hi all,

i was just wondering if anyone has fitted the Tamiya RC system into a H/L tank? I was watching and reading a review of the system (the hot rod pershing!) and I was intrigued.

thanks

Matt

Check it out.

http://web.mac.com/ksoc/S.C.A.T./Special_Projects.html

One of RCU's members, [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/profile.cfm?memid=345589]johnmar[/link], has with a few of his tanks (Tamiya bits in HL bodies, and other mix-n-match tanks) - what particular features are you interested in?

Here is EL MOd with its large variety of sounds installed in a couple of Heng Long tanks! You can use the Heng Long boards or Not!

The first install was performed by RCTankWars chief EL MOD engineer Bullyhys ( Merle ) And the second ( The Bulldog ) the customer did on his own with our help!, and he did an excellent job!

The Blitz

RCTankWars.com

wow guys thanks for the info

what is this El Mod you speak of? I have heard it referred to many times on this forum.....yet I don't know what it does!

The main features I'm after are the sweet assed sound effects from the Tamiya Tiger. I tire a bit of the HL generic noises :P

the answer to your question is yes. i and many others have put the tamiya electronics into heng long and other bodies. I have 4 units using Tamiya, two with El-Mod, One DGS ready to install, and one "Darkith unit" installed and two ready for installation. it is very easy to do and is very modular if a bit bulky. the el-mod system as Blitz will elaborate is a group of smaller packages that has a more extensive range of capabilities and is a bit smaller over all but there are a few more cables. The el-mod system is about 50-20,0 bucks cheaper depending on your sources, and has a much better selection of sounds representing more types of tanks plus custom recording capability.

El-mod is compatible with tamiya battle system (send, receives hits between systems). it is a German product.

Which is better? IMHO For overall capabilty the El-Mod, for ease of installation- the Tamiya system. Which is more inexpensive and has greater growth potential - the El-Mod.

Back to you Blitz

Kclank,

A great summary I could not have said it better myself! Here is a longer version so folks can understand some of the functions if provides! Maybe i should put this in the FAQ section???

Basically EL MOD adds more realism to your tank for you and for someone observing the tank, it also is very reliable and I have not heard one case of someone blowing a board other then from neglect or abuse. Back to the realism part, they have designed the drive chip to control your motors to sense the surface drive conditions to optimize the power to the motors, that combined with a sound for almost every different move that you make with you transmitter, it is extremely realistic! Some of the sounds are, cannon blast, machine gun, turret sound, elevation, recoil, reload, and chain sounds for your drive wheels that change with the speed of the tank. The engine sounds that has been recorded off of the real tank or a recording of the real tank that also changes with the speed you are driving or if you are making a turn slow or fast if reflects that in the engine! Let me give you an example of how detailed they are with the sounds, you can shut you tanks engine off and still use the turret and shoot the cannon just like you can a real tank! In a real tank you would have to use the hand crank if your engine is off! EL MOD changes the turret sound to a hand crank turret sound when the engine is off!
Every movement responds better, it is tuned in much better even if you stay with your Heng Long radio! So you can add it on to your Heng long electronics and keep your Heng Long radio & smoker unit or you can get one of the Prop systems and use a High-end radio and completely remove your Heng long electronics! Another cool feature is with the Afterburner or the BIG Booster, it gives you the ability to run larger motors without blowing up your boards! It is pricey, but it is comparable to Tamiya electronics and it takes the realism way beyond Tamiya. EL MOD CSI IR Battle unit is fully compatible with Tamiya IR and EL MOD has an Extended battle mode that goes way beyond Tamiya where your sensors can sense if the IR shot hits the turret then only the turret motor goes out, if the shot hits the left side, then only the left track weakens or is disabled. This is a long explanation but it is a very complex system, and I am sure that I missed something!


The Blitz

You continents EL MOD distributor


RCTankWars.com

Blitz,

If I was to junk all my HL electrics and fit the El Mod system prop, what Radio system would you recommend? Would it be 4 channel and what switches on a Transmitter would replace the three on the bottom of a HL transmitter that are used for start up/shutdown, gun-recoil, and machine gun?

Thanks.

thesungoesdown,

I thought I would chime in here and say a lot would depend what you have in mind with your tank functions.

If you use the standard PROP version(4-chan) then any 4-6 channel radio will do the job with no problems.

If you use the PROP6 version then some decisions need to be made or you need to locate a radio that has knobs for two of the last channels(ex Ch5,ch6, or ch7)

I found that that the Hi-Tec Eclipse7 will do the job just fine. I do use the Spektrum DX6 with the PROP6 EL-Mod but I did make some sacrefaces, as in no machine gun function, and no lights. This is of course dependant on what type of tank being used.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

bullyhys

Hey thesungoesdown Futaba Attack 4 channel or even the Hitec laser 4 will work!

Check out this manual it is pretty clear left hand side!

http://www.rctankwars.com/Pdf/prop_english.pdf

Let me kwow if you have any other questions!

