ,so to be at the scale for effective range for a tiger1, we would need 3 x 3300ma batteries or 2 x4800ma .

for a loe , it should be even more.

that means my tiger1 fueled up will cost me over a 100$[:@]

thanks calvinwill

Everything was turned off, on the Leo, there are two power settings, Standard and Power, for this test the setting was Power, as a matter of fact I aways use the Power mode, the last time the DMD was set on Standard was when I first took it out of the box.

Calvinwill

That's interesting. What are the two modes for, what is different in function between standard and power? Is the power setting the most "fuel efficient"?

Its for running on rough surfaces (rugs, grass, gravel), grades, etc, its the highest power setting.

Calvinwill

I gave you an incomplete answer, let me elaborate, the DMD when set to Power will deliver more power to the motors only when encountering rough or hilly terrain or when turning/pivot, on smooth surfaces the power to the motors will be the same regardless of setting, the Leo will NOT go faster in Power mode, since the 1/4 mile track was both smooth and flat, the mileage would have been the same regardless of setting.

calvinwill

Calvin, you should apply to the Guiness Book of World Records
Neville

Call Guiness just for the longest running Tamiya, not all 1/16th RC!

Why must every post turn into HL vs. Tamiya????
It gets old.

I like the test, and would be interested if he had any damage along the way?
I have had roadwheels fall off of BOTH HL and Tamiya(both easily repaired).

No damage, nothing fell off, just one hell of a well designed model tank. I have two Leopards, the one that ran the test was the first one I bought, the one thats featured on my pbase photo gallery and it has a whole bunch of mileage (about 80+hours) under its treads (which by the way still look almost good as new).

calvinwill

Calvinwill,

Interesting info about the power settings. Have you noticed the DMD getting hot at all, being on high power all the time?

Only if I run for a long time, I used to run in hot weather (85 degrees +) for short periods but no longer, preferring cool weather. There's no ventilation in that over crowed turret, plus all that heat will sap battery power, along with heating the DMD unit, servo, receiver and turret motor. I'm not to concerned with the motors and heat won't affect the gearbox, its just the electronics you have to be careful with, DMD costing $350.00 retail and all.

The only problem I've had with the Leo was that at first, I used standard model glue to build this kit, a BIG MISTAKE!! I had parts falling off left and right while I was still building the kit, at that point I was getting a might tiff (a little angry, Tamiya did not recommend any proper glues to use), finally I found the proper glues and had to rebuild the Leo, scrapping off the old glue. Since rebuilding my first Leo no part has fallen off, nothing at all, ditto my second Leo which was built of course from the ground up properly. When built right, this 1/16 scale tank is nearly as strong as metal tanks, and cost a whole lot less http://www.sonderfahrzeug-modellbau.de/palette.htm look at the price of the Leopard A5 in 1/16 scale, full option, http://www.sonderfahrzeug-modellbau.de/produkta2.htm 1,960 Euros or $2,500 dollars!! And remember, its 1/16 scale. I've built a lot of models in my time and this Leopard from Tamiya is by far the most enjoyable, fun kit I've ever owned, growing pains and all.

And I love displaying both Leopards, being accurate scale models, although the first one is in need of repainting due to scrapping against rocks and always getting coverd in loose sand and dirt/mud.

Calvinwill

Not a Leo owner but I regularly run the same tanks non stop for 7 hours for people to line up for a turn to play with and only stopping to change the battery. Sometimes in hot weather the DMD overheats and the tank shuts down and can't be run at all, but they are always OK again once they cool down,there's probably an inbuilt overheat cutout to protect against damage which makes it idiot proof.

I have had a go at friends' leos and they are real nice! On the running time subject, I think a Tiger 1 would probably go further on the same type of battery , Leos seem to have a shorter running time than other tamiyas. I 'think' Leos and Pershings shut down on a higher minimum voltage level than the others.

Calvinwill,

I don't think I've ever seen a DMD with a heat sink, have you? Would probably help some, but like you said, no ventilation in the stuffed turret. There is a lot of air in the hull though.

Tankduel,

7 hours at a time! That is some serious running time on those tanks.

Just a little ribbing. I like the info presented, it helps further the hobby.

I'm only familiar with the DMD-07 which like you said, has no heat sink, but like Tankduel (neat website TD, birthday parties and all) says it does have an auto shut off to protect the unit from heat damage, apparently mine has never gotten hot enough, but I bet I've been close, especially when I was in southern Georgia running for at times 1 hour + (at least 5 times).

Calvinwill

TOM Zhang..I Mailed you like 2 times..You ''Never'' Got Back to me.......I ask about the ''Geopard'' there...Just Ignoring me here?