CustomRCmodels

It's that time again tankers !
The September 2017 tank battle event at the worlds largest indoor r/c battlefield at the AFF-Tank-Museum in Danville , VA

Book your hotel rooms now and start going through your tanks for maintenance , if you haven't done so already.

This will be a Rolling Thunder event with planned scenarios and chains of command as well as logistics, arty, minefields, etc.
This is a stock apple configuration event with the exception that fixed guns can run TFA if you wish. We will be doing brief inspections to make sure we're all on the up and up.
This will cover:
Tank taking hits and dying according to class.
Emitter tube depth and width. (no greater than 6mm ID and no less than 9mm from the front of the tube to the front of the bulb)
No blockage of the IR reciever and proper configuration.
On road speeds with a +2 allowance.
Visible flash in the barrel.

We will also be running more casual battles in the mornings as well as Rolling Thunder orientations and briefings.
If you don't have an IR tank ready still come check out the action and with such a great bunch of people there are usually participants more than willing to loan out a tank to check out and possibly battle with.
At this event we may going to start briefings and demo's on 2 person operated tanks for battles.

check out our the www.TankACE.org website for the schedule and more info's !

ACE_AAF_event_September_2017

Post up if you are thinking of attending or have any questions. Looking forward to seeing everyone and hopefully seeing some new faces as well.

If you don't have an R/C tank yet , come anyways to check out the action and this fantastic museum - it's fun for the entire family !

here is the thread of the previous March 2017 event :
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...19-2017-a.html

991tanker

My son has a football game on saturday which ties up that day im going to try to bring him down sunday morning so we can atleast get afew battles in

DaveBcool

I plan to be there all 3 days.

TheBennyB

I'll be there all 3 days as well.

skip2a

We should be there around 1:00 on Friday.

1qaz

My wife & I will be there! During the last tank event your group held there at the museum we purchased a Tamiya Sherman and the IR stuff for it. Well after a month of building we have it up and running, all the airbrush work is as done as I'm going to get it. It has been 20 years since I have built a plastic model but it all came back after a short time.
I have a Spektrum DX8 that I kept after upgrading my airplane stuff so that is the radio that we put in the Sherman, We are going to need some "expert" help getting the IR stuff to work. I can't figure out how to get the machine gun or the main gun to fire and I have no idea how to hook up the IR stuff. I am an airplane guy from way back and this high tech electronic stuff has me beat! We have it "trimmed" so that it drives straight, and the turret works along with the gun elevation. I drilled a .020 hole for a hinge pin which allows the main hatch to be open or closed, that way it covers up the "ugly" place where the IR apple plugs into ( this was Brenda's idea )
We plan on getting to Danville around noon on Friday and with some help maybe by Saturday we can get beat-up on the battlefield

Larry & Brenda

Is there a favorite hotel where all the R/C tankers stay?

skip2a

Larry:

Comfort Inn & Suites
100 Tower Drive,
Danville, VA, US, 24540
+1 (434) 793-2000

Tell them you are going to an AAF event and you will get a discount. It is only minutes from the museum and has a nice continental breakfast

See ya,

Pat

1qaz

Thank you Pat,
We will get a room lined up for Friday night. We are looking forward to trying the tank thing, it's a lot less demanding than the airplane thing is!
See ya there,
Larry & Brenda

BludoTheSmelly

Like your sherman sir

1qaz

Thank you Shannon,
We thought the little Sherman would be a good "first" R/C tank, if we enjoy the IR battle thing then I can see another tank in our future (A his & hers tank set)

I like your collection on your gallery, that is a King Tiger on the left?

BludoTheSmelly

Yeah thats actually an old picture from 2014, I need to put newer ones up. I have a porsche heng long king tiger in the box and plan to do a conversion of it when i get more money. tamiya panzer 4 is on the way. The sherman is a great all around tank i can say. Be careful on hills, they're a little top heavy and tend to roll, tread lightly

DaveBcool

"I can't figure out how to get the machine gun or the main gun to fire and I have no idea how to hook up the IR stuff."

