jha13

Tank battle is a tiny subcategory in a narrow sector.
The manufacturers are trying to take these users with them, but no one has really succeeded.
Because you can't produce an inexpensive board with a small number of units.
The situation shows that those who have done it once have no desire to do it a second time.

@Crius
To correct my previous post, here in Germany there are more users like Rad who want a board with lots of functions and also take advantage of them.

tomhugill

I’ve had more than a 30 day warranty on my Clark stuff. Repairs are so cheap I doubt he’s making much on them.

Shorty54

A board with no support to me is no good. Thats the issues with these tanks to me. Even Tamiya is getting hard to repair, if even at all. Others have retired and no support. Open Panzer had a great open source project. Seemed a few good people contributed and still do. Everything is open and you can even make your own since all the parts are defined in the build. Not everyone has the ability to do that though. I would like a tech manual and trouble shooting guide, and repair guide with part description. That way, I could repair my own boards if possible instead of waiting months or longer and sending across the world for repairs. Im sure big enough clubs would have at least one guy that could solder and operate a ohm meter to repair members boards in a timely matter. Open source projects seem to be the go to for hobbies now days. We see it in 3D printers, radios, quadcopters, etc. A basic board could be developed that had parts accessible in all major tanking parts of the world. Then adds on through software or piggy backing could be added on for each individuals needs if they wanted. That way price would be a set amount up front for the simple customer and someone who wanted the "Rad" affect could invest more into their board. I just honestly think the niche is too small to get the right people interested. I still think the Open Panzer project could work, I am very interested to see if the gentleman in Germany would be willing to share the build instructions or make small production runs throughout the year. To me no support, no interest, I dont care how simple or feature loaded the board is.

Enjoy,
Shad

Tanque

If you are referring to "Bay Area Tankers" or "Kelly's Heroes" both are as dead as a door nail. Rich Upton has or is moving to the Reno, Nevada area
and unless he's looking to rename BAT to Sierra Nevada Tankers I believe BAT is done since he'd never relinquish control over 'his' club . He's held on to that club or at least the idea of it like grim death.
The website, still active hasn't substantively been updated since several of us re-wrote it what? 15 or more years ago. Several of the 'key' players
in both clubs, and KH sprang from BAT when several more 'creative' members got tired of certain procedures. Both clubs died as members moved on, passed on or just got tired of the hobby. As I mentioned previously there was an unhealthy dependence on running at Littlefield's place and after he passed his widow wasted no time in booting the club from 'her' property... There was some scattered activity for a while after but the dependence on a few with no solid club 'home' to call its own it just died. From the very beginning when I formed the precursor club 'AGW' in 1988 I emphasized finding a more permanent
home for the club as the single most important priority but it fell on deaf ears or political ones.....so there it is.

I'm admittedly a loner in the hobby to be honest although I enjoy club events as much as the next guy so if there's an active club here in Northern California I'd be pleased to learn about it as well as surprised. As long as it's not a 'club' based in someone's backyard; I can do that. I'm aware of the SoCal club that meets at a museum. A looong drive away. For a while there was talk of forming a club of sorts that could meet at a military museum in Fairfield, Ca but to my knowledge that came to naught.

Jerry

RichJohnson

A club does not need a home to be able to get together and meet and play.
Our San Diego club has had better battling and people gather than at the LA Tank museum club. We use a vacant field in Mission Bay Park and it has done very well for us.
During the pandemic the park was closed. And then when it opened it was totally taken over by homeless camps and homeless RVers taking all the parking there and the city would not enforce anything due to our now very left leaning politics. Cant mess with the homeless during a pandemic so they let them be.
We were forced to move and found a good home in a vacant field across from a historic RR depot. We had several good meets there and the change of field was a nice change.
Then when the park was cleaned up when covid was declared over we went back and have been holding our battle meets there once again.
Having a fixed location is surely nice but I have proven for many years that it is not necessary at all to have a successful club.

