Hi Dan,
Hooked up yellow and brown as directed ,held down left stick and nothing happened.Possibly the elevation motor is toast?
In the wiring diagram that I posted there is a double 3pin connector that mine does not have. Would that be different because this is an airsoft?

The little board with 3 connections on either side I cannot find in this tank.Your pic#3. Is it possibly because this is an airsoft that it would wire differently?

I'd check the pot in the Tx itself.

I've only owned a few HLs and have experienced bad solders on the RX-18, in the Tx, broken wires in the harness as well as non matching wire colors so they can be pretty frustrating. You can't rule out anything. I ripped apart one spending hours to finally find a broken wire still in the insulation.

You are getting some good help, but it's hard to diagnose this way. I'd start from scratch, isolate the elevation motor itself to make sure it works via a simple battery hookup. Then use the RX-18 schematic and just plug it the elevation (plus battery and Rx). If still no go, then open the Tx and look for loose wires.

One thing that I've found you absolutely need if you're going to stick with HL is a good multimeter and an alternative battery source and some wires with alligator clips that you can use to jump connections.

Your Tiger might not have that board maybe it goes directly to to the 8 pin connector

That is how it seems to be wired. I have tried a mulitmeter on the yellow and brown wires and it does not show and power at all when I hold down the left stick.

Like Ausf said maybe try a battery directly to the motor see if it's working

Thanks. I am going to give that a try tomorrow.

Definitely crack open the Tx then, there will be three wires coming off the pot connected to the axis. I bet one is off.

I tried that Dan, but nothing!
Can you tell me why CH4 is not used in the receiver but CH5 is? What is on each channel?

You should be using the first four channels. The fifth one or "Gear channel" should not be used

On the receiver the first 4 are used 5 is skipped and there is one in 6 as well. Is this correct?

Yes that is correct. I can't remember did you buy complete package with the T6A radio. If you did I may have set up the Benedini for starting and stopping the engine on Channel 5

Yes I did. The engine starts on Rt stick all the way up which from my RC aircraft days would be channel 2.

That is the default engine start, so no issue there, When I shipped that to you all the servo cables would have been plugged and set to go. On a HK receiver all the channels from 1-5 should be used.

Actually 4 was skipped but I put 5 into that.

That might be your problem then, Use Channel 1-4 and leave channel 5 off. Are you firing the cannon full up on the left stick?

Yes that is how I fire it. I will try it with ch5 left off.

Took off Ch5 and tried it but I see no difference whatsoever.

OK < just to be sure lets go over the servo cable set up.


DBC Receiver
THR CH 2
STR CH 1
TUR CH 4
GUN CH 3

This is the basic set up for a DBC. When you add the TBS you pass the throttle( CH 2) from the receiver into Prop 1 of the Benedini TBS. The second Prop one then goes from the TBS back to DBC THR. IN essence you are inserting the Benedini TBS between the receiver and the DBC3. Prop 3 on the TBS gets hooked to the output pins on the DBC3. This connection is the TBS encoder and sends all the sound triggers for battle sounds and other tank sounds.

Whoops. I guess over time just reading the last posts, I forgot you were using the DBC and not the HL trans, I wouldn't have suggested a bad pot otherwise.

I ran into the exact problem with a DBC/Benedini setup a few weeks ago. Bill bought my Stug with the same setup. With my DX6i, everything worked perfectly. Bill bought his own DX6 and when we bound that one, everything worked but the recoil and flash (HL xenon). I thought it was trims, so we spent a bunch of time adjusting it, trying to copy how my sub trims and travel adjustments were but nothing worked. Either it was sound and IR or flash and recoil, but never together (it was a bit confusing to keep track of, since I had mine set to drive Tamiya style, Bill's HL).

After a solid hour, I pulled off channel 5 (gear remote start) and everything worked just the way it's supposed to. Didn't make any sense to me, but that was it.

By the way, it takes a bunch of time adjusting trims to get the timing of the sound, flash and recoil coordinated and not to fire too easily.

I now use the TBS to supply the trigger voltage on the recoil. So timing is no longer an issue nor is the false flash and recoil before an IR shell is ready. The cannon recoil, sound, IR shot and flash are all synched.

Trouble shooting is a process of elimination.

What I would do , is hook up power directly to the elevation motor. Ensure that it is capable of working. That would eliminate the elevation unit as the problem

Then move to the harness and supply power to the pins and see if the elevation motor still works. By doing this you have verified the elevation unit and the wiring is good.

Next would be to check the output voltage on pins on the RX 18. See if there is any power supplied when you move the stick to the full down,

Then unplug the DBC and plug in the HL receiver again. All you have to do is move the 3 wire control cable back to the HL receiver. See if you have elevation when you return the tank to its stock condition. IF the same condition exists you no it has nothing to do with the DBC3/TBS/Radio, and it has something to do with the RX18.

Returned to tank to stock condition and still no elevation . Check power from DX18 (which I have replaced) and there is power. I guess I will have to assume that the elevation motor is useless! Time to get on the Mato site!

Ok I know I might sound like a broken record here.... but will you apply some power to the motor directly? It is VERY simple and most of the time the fastest way to troubleshoot motors. Tape two AA batteries together like this: -+-+ and then add a bit of tape so they stay touching. Next get two pieces of wire and tape them to the + and - on ends of the batteries. You now have 3 volts, which is enough to make that motor spin. Touch the two wires to the + and - on the motor and see what happens. It should spin. If it doesn't then you have a motor issue. I'm glad you found the problem, but next time we can get you all fixed up in minutes
Also, what kind of elevation motor do you need? Take a picture of it for me, I might have one sitting around that fits

Thanks again for all of the help Erik. I have put power to the motor directly but perhaps not enough. I will try again and let you know.
Thanks for the motor offer but I just ordered one for $8.50 Cdn so it won't break me.
Tell me a bit about Taigen tanks. I haven't found a useful dealer in Canada but I can order from Imex if you make them sound good enough.

Erik; Just tried your test and it isn't the motor because I used 4.5 v and it turned fine. So I'll have an extra motor.
Unfortunately I still have a wiring issue. I have swapped the DX18 and am not sure what to try next?