Hi, anyone can tell me what went wrong?

I connected the booster, TLS and blaster according to instruction. The TLS seems to be working properly - Turret rotation and elevation ok, BUT the Booster seems to have problem. When I push the control stick or the directional stick, the command LED lights up, but there is no voltage going to the motors at all. Also no engine starting up sound at all when I switch on the Tx followed by the tank. []

Just found out that the booster is working, but the problem is actually caused by the sound blaster switching the engine to off by default.

According to the instructions, I should move the left lever to the left lower position to switch on the engine. Tried but there is no response...no engine starting sound...nothing...[sm=confused.gif][sm=confused.gif]

Maybe you shld go full lower trim to the left stick and then full lower positionon the left stick and see what happens.

Hi,

Do you run Think Tank Prop or Think Tank Prop CH6?

Check your radio:

1. Correct "mode"?
2. Correct servo direction ?

Regards

Jake

I'm running Thinktank Pro (M).

Tried unplugging the Blaster, and the tank works perfectly - After switching on the tank, it is able to move properly, and the turret also function ok. So I guess the issue is how to ignite the engine when the Blaster is connected... I'm wondering why it won't respond to the Tx's diagonal input...[]

BTW, I'm using a Mode 1 4chn TX.

Hi Calvinlo,

Startup sequense is different for Prop and PropCH6

If you use TT Prop: "Other functions (engine ignition, light control) are mapped to diagonals of channels 3 and 4"

If TT PropCH 6: "Channel 6: engine ignition, light control"

From: http://www.el-mod.de/faq.php?p_id=0&...5497e46c1b187a

Regards

Jake

Hmmm...by diagonals of channels 3 and 4, are you saying the same thing as the answer given by Elmod FAQ section below?

Question: The tank keeps not moving after installation of the Blaster. The turret works fine!
Answer: If a Blaster is installed, the engine has to be "ignited". Move the left stick to the uper left corner for HL-electronics (down-left for proportional) to turn the engine on and off.

If that's what you mean, I've already tried pushing the left (or right) stick down left...but the tank does not respond. [&o]

Yes, but if your servo direction is wrong the lights should go on/off instead.
And if you got El-Mod PropCH6, nothing would happend when you go for "down left corner"

From Thomas at ElMod:

Case 1: Booster/TLS C6 Prop and Blaster II -> 8 channels:
Channel 1 - Booster acceleration
Channel 2 - Booster steering
Channel 3 - TLS C4 turret rotation
Channel 4 - TLS C4 gun elevation
Channel 5 - TLS C4 shot (low: MG, high: gun)
Channel 6 - TLS C4 further functions (high: engine on/off, full low: front light on/off, half low: optional light on/off)
Channel 7 - Blaster user sounds 1+2
Channel 8 - Blaster user sounds 3+4

Case 2: Booster/TLS, Prop Wire Set and Blaster II -> 6 channels:
Channel 1 - Booster acceleration
Channel 2 - Booster steering
Channel 3 - TLS C4 turret rotation
Channel 4 - TLS C4 gun elevation (half way up and down), shot (full up: gun, full down: MG)
Channel 3+4 diagonals: up+left -> engine on/off, down+left->front light on/off, down+right->optional light on/off
Channel 5 - Blaster user sounds 1+2
Channel 6 - Blaster user sounds 3+4

Regards

Jake

Mine is the Booster Prop 4Ch. So pushing the stick lower left should work right? By chance do you think the problem has to do with the setup on my transmitter, which is as follows:

Mode 1
Elevator up/down - Booster Accelation
Rudder - Booster Steering
Aileron - Turret left/right
Throttle - Gun elevation

proportional RC-set cable set which allows the connection to a common RC receiver with at least 4 channels.
The channel layout is as follows:
Channel 1: Booster acceleration
Channel 2: Booster steering
Channel 3: turret rotation
Channel 4: half deflection - main gun elevation (up/down), full deflection - main gun shot and MG shot.
Other functions (engine ignition, light control) are mapped to diagonals of channels 3 and 4.
When the sound module ThinkTank Blaster is installed, two further channels can be optionally connected for user defined samples.
Minimum number of channels: 4

Hope that helps I will be offline for a while...

The Blitz

Hi Calvinlo,

Yes, lower left should work. Mode1 also ok.