If battling were not an option for RC tanks, I would only have one or two probably, I would not be anywhere near as interested in this hobby if they didnt battle. That is part of what makes building so many different models great, to take them out and battle them. I drive them alot after work in my desert training center and other places but I still focus on the battling aspect most of all.

As for boards going away, I have lots of IBU2s that are carrying on and a whole box of dead ones that I might be able to get repaired but the cost is probably prohibitvie.
I am really fixated on the DK Tank now but it is in short supply for sure.
HL is quickly becoming the standard as long as the operator can follow the 6count LP rule everything works fine.

Its just that now, a good number of my club mates are not able to come out becuase all their clark powered tanks are dead. I am a careful person before I publicly disrespect a product and when the clark issues started to come up I merely hinted that people should look around but after the massive number of failures I have seen in front of me both live and events related to me by my members, I have come to the position clark is not a good product unless you really want to take the chance of alot of headache.

Tanque

Regarding California Bay Area tank clubs Rex Ross who you know from his incredible scratch build threads was way more active
in the local clubs than I was. I haven't heard from him in a while, perhaps he has more information regarding these than I. I'll try dropping him
a line.

Jerry

Rad_Schuhart

Mr. Rich Johnson, I might have some good news for you!
I have been talking a bit with my friend in Danemark that makes his own tank boards. His job is strongly based in the Open Panzer boards, but they come in a neat all-in-one package. That means, soundcard, speed controllers and the board itself are included in a single piece. No need to source for external components.
Supports SBUS, up to 16channels, has CD quality sound, loads of light outputs, is easy to config and... is tamiya protocol compatible!

I should be getting one in I guess 10 days, and Ill be writting a review in my website as usual. But I do believe it can be a great board and a lifesaver for those who need Tamiya battle IR capabilities, at a very reasonable price.

RichJohnson

That sounds really cool. If it works out I’d love to try one out and do some beta testing on it even if I had to return it.

Crius

I'll be paying attention on this one, Rad, if it will handle 12 volts (3S) I might want to try it in some small 1/6 stuff. Maybe an M5 Stuart, or a Bren carrier.

Rad_Schuhart

Hi Crius, I asked my friend and he told me it takes 3S and the ESCs are rated 60A, so it will handle your toys with no problem.
He also told me it might also hold 4S, so you have a decent margin in case you want to use a motorbike battery.

I am attaching one pic of how it looks like. Not much can be seen there, but I can tell you it has a Teensy soundcard, which I also have, and I can testify it has great audio quality. As I wrote, it is able to reproduce files in CD quality, which is superior to Elmod, Clark, Benedini and IBU, and is on pair with Beier and ASP2 (even when the audio files in the ASP were not too good, but that was an issue of the audio files themselves, and not of the board!) It can also play several sounds at the same time.


I believe those small potentiometers are for manually adjusting light intensity in the many light outputs, which is very handy for field adjustements or for those who don't want to mess too much with a computer.

Anyway, there is not a lot more that I can say till I put my hands over it, but so far looks good, like a great alternative.

Crius

It looks good, but it also looks expensive. Is there any chance he'll be able to Market this for 200 Euros or less?

Rad_Schuhart

As far as I know, yes!

Michal_Kaczorowski

I look forward to a review on your website, Rad

Rad_Schuhart

Consider it done!

Shagnifico

The best non-programmable replacement board for a HL board is the tk16. It has all options you need. Not cheap, $150 from toucan hobby.