The Blitz

I have two tanks with full ElMod systems in them. One with the Afterburner and the other the BigBooster. If you are going to add metal tracks/wheels and such it would be best to budget for the BigBooster straight away- it performs much better. Elmod is a fantastic system but it does have a few, not faults but 'disappointments'.

After taking hits in Tamiya compatible mode, the tank slows down just like Tamiya Tanks do but Elmod does not make any 'engine stuttering' sounds to go with the slowed action.

Elmod system does not 'rock' the tank back on its wheels when firing (although it might if you keep the HengLong electronics - I don't know).

And finally the Elmod does not use the full 7.2 volts to run motors etc. I think someone on this forum said in runs 5.5 volts or something like that. Anyway, I've found that this gives a scale speed for a tank but the motors don't get the same 'ooomph' as a Tamiya system (hence the recommendation to get the BigBooster version). Also if you use a Tamiya recoil unit you will find that the recoiling action is noticably slower (as is the turret turning function too).

Not serious I know but something to keep in mind when making a choice.

Regards

Chris

The 5.5v thing is for the "Tiger" settings only I think?

Hello Chris,

Those are some good points but I can clear up a few of them! I will request that with all the sounds and technology the EL MOD guys should be able to have the sound make a better impact effect it does register a cool hit sound but the over all effect can be approved!

You can keep the Heng Long Rock if you keep the Heng Long boards, I beleive someone correct me it that is not true!??

The Recoil unit is adjustible by the amount of diodes you have added to the negative line! DID you use 5 diodes I as going to try only 3! And if makes a big differance I was doing some testing with this on my WSN recoil system in my Pershing!

What Turret motor are you using I am using the Heng Long turret motor and I have not noticed that is any different then the competition?

Swathdiver ( James ) has a post where his data shows that using the large motors with EL MOD gives you almost the same power as a 7.2 volts system but the motors run much more effeciently and of course built for scale speed! The units are not designed for speed, I will conceed if you ant a race car buy Tamiya if you want to climb a 45 degree slope buy EL MOD and the Big Booster is a great place to start!

The Blitz[sm=shades_smile.gif]

Many Thanks for your input Chris,

The advice with regards to fitting a Bigbooster straight away does make sense. I would only want to run metal tracks to start with and retain the standard wheels. However if the tank started to become heavier, with the use of further metal upgrades, then it would do harm at all in having the Bigbooster already in place.

right this is all very interesting stuff, I now know what El Mod is

bullyhys,

The tank functions I had in mind are just the run of the mill really. Machine gun, firing the main gun, I'm not bothered about lights and at a later date, I would want to fit a battle system. I was hoping some sort of standard prop 4 channel radio system would do and if there are any difficulties/pitfalls in removing the HL electrics and doing this, or is it fairly straight forward to replace. Blitz sent me the el mod prop manual and the instructions look easy enough.
Thanks.

Hi Blitz

Yes it would be great if Elmod released an upgrade that would emit 'damaged' engine noises when hit just like Tamiya. Perhaps they will. I've Used Elmod in my HL Panzer III and am building my VVSS Sherman with Elmod electronics. Reducing the diodes on the recoil unit does help a bit (I've got down to using zero diodes now!). The Tamiya recoil system is sluggish anyway (not prototypical at all) but Elmod seems to slow it further. I might try the recoil spring upgrade that ETO stock or even the 'all in one' recoil unit designed for HL PzIII and PzIV (see pics).

I've used the stock HL turret motor in my PzIII and it is v-e-r-y s-l-o-w. Not that I'm too bothered about the PzIII though as the real thing only used hand cranking to turn the turret so I figured that that would be about the right speed anyway. My Sherman though is a different matter. I'm using a Tamiya turret turning motor and gearbox. Although it turns faster than the HL PzIII, it is still too slow. I might see if I can replace the Tamiya motor with another one with higher revs or using two relays to switch the turret motor using all 7.2 volts. I'll have to experiment a bit.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Regards

Chris

Chris,

I was thinking about trying the unit from ETO myself, it is supose to be better then the even the stock Tamiya unit! What about the Heng Long recoil unit have you hooked that up to EL MOd, I need to order one, but I was hoping to order a bunch but not reply to my e-mail on that!!!
Oh and what EL MOD system are you using the Thinktank Booster/TLS/ HL (M)???

Phil

Hi Phil
My HL PzIII has the ThinkTank Prop with BlasterII, TLS and CSI (and I recently added the Afterburner)
My VVSS Sherman has ThinkTank Prop Booster, also with TLS, BlasterII and CSI too.

The ETO recoil unit is made by Wecohe and is an upgrade for the Tamiya recoil system. I have one fitted to my Tiger II and it really does jump back smartly and then slowly return to battery position. Very realistic. I think I might get another one for my Sherman project. I don't know about the HL one - it certainly looks good and might be worth a try. Perhaps someone on this forum has bought and fitted one and could let us know the pros and cons.

Chris

I've just noticed that borealis has already shown how the HL Recoil system works. Here's a link to a demo of it working on a HL PzIV

http://tank-modellbau.de/Panzer4.wmv