I have same setup as you and PropCH4. My radio (Graupner MC14) have a predifinied program with mixers, this caused some problems for me in the beginning.

Maybe you could post some pics off your installation?

Regards

Jake

Yikes! I had no idea this was so complicated...

Been trying to trouble-shoot the system for the past 4 days...and it's really quite frustrating at times...

Thus far - I have tested the booster and the TLs separately with the Blaster, and they all seems to work flawlessly. With the Booster and blaster, the tank engine self-ignites with sound and moves. With TLS and Blaster, the turret functions with the canon and MG sound. So now I think the problem is narrowed to only 2 possible causes:

1) There is something wrong with my Tx, which I got it cheap for use with my aircraft quite some time back. Somehow the diagonal input is not enough to trigger the ignition.
2) There is something wrong with the Blaster, which cannot accept diagonal input from the Tx.

What else did I missed? []

Btw what TX are you using? Is it a computer radio? Does ift have end point adjustments, if you do not have these, try the trims together with the full stick throws, this might help. Btw we would love to take a closer look at your system when you get it running and see how they run compared to a tamiya.

Will be asking devils grin to liase with you on when youare free. If all else fails maybe we can take a look at it and help you trouble shoot too.

Hmmm...I posted a reply yesterday to say that I've already solved the problem. What happened to it? Seems that it just disappeared. Anything wrong with the forum? Hackers???[&:]

Anyway, as mentioned yesterday in my post that disappeared, I pointed out that the problem was caused mainly by the Tx confusion and some mistakes in the elmod manual.

Tx Confusion

In the elmod manual it gives the following connection to the receiver:

• Connect the four cables of the multi-connector cable P2 in the following
way:
cable black/brown: channel 1, acceleration (right stick, vertical)
cable red: channel 2, steering (right stick, horizontal)
cable yellow: channel 3, canon lift (left stick, vertical)
cable orange: channel 4, turret rotation (left stick, horizontal)

So I obediently followed the instructions - black/brown to channel 1, red to channel 2...etc, that is a big mistake. I forgot that on my TX, channel 1 is NOT right stick vertical, but right stick horizonal. Also, my channel 2 is NOT right stick horizontal, but left stick vertical...

After 4 frustrating days [:@] I finally decided to do it MY way. Black/brown to rightstick vertical? OK, let me check what channel is right stick vertical on my TX, and then connect accordingly on the receiver...the same goes with the rest of the cables

Finally, after connecting everything, time to try again...sigh. Now according to Elmod's FAQ section, here's how you are supposed to ignite the engine:

Question: The tank keeps not moving after installation of the Blaster. The turret works fine!
Answer: If a Blaster is installed, the engine has to be "ignited". Move the left stick to the uper left corner for HL-electronics (down-left for proportional) to turn the engine on and off.

So...I pushed the left stick to the lower left position...AND NOTHING. Not even a puff. Well, what's new, right? So, out of instinct, I just pushed the left stick to Upper Left...AND SUDDENLY, the tank roars into life!!!! [X(] It turns out that for my Tx, I need to push left stick upper left to ignite engine and lower left to switch on/off the light. Very strange...I'am not using HL electronics, and yet...

Anyway, here's the first video of my Panzer III running...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnnf7aylAog



It's not running outdoor yet becasue I'm not done on the Panzer III. Still got to think of a way to squeeze the Blaster's boombox into the tank. I'm using the stock speaker at the moment, and it sounds horrible compared to the blaster boombox. The interior is SO CRAMP that I don't think I can add on the CSI module...

Oh there was an attackto teh forum somewhere last night and the forums admins reloaded the forums to the last safe point, thus some of our post our missing.

Nice tank with the sound and all, btw was it easy to download the audio files into teh el mod set up or were they pre loaded for you? You did not get the el mod battle circuit? Anyway great that you figured out your problem. I think el-mods set up is mainly for peoply using futable layout thus the channel mix up. I know that when I was building my pershing(tamiya) I had to re map them as I was using a sanwa controller then.

The sound effects for 4 tanks (Tiger, Pershing, Panzer III and T-34) are already preloaded into the SD card that came with the system, but I can download more sound profiles from elmod website if I want e.g. Sherman.

