Hey guys!

Recently I bought a new VSTANKM1A2 Abrams after my issue with my HENGLONGType 90 tank.
Ithought this gonna be a good experience but alas, it was short living.

The main issue is with the veering/pulling to one side when speeding forward/backward using the new VTX-10 controller.
Ihave posted an example of what Imean at http://plexure.com.sg/IMG_0927.MOV

Since it was only 1 hour old, Icall up my distributor and went to their warehouse today.
As expected, the tank did as per the video.

I'm glad the distributor is willing to provide a 1-to-1 exchange.
Hegive me a new M1A2 VSTANK and let me test all I want.

Igive it another shot at their testing platform and it works well for 15 minutes.
Then the problem came again.
That is like 2 new M1A2 VSTANKhaving the same issue!

The distributor suspect the motor is overheating and thus the veering after 15 minutes of playtime.
He is helping me ask VSTANK whether they have change the motor supplier and cause this batch of production to be defect.

On my part, am Iexpecting too much?
Is it true that all RCtanks cannot be run for too long using speed forward/backward?

I can't speak for 1/24 tanks, I battle 1/16 scale. You use the phrase ALL RC TANKS. I do not have this issue in any of my 1/16 tanks. They run just fine all the time until the battery dies, unless one strips a gear. My guess is that the issue is the micro motors in the 1/24 tanks.Or it could be a trim issue with the new electronics.

Maybe you are right about the micro motors since during normal speed (I guess the micro motor can take the heat at normal speed) the problem doesn't really happen.
My Heng Long tank was fine when I run using normal speed until Istart using double speed for some time and it veer to one side too.

Regardless though Ihope VSTANKcan give my distributor a good answer/solution so Ican get my desired M1A2 abrams tank.
Though the distributor is willing to give a full refund, Irather land my hand on the tank of my dream.
</p>

1/24 scale tanks are still considered toy grade no matter what manufacturer. You can not expect true RC capability with this series.<div> most 1/16 scale, but not all have moved past the toy grade status and have become quite reliable.
<div>It really is just a matter of the size of the components they can fit in a 1/24 scale vehicle that prevents the quality from improving.</div></div>

It make me wonder why VSTANK knowing the limitation of 1/24 scale tank still provide the speed forward/backward feature when this will burn the motor.

I'm also daunted that I couldn't find any such complain with VSTANK owner in this forum or elsewhere.
Even the distributor say no one play the tank like the way I play (Speed forward, turn, Speed forward, turn, Speed backward, etc)

If this is what you say, sound like I should accept 1/24 scale tank only support normal speed and I should jam the speed forward/backward button in case I accidentally press it and burn the motor.</p>

Hi the vs tank should not do that... what i think it is is the older VS tanks LEO's and ABRAMS use a clicker style spring loaded clutch in the gear box what this does is keeps the 2 motors rpm the same keeping the gears turning at the same speed in a straight line it semi locks the two drive sprockest up a bit so the tanks go in a straight line.
but the clutch also allows disengauging by the spring pressure so the gear box drives can go different directions or speeds for turning.

I think the clutch is the problem it's noted to not work properly and cause the tanks to not go stright... the newer tanks work better than the older ones but they may also do the same after a long time but none of my newer tanks did this yet.

See how the clutch works turn one rear sprocket on your tank by hand you will see it clicks as it disengauges but you will see before it clicks it adds pressure to the other side of the gear box trying to also turn the oposit sprocket drive as so to keep them rotating the same speed to keep the tank going straight.

Hmm but those 2 tanks that I tested are the new type of tanks using the VTX-10 controller.

Since I have this issue, it sound like the newer one are also using the "clicker style spring loaded clutch"

However your newer tank doesn't have such problem.

I can only conclude that 1/24 scale tank can actually do speed forward/backward continuously for 15 minutes without burning the motor and it's more like the distributor is correct about this particular batch having problem only.

Man I really want a 1/24 abrams tank, I sure hope the distributor can give me a great answer.

Btw, did you try speed forward/backward continously for 15 minutes and see if the problem also happen to your newer vstank?<br type="_moz"/>

This bottom of this page show an exact picture of the package that I bought

http://www.helipal.com/united-states...ft-series.html

Hey guys, I found this website that may help explain why the tank veer to one side after 15 minutes of play time out of the box: </p>

http://www.artistichobbies.com/resources/vstanktips.php</p>

Quote:</p>

Like any mechanical machine (Like a new car)  that has a new motor in it, there’s a break in period that should be followed.  We suggest at least 10 minutes in slow speed. This will prolong the life of  your tanks main driving motor.</p>

It is because the moment I had the tank, I didn't warm it up and start speeding that cause the breakdown of the motor?</p>

Hi it's not that the newer tanks with the new radio should have a new style slipper unit it's just that the abrams and leaopards the first tanks made still use the same old gear box with the clicker slipper clutch but now have new electronics.

and the other tanks the newer styles have new style gear boxes with different clutches.

And your tank should not do what it is doing i had over 30 1/24 scale tanks and only had one do what you are talking about and i have went to parks and run them for hours till the batteries died on hot sunny days and they never failed...in fact to tell you the trouth the 1/24 scale tanks are strong and hardly ever break down.


it probably is a good i dea to do a break in with the tank held up off the ground and with tracks off run it on low power for like 15 min or so.