9 channels

ultrasonic motor whine elimination

two speakers with amplification

tamiya battle system compatible

Machine gun 1 led -mg sound adjustable from tx

machinegun 2 led -mg sound adjustable from tx

Laser output

servo recoil

servo elevation

servo turret rotation

servo remote gun station

three smoke units

Main gun smoke -switchable from tx

proportional engine smoke -switchable from tx

MG-2 smoke unit -switchable from tx

3s support

Supports standard or pdsg type gearbox

turn signals lights

brake lights

rear lights and front lights

autoloader barrel motion -switchable from tx

Rear deck gun barrel avoidance sensor

chassis recoil on/off and 5 levels adjustable from tx

acceleration six levels of adjustment from tx (this is great, engine revs up before it starts rolling, looks very realistic, and no jack rabbit herky jerky)

main gun loading sound switchable

six engine sounds same types as HL 6.0 I think but better quality audio. All sounds, turret/elevation etc. are adjustable independently unlike HL 6.0

gun sounds adjustable independent of engine sound several different gun sounds including auto cannon 25mm like

voice prompts in English or mandarin -switchable

Two axis gun stabilization support-switchable from tx ( you’ll need to buy the tk-swb unit separately if you want gun stabilization, it too is very adjustable)

extra channel, chan9

Airsoft unit support

These are all the features I can think of at the moment but I may have forgot some. No software to mess with. Instructions available in English. If you get the tk16 I recommend also getting the slip ring wire harness. And either insulate the power switch or replace it with an insulated switch. It’s a good switch but it’s not insulated and if you accidentally short it you will kill the board just like a HL board. Also you will need a real radio and receiver. I don’t know why this board isn’t more popular. It fills the void between HL6 and high end boards.

Also, there is incorrect information on the english instructions, the chinese instructions are correct. See here https://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/foru...p?f=81&t=32082

tankme

So I read through the TK16 post and there is no mention of "how" to make the changes to the sounds or changing the acceleration or any of the settings. Having to search for an English translation of the manual would also hinder folks from being interested in it. There is a brushless version of it however I just found on AliExpress. It is an interesting controller. Personally I want it in SBUS, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Shagnifico

If you click on the pdf link in the thread there are control direction, how to enter settings mode etc. The settings menu has voice prompts that are helpful, I wish every aftermarket board had this feature. It takes the guesswork out of adjusting settings. It may have sbus, there is an unidentified port P0. Nobody seems to know what it does. The tk16 has some battery recharging feature that I haven't explored because I don't plan on charging batteries inside of tanks. I use a flysky 10ch reciever on mine. If your heart is set on sbus you can buy a converter, they seem to run about $20 - $40.

Crius

When you say it's tamiya compatible, is it like the rest of the boards and will simply give and take hits, or is it truly tamiya compatible, with separate weight classes and simulated battle damage? To me, just being able to give and take hits doesn't make it compatible enough for a battle scenario. I have a few of the 6.0 boards and I really like them for Airsoft Tanks, they have a lot of good features that we waited a long time for, like being able to turn the lights on and off and disable the track recoil, but until they get more features that can be used with Tamiya tanks I still can't bring myself to call them tamiya compatible. But, with that said, I think you're right that they are still about the best game in town right now. I'll have to look more into the newest boards.

jha13

The Board is Open Panzer based.
Take a look at the Wiki and IR Battle:
https://openpanzer.org/wiki/doku.php...eration:battle

Crius

I know about the open Panzer project, I was one of their beta testers, but that still doesn't tell me if the tk16 is truly tamiya compatible or if it will just give and receive hits.

Rad_Schuhart

Well, I got the parcel with the new board today and the manual via email. It will take me two weeks to test every function and to write in my website, but I am on it. It seems to have every function we might want, including 24 user sounds and... 8 servo outputs! I wonder who could need so many servos ports, but for those needing them, here they are.

Board seems robust, and arrived with a 3D printed case.

tankme

I think I could use a board like that with all those servo ports for a Russian T35 tank with it's multiple turrets...

Rad_Schuhart

Excelent use of the 8 servo ports!

I was thinking the board could also be used for controlling some sort of bunkers and turrets line, controlling each of them individually. Being battle compatible it could be fun in a diorama.

Shagnifico

That's a good question. I haven't tested it, I need to buy another tamiya battle unit.

Michal_Kaczorowski

I wonder if this new board work with brushless motors (original Open Panzers used external ESC so any motor could be used).