Hi All. I need of help with this problem with one HL Tiger 1 , upgraded to S&S:
The tank was operating normally three weeks ago and after the tests , remained turned off until last Saturday when , after turned on( lights blinking) , do not start anymore( after press the start button in the radio, nothing occurs). What I’ve done:
- Replace the battery of the tank and the radio;
- Replace the crystals ;
- Bended the crystals;
- replace the transmitter board;
- use the set of crystals and the radio with others tanks;
-replace the MB and nothing.
All of these procedures didn't result in success – no communication.
Please, if any one of You already experienced something like this or have any suggestion, let me know.
Here some pictures( sorry for the quality):
Thanks in advance, Jeferson

Check data cable, check each plugs pins

Thanks Wacky. Wacky, I tested the volts in this cable and I got the same volts from the baterry. I replaced for another cable too and nothing.
One point should be mentioned: sometimes, bending one small wihte cable in the MB, the lights of and the machine gun didn't operate ( when the tank was ok - three weeks ago).
Thanks Wacky, Jeferson

could be just a cold solder somewhere.

Well just some comments that may help you track down your problem.I'm no expert and offer this as just suggestions and comments
and if anyone see's something thats not right steep in and give your addvice.

First Batterys==== I see a lot of posts here on the forum about batterys and chargers.Over all the ones that come with the tanks and their chargers will operate your tank.Are they great battery's and chargers(they do what they were intended to do).I have yet to get a stock battery that would not run a tank for at least 15 minutes or longer on a short charge for testing(not even a full charge).
If you are going for long run times and indurrance running then you can do what ever as this is not a factor at this point.
Transmitter battery's,if you get a nice red light on the transmitter the batterys are most likely doing their job and it will work great.
Even a weak battery should start your tank,it takes very little power to at least run the sound.(is it good to try and run your tank on a very low charged battery???? Most likely not.!!!)But this is most likely not the reason the tank will not at least start up and the lights
will stop flashing and you will get the start up sound.

If the lights are flashing on the tank,you have a nice bright red light on the transmitter and you push the start button and NOTHING I think you can rule out batterys.Your problem is elsewhere.????

Crystals==== With out a proper compattable working matched set of crystals you are going nowhere.I don't know how to test these other than have another working tank and by swapping them out and test them.I change out both the transmitter and receiver
first to see if the tank will now work with a crystal swap.(don't just swap them out one at a time,do them both at the same time).If this cures the problem I would not try to determin which crystal is bad because they are sold in sets anyway and I would not want to try and salvage a crystal from a bad set.

If you have another( known working tank) with a (known working transmitter) and (known working crystals)and you have changed the crystals and used the working transmitter and it still will not fire up (just blinking lights,no start up),You should then be able to rule out a BAD==== Transmitter or crystal set.

Now where does that leave you at this point ???

THE BOARDS===== If the lights are FLASHING,you know power is getting (at least to the big board).The little board gets its power by way of the three wire jumper between the two boards.Where you had allready run your tank prior to having a problem I would assume this jumper is in working condition(but I would use a tester on each wire to make sure of contanuity on each one).If this jumper proves to be good then comes the question == ARE THE BOARDS BOTH IN WORKING ORDER====
Myself I know nothing about boards and how one can test them,other than changing them out with another set.(I have received new boards that were also defective)???? These boards are sold as sets and I would never buy a new set and try to inter change a board from a tank you were having problems with with a new set. (change out the SET,don't just do them one at a time).I have had them FRY for no appearent reason just after turning on the tank,so don't take the chance of burning up a new board by replacing just one board at a time.(WHICH BOARD MADE IT FRY, ???? I have never figured this out so I don't take the chance on a new board by not changing them out as a set).

Hope this in some way will help you find your problem. REGUARDS and best of luck BIGMIG


P.S. when the lights flash and you get nothing from the start button I always lean towards ( CRYSTAL PROBLEMS).This has happened to me on several occassions. BIGMIG [:-]

Hi JIDM
Can I ask you to try the following steps
1) Turn tank an TX OFF.
2) wait for 60 seconds
3) Turn Tank on ONLY
4) Do the lights flash?
5) Turn the transmitter ON
6) Do the lights flash?
7) Press ignition
8) Do the lights flash?


Can you report back please against steps 4, 6 and 8

Yours Simon M.

Thank you for the help BigMig.
Well, I´ve tryied everything you suggested and the tank still bad. As you mentioned,I probably mixed the MB and its transmiters boards but i tryied the transmitter board form the bad tank in another and its operate. Other point: When i turn on the tank, I can hear a noise, coming from the speaker, when the lights are blinking. Thank you for the suggestion of replace the set of board instead of one only. I will try with my another transmitter boards and write down here tomorrow night.
Thank you again BigMig, Jeferson

Thank you Simon for the suggestions. Here are the results: 4) lamps blinking; 6) lamps still blinking; 8) lamps still blinking without the start up of the tank.
Tomorrow night I will upgrade a PZIII with S&S and Will have the confirmation for the mixed boards. I will not give up.
Thank you again Simon,

Just make sure the crystal in the tank and he crystal in the transmitter match up (same number on them) or you wont get anywhere

I think that somewhere deep in the manual it says

Yours Simon M.

YEs Wacky, I've tried with a set #1 and #3.
Thanks, Jeferson

Problem Fixed. Trust me , my crystal sets #1 e #3 had one bad crystal each. Replacing for a set alrady installed in another tank everything was ok.
Thank you all, mainly BigMig and Simon for the trobleshooting guide.
JEferson

I thought if you stayed with it you would find the problem.Good job and I'm glad it was just something that simple to fix.


BIGMIG

Great to hear, something simple and cheap. Everything you had said led me back to the crystals, it was as if the set was mismatched or not inserted - but you got there in the end!!

Thanks BigMig. JEferson

Thank you Wacky,
JEferson

I wonder if its AM crystals instead of FM crystal problem.
I don't know of any way to inspect crystals to find out what type it is. Can any one shed some light on this?

Yours Simon M

Hi Simon.
I've done a test: I removed one crystal(#2) from one spare radio and inserted it in a tank(sure I removed the insert adapter too). Well, I used my day-to-day radio in the same frequency (#2) and the tank didn't start up with this crystal removed from a radio. Appears that there is not a "universal" compatibility .
Note: I repeated the test with one second spare radio and the tank didn't start again.
What do you think?
thanks,
Jeferson

Hi Jeferson
when you say
What is the spare radio is controlling? Is it a working HL, or some other RC model?

Yours Simon M.

All Heng Long things.
Thanks,
JEferson

When you say
do you mean 1/16 Tanks?

Yes Simon, All Heng Long(radios, crystals, 1:16tanks). Please, try this test: If you have two HL 1:16 tanks with the same frequency#, remove the crystal from one radio and intall it in the tank. Using the other radio(same frequency), try start up the tank.
Thanks,
Jeferson

Hi Jeferson,
I must admit that I've not tried that experiment. Some time ago I decided that HL crystals are at best weak, and replaced them all for HPI FM ones. They did cost a bit, but then the reliability went up!

What I was wondering is if some 'AM' crystals had got in to the mix, and these will definitely NOT work. HL electronics is FM only, and I don't know of an easy way to spot an FM crystal.

Yours Simon M.

I will try your experiment sometime & report back.

The earlier WSN crystals are marked "AM" but work in HL tanks, so I assume it's just a misprint...

Interesting wackywheelz,
When I looked at the HL receiver board (TK-YL101) it has a MC3361BP chip on it which is a FM decoder, and the transmitter uses a classic FM oscillator circuit, hence my assumption. Now you have me confused!

Yours Simon M.