Sound like the older vstank version are more resilient while the newer version that uses new electronics but old gearbox needs to have it's gearbox upgraded in order to match the new electronics?

Do you think if I do the break in on the motor will solve the issue or maybe I should change the entire gearbox to something more powerful to support the new VTX-10 controller?</p>

You mis under stood me

the VS abrams and leopard tanks where like there first tanks out they had a clicker clutch in the gear box and now the latest versions of them remain the same but with new style electronics and radios..other than that the whole tanks are the same as old first release versions.

Now the rest of VS tanks releasted after diferent tanks like KT and tiger one and t72 and so on use a totally new clutch system only abrams and leos have old clutch style.

try doing the break in like i stated above it may work.

also it could be the electronics making one motor get more electric than the other/

if you go slow speed farward does it go straight?
second speed?
third speed?
or on all speeds it goes crooked?

farward and then backward is it the same side track turning slower making it go crooked in the same farward and backward directions?

If so maybe you have a pair of very unmatched motors one having much more RPM than the other.

Also try this put the whole track from one side of the tank on the oposit side another words swap em from one side to the other this may fix the problem.

Hi yong2579, sorry to hear about the issues your having with your Abrams. The only way your going to be able to fix this problem is to replace the entire gearbox. Out of the 3 years that we sold VsTank&rsquo;s, we have come across 5 tanks (07 MCU) that had issues that you are describing. Each time we replaced the gearbox for the customer and that solved the issue 100% of the time.

Each time this happened I personal took apart the gearbox to see what the issue may be. All 5 times there were no signs of damage that would cause this issue. One time I added some plastic lubricant to the plastic gears to help with friction and this helped, but this only helped once out of the 5 gearboxes tested. Another time there was a soldering issue to one of the motors. It looked like the wires were soldered on correctly, but looks can be deceiving. After re-soldering the connection, this solved the issue entirely. The other 3 gearboxes I couldn&rsquo;t explain the cause of the issue.

With what was said above, VS has made many changes to their tanks over the past year. So this could be an entirely new issue that I haven&rsquo;t come across like a voltage issue to the motors from the main board. Back in late 2010, we received a bad batch of Abrams with major MCU board issues. It&rsquo;s just a good thing because in early 2010 we started tested ever tank that we received from VS or this would have been a very costly issue on our part.

I feel bad for your distributor because it sounds like he received a bad batch of Abrams with gearbox issues. Unfortunately I know how he must feel!

Please keep us posted on this issue

Shenlonco:

Hmm I think it shouldn't be one motor getting more electric than the other because the tank move forward/backward in a straight line regardless of what speed it was running on initially for the 1st 10 minutes (unless the electric distribution changes after 10 minutes)

When the tank starts to veer/pull to one side, this will only happen when I'm using maximum speed (push the forward/backward speed to maximum top/bottom position)

At the distributor testing platform, when the tank starts to veer, it will veer left when going forward in max speed and veer right when going backward in max speed (assume X, Y coordinate is [100,100] in pixel mode like paintbrush, moving forward land in [75, 0] while moving backward land in [125, 200])

The distributor tries to put 2 circle sticker on each track of the same vertical position and after running for 3 seconds, the circle sticker have run out of alignment with each other

I have suggest the motor break-in as one of the cause to the distributor so that he have information to discuss with VSTANK.
I probably will give him this forum URL for additional information.

M1A2 Commander:

It's a great thing you guys had the testing in place!
With 2 new M1A2 tank having the exact same issue, it seems likely my distributor current batch has issue.

However like Shenlonco has mentioned, maybe there wasn't any issue at all.
Just the way Iplay didn't set the break-in correctly.
Ikinda got this feeling because initially the tank works fine.
That is when the rotor and the brush are in proper state.
However when Istart speeding straight, the heat generated may be too much for proper erosion of the brushes.
This may therefore result in different surface area contact of the brushes to the rotor for each side.
And maybe this is why with one side brush is having more surface area than the other, the tank will veer to one side only.

Ifeel changing my gearbox will work too since the motor is one of the component in the gearbox.
However Ialso got this feeling no matter how many gearbox Ichange, the problem always come back unless Ifound the root issue.

Probably what I'm gonna do is to just provide whatever information Ihave to the distributor and see what VSTANKcan do.
Isure hope is something that can make my and all future VSTANKproduct reliable!

Try putting the whole left track on to the right tracks side and put the whole right track to the left side sometimes this works.

Alas my distributor has taken back my vstank so I couldn't test the changing of track as you mentioned. But I shall give it a shot when any such issue happen in the future as part of the resolution!</p>

<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">Just wanna update the solution in after 3 long months since the initial problem, the situation was solved after changing the original vstank motor to using my distributor personal stash of japanese mabuchi motor. He also did a run-in of 30 minutes (slow speed running of tank in a stationary position) before we start testing. So far the tank has been running perfectly. Vstank previously suggest to do center rotation when the situation happen which after we tested, it was not very reliable and didn't actually solve the situation. So all in all, buy a new pair of motor and if you have the experise, replace it yourself and do a run-in, else find someone who has the expertise (my distributor did the replacement for me) and do it. Hope this helps anyone who has the same issue!</span>