I bought the battle circuit as well (known as CSI) BUT...I don't have space to squeeze in another circuit anymore![:@] The Panzer III interior is so cramp, I couldn't even put in the elmod's speaker, which will have sounded MUCH MUCH better than HL miserable speaker. [&o]

Currently, I'm using Futaba TX and WFLY Tx (for my KT running on Tamiya). Both have the same channel allocations for the two control sticks. That's why I encountered the problem when tried to follow the instructions from Elmod strictly.

Anyway, the Panzer III is not completed yet. Still have to:

1) Add gun flashes with white LED
2) Change to Metal Gearbox.
3) Re-do some stock wirings which are getting loose. I'm really lousy with soldering...[:-]
4) Add LED MG

But frankly, I'm struggling whether to migrate the Elmod system to a bigger chasis e.g. Tiger, T-34, Pershing...etc in order to use the Elmod speaker. [&o]Thus far, only my Panzer III is running on metal track, but I just can't forget the SOLID sound effect from the elmod speaker...[sm=thumbup.gif]

Hi Calvinlo,

How do you change the sound effects when you switch tanks, is there a built in
switch for this purpose in the ELMOD?

jumpers - change between 6 (or 8, i forget) different sample sets quick and easily. 80 samples per "set"

Hmmmm, I take it that you are runnning a NiCD or NIMH batt, else you can remove the battery bay and use lipo instead, that is if you have a lipo charger to start with. The other thing you can try is to change out teh speaker. I found a speaker from sim lim towers that is a 8ohm 0.25W same size as the HL's 8 ohm 1W speaker but some how with the lower watt rating i am getting a louder sound(not much louder)

Btw I noticed a potentia meter in front of your gear boxes, what is that for? Are you using the original elevation mechanism from teh HL tank? If the BB gun is disabled maybe removingteh bulk of it will allow you to mount the circuit there? The PZ 3 is too nice a tank not to battle with. Is there a port on teh el-mod to cater for the flash LED? Sorry about the 20 questions but am very curious about the elmod stuff and have been looking at them for a while but teh price was a lil too steep for me.

Maybe if I see it in real one of these days it will push me to get the set. I run my PZ3 with Darkiths battle circuits but seeing your tank firing with out that krazy jerk makes me think twice about upgrading it.

Yep...I'm currently using Ni-Cd. Yah...maybe I'll take out the battery bay and switch to Lipo. I have a couple of them which I use for my Blade CX2. As for substituting the elmod speaker for something else, never thought of that [X(] because after hearing the sound that came from it a few days back, I really don't think anything will match it IMHO. It really sounds very solid (like Altec Lansing PC speakers [sm=thumbs_up.gif]) because of the boombox. No matter what, I'll try to remove the stock speaker and squeeze it in...

The potentiameter is for volume adjustment of the speaker. The gun LED (any LED) can be easily connected to the TLS module via a connector. I did thought of removing the airsoft gun too to make space, but the problem is - the entire gun elevation system will be affected because it uses the airsoft gun as a hinge to move the barrel up/down. Hmm...maybe there's a way to remove it without affected the elevation.

Yah...the Panzer III is very nice (my favorite thus far too), BUT wait till you see the PANZER IV when it is properly painted/weathered and running on metal gears and tracks, then maybe you will change your mind.

Hi Calvinlo,

Glad to hear you sorted things out[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Get a microservo (for parkflyers) and hook it up with the sound pot so you can adjust sound from the radio. Maybe my scratch builded recoil unit could give an idea for gun elevation problem?

Regards

Jake

There's space enough between the gearboxes for two ElMod boards and the blaster will fit where the smoke unit is.

A BIG thanks to you guys who gave me great help and advise!

I must admit that when I first setup the elmod system on my tank, the first priority was to make sure that everything would run properly. That's why I did not give much thought to issues e.g. 'Where am I going to place my elmod speaker?', 'How should I run the wirings?'...etc

Now that everything is running as it should, I'll be bringing my tank back to the workshop for a week to redo everything, including upgrading the tank to metal gears and gun barrel flashes, as well as carving out space for the battle unit module.

Hopefully, you guys can see a better Panzer III next week.

Great work Calvino,

Glad to see you could work through all the problems, Jake has been a huge help and I am learning more and more myself!

The Blitz[sm=shades_smile.gif]