Larry,
The Tamiya Battle Unit (TBU) should have come with a small manual that shows how to hook up and test the IR emitter and receiver (what we call the apple). Below is a link to Tamiya's site w/ the manual.



Make sure you have a fully charged battery when you go through the set up.
If you still can't make it work, we'll help you out.
It should NOT take until Saturday to git er done, so hopefully you can get some time on the field.

Have you practiced driving?
If you haven't, I would.
Set up a small obstacle course or town using boxes, tool boxes, trash cans, cones or whatever.
Practice driving through, both forwards and backwards.
When you get used to it, try driving and moving the turret at the same time.
See if you can drive through the obstacles while keeping the cannon pointed at you.
When you get used to that, then try it in reverse!

Also, if you don't already know, you should park behind the museum.
As you pull in, drive to the left and through the chain link gates.
Once around back you will see an open garage door with a sliding gate.
Enter the museum through there.

1qaz

Well I give up, I can't get the main gun or the machine gun to fire. I installed the battle unit stuff, plugged in the apple
(and read the warning about unplugging the apple with power on) and still nothing.
The directions claim that I should be able to move the steering stick to the extreme right and the gun should fire, or to the extreme left and the machine gun will fire.

I will bring the thing to Danville and hopefully with some help get the thing to work, Who knows I may have a Sherman for sale and stick with airplanes!

Shorty54

you may have to adjust your trims way up to get them to fire. that why most guys add a separate switch for machine gun fire and cannon fire. Its a toggle switch. depending on your radio and how many channels you may be able to program it to a button or switch on the radio.

1qaz

Hi Shorty 54,
I am using my old Spektrum DX8 that I have left over from my airplane days. (I upgraded to Futaba for airplanes). I tried pushing the trims to the extreme and it still does not work.
I don't know how the guys are setting up their transmitters so that you can use a separate switch, I have several extra channels that I could use.

TheBennyB

Also have to make sure your endpoints on that stick are at 120.

1qaz

Thanks TheBenny,
I tried that, I did have my end points at just 100% so I was hopeful that it would work but no such luck. This thing is ceasing to be any fun!

TheBennyB

Don't get discouraged. If you don't figure it out by next weekend we'll get it sorted out at the museum. You mentioned "steering stick" thats all just nomenclature. If your elevation for the main gun is not on what they call the "steering" channel it won't fire. Whatever channel your elevation on must be at 120 for endpoints then you'd trim that channel one direction and slap the stick in the same direction you trimmed to get main gun or MG to fire. For instance I don't operate as Tamiya suggests. I prefer my steering/throttle on one stick and rotation/elevation on the other. So my elevation is on ch 3 which is usually the throttle ch on radios (left stick up and down.) In other words you may have your channels set up differently than the tamiya manual is set as default?

1qaz

Thats exactly how I have mine set up, all of my steering stuff is all on the R/H stick & the turret stuff is on the L/H stick. Maybe I need to increase my end point on the gun elevation channel? It's only set to 100%.

TheBennyB

YES, also that is the channel (stick) you want to trim one way then stick in the same direction. Usually it's up for main gun and down for MG. So trim all the way up on the left stick then push up on left stick(quick movement) you should get main gun or MG.. Tamiya is telling you to use the "steering" stick to fire the main gun cause that's how they have it set up in the manual with elevation on that channel, not how you and others like us have it set up on the RX.

1qaz

Thank you Benny!!!
That did it, I set the "throttle" (AKA gun elevation) end points to 120% and it works!! I did have to move the trim all the way back in order to make the main gun fire but I can live with that.
Now I guess I need to go do the OP's check of the IR system by shooting at a white surface,

Thank you again!
See you all at Danville this weekend

Larry

Panther F

I have the weekend off but it's too soon for me to burn a 13 hour drive.

Sounds like a big crowd is expected, especially before the weather starts to turn.