Has anyone tried to tiea servo into the dmd on Tamiya tanks to control elevation and or rotation instead of using the motors supplied?

Yeah, Bob can fill you in on all the specifics. i have the 2 channel controller you need to use it if you want it Joe.

2 channel??

Yellowshaker
Just take a servo of your choice and remove the electronics and just solder two wires direct to the motor and then you can run it off the Tamiya DMD Unit .
What you are doing is creating a gear head motor .

Jimmy

Thanks bowlman! I was thinking that it could be done that way. Now I have a few other options to make some thigns work.

you can do that if you hack the servo to basically make it a dumb gear head motor. by bypassing the potentiometer and , if necessary removing the hard stops n the gear head. you cannot drive it directly from the DMD if the servo control electronics are still functional.

I removed the servo control electronics on the servo that runs my Porsche Turret KT and hooked to a DMD it runs fine .

Jimmy

Man, that sounds like a lot of waste to turn a servo into a DC gearbox. Unless you're under space constraints, why not just use the Tamiya components unless you have junk servos on hand ?

servos are stronger, no clutches, the small ones take up less space, and they actually can cost a lot less then the tamiya lifts. $8-10 bucks. so it is space and cost effective. also mounting is sometimes easier. a little more work is involved but i like using them.

yes i don't get the problem also not, in a clutchsystem you can use the dmd controler, wipe out the mechanical speed controler with servo and get the dmd wired to the motors, i did it with a car electronic speedcontroler this is a equivalent of the dmd but it was on that moment the only thing i had on hand
i don't take any space my electronic speedcontroller can take 55mAh more than enough for a tank. It was originaly from my robbe's Testarossa at 1/10

it can't be simpler than that, cut of the wires and solder them to the tam DMD even with clutch motors
one servo out of service one to go

Thanks, that makes sense......but why ruin a servo? Can't you use a Y splitter, whether self made or pre-made at the connection point of thereceivergoing to the DMD and servos? The supplied voltage from the battery thru the DMD unit should besufficient, provided all connections are made to the receiver via DMD, right? Would be no different than hooking up a servo to remaining open channels of a 5x, 6x or 7xreceiver. I've been meaning to try this, but I just don't have any more servo plugs to experiment and don't feel like fiddling with my Leo or Pershing at this point, but will try this if no one can confirm by the time I get to my KT.

Nono with the DMD you may not use the transmitter it is in the tam system, don't know why exactly but i geuss they given sort of radiosignals that could interfear within .... rivetcounter do you have a opinion on this am i right in that? Not shore of it

Well I'm so glad I didn't cut into anything on the DMD, that's for sure!<div></div><div>It does work, but the mapping from thereceiverto thru the DMD crosses hairs somewhere. Put the turret rotation on left stick channel and hooked up the turret rotation motors, then wedged the servo wires into the servo plug coming from the DMD into the receiver. Nothing happens to the servo with the left stick but the turret rotation motors are turning, but if I turn left or right on the right stick, I can control the servo. Not an electronics/rc pro so I can't explain that, but that's what happened.</div><div></div><div>Anyway, as a side note....fired up the King Tiger sounds while I had the DMD out for the first time.......gotta be honest here. Other than start up and shut down....not that pleased with it.</div>

it's the real sound tony you can't change the maybach sound, but its not that bad either, the mato kt starts as a sherman far more disappointing don't you think

Yeah, servo's are definitely stronger than the Tamiya elevation and traverse units. I am rethinking my Pershing conversion mod to include a small servo instead of the HL elevation unit I have hooked up to my Tamiya recoil unit. The space is supprisingly small in the turret of the Pershing, and the HL elevation unit, (the type for the Stug) is rather long. I have a couple of servos lying around so I think i'll try this out. <div> I also ordered that new 2.4 Radio from Hobby people that Joe was talking about. We'll see how it works. that is really all I need to finish the old Black Jack.</div>

Ahh, finally came to your senses? lol Thought you said you'd stick with the Futaba one, lol....

Didn't know Joe got one, anyway,....the transmitter works great, you'll like it. I've had it for close to a month now and I really wish I had gotten two (like YHR did) at the time so my KT would have one. Areceiveralone costs 49.99-59.99 bucks....why not just get the whole damn thing for 49.99? lol

Well Tony, it's like this, the radio was really the only thing from keeping me from finishing the tank so i figured what the heck. I still like my Futaba;s I know I can get parts for them and know how to do the firing button mods so we shall see. I will know in less than a blink of an eye if this radio is junk or knot. Then I'll let you know.

I hope their not junk, I ordered a pair of them with the center left stick mod.

I wasn't aware that they had the center left stick mod available. Atleast I know it can be done. With the Pershing I am less concerned with this as it will not be one of my main battle tanks, just a fun toy to play with. I have the momentum chips in both my Panther and tiger MBT's so I'm used to the tank not starting or stopping on a dime. I liked the idea of being able to set the throttle and let the tank creep along on it's own but this is kinda scary witha 1000.00 $ plus highly upgraded Tamiya Panther. My biggest concern is will you be able to use the 5th channel toggle switch for the guns, like you do when you add the fire control buttons to the futaba Skysport radios. <div> You may need to replace the toggle with a momentary toggle switch, which is not that big of a deal. It all depends on how the trims are wired on this radio.</div>

The mod cost $20, I use right stick for tank movement and left stick for main gun/turret. Please let us know how the 5th channel mod goes Panther.

Well 20.00 dollars puts this radio only 20.00 dollars shy of a Skysport 2.4 once shipping is factored in. So i still say the Futaba 2.4 skysport is the better choice.