Can someone tell me the benefits of a tk22 over standard board?
 

Hello

I'm new to tanks, but old to RC. Been doing planes and helis. Caught a video on youtube of a 1/6 scale tank and fell in LOVE. I would really, really, really like to have one. But, not unless my imaginary rich uncle dies!

Bought a Taigen scratch and dent Tiger from Eric. Played with it a little, and now I'm looking to upgrade. I want to smooth out operation by using my DX7. Also improve sound. Like the Benedini mini.

Have watched MANY videos on different types of boards. The TK22 is in my price range. Only video that came close to giving enough info was in German.
Can someone tell me all the benefits of the TK22? Also the draw backs.


Thank you.

The TK 22 is complete upgrade board that will replace the Taigen electronics. It has Tamiya style IR battling standard and comes with a decent sound platform. It is not programmable and the engine transitions sounds are a bit canned, but it is low cost. The biggest drawback people have is the fact that the standard format and all the instructions are based on a stick mapping that is not that intuitive. This can be altered, so you can use it like a Tamiya or Heng Long, but once you do this you need to determine exactly what stick input does what.

The Can Am club in Canada has a pile of these in use.

Cheers

One of the interesting feature of the TK22 is that you can fully operate your tank with the engine sounds " OFF "; which allows you to use a Benedini TBS mini for better engine sounds...
Many tankers are using the TK22 / TBS mini combo...

Here's the one in my Pershing: https://youtu.be/yhJsDoPb4Hw

The TK22 is a pretty good board at a good price that's small and easy to fit into small tanks and it gives you things the standard board doesn't, like speed control on turret rotation and elevation, and the ability to turn your lights and engine sound on an off from the TX. They're available from OKC tanks and Nathan is pretty cool and provides great service with very fast shipping.

With that said, I own a TK22 as well as a couple of IBU2s and for my money the IBU2 is well worth the extra money. The sounds (and just about every other function) are easily changeable and programmable simply by removing the SD card and changing the files. To be fair, I haven't tried the clark with the TBS mini but I do know that the sounds of the IBU totally blow away the sounds on the stock TK22. Then there's the Asp, a brand new board that looks very promising, but I haven't been able to get my hands on one yet and I'm afraid that by the time Kevin gets done improving it the darn thing will cost twice as much as the TK22.

My other big problem with the TK22, and the reason I haven't bought a second one, is that I don't like the way it drives. That's probably mostly me, and I do plan to give it another try with throttle on one stick and steering on the other to see if that makes it easier for me, but for now it's very difficult for me and I would never go into battle with this board, even though many others do so quite successfully. The IBU2 drives exactly the same as a stock Imex tank and that's a lot easier for me to drive. The TK22 is just way too touchy when it comes to turning and I find myself constantly jumping into super spin. Guys have said I should disable the spin, but I want the option, just when I tell it to and not when it feels like it. I'm hosting a battle at my place tomorrow so if you can wait a couple days I'll get some video for you specifically of the two hobby grade boards I have so you can better make up your own mind. If you want to give me an idea of any other questions you have or a specific thing you'd like to see video and comparison of I'll do my best to accommodate you.

Welcome to the wonderful addiction of RC Tanks, if you have any trouble at all please feel free to PM me any time you need to and I'll do my best to help.

Gary

Thanks Dan. Have been on your site also.

I don't plan on doing any battling. Just running around the yard.
You say you can alter the stick movements? The original taigen boards stick movements aren't too bad.
I would like to use one stick for turret and barrel only. Put recoil on a separate switch (channel).

That is one thing that I don't like about the Taigen. Nothing runs without the sound on.

Nice tank. How are your wood floors holding up?;)

Thanks for the info, and the offer Gary. I would really appreciate a short video on the pros and cons of each. I have watched several of your videos.

What I want to achieve.. one stick throttle and steering that I can use exponential on. One stick turret and barrel, also be able to move the barrel up or down from where I left it. And not have to 'cycle' it. Separate channels for recoil and M gun. Lastly, VERY good sound.

Which one, TK22 or ICBU would come close to this?

Hey Scratchwerk, if that screen name means what I think you should get together with Rex Ross, another forum member that's an incredibly talented scratchbuilder.

So what can we call you besides Scratchwerk? That's way too many letter for someone as lazy as I am. :)

As for videos, I already did a side by side comparison of the IBU2 and the TK22 so you might want to check out this thread

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...uad-video.html

and if that doesn't answer all your questions just let me know and tell me exactly what you'd like to see and I'll do a video for ya. Both boards have most of what you're looking for as far as control, but I've had trouble with the TK22 when I have both throttle and steering on the same stick, so that's why I'm gonna try it the other way and see how I like it. I have a couple of halftracks that drive like that, throttle on left stick an steering on the right and they work pretty well so I'll have to see if I can get used to that in a tank.

We at CanAm have a couple of wizards that have done wonders with the Clark and controls using a Turnigy 9X

We have main gun on back right spring switch, MG on front right switch, lights on left front switch and some guys even have a volume pot on the upper deck. All that is on left stick is turret rotation and elevation that if you are good can be done simultaneously, and the right stick driving only. Once you get rid of the silly superspin the driving is actually really easy and we do throttle adjustments to get rid of most of the jerky movements. Both sticks self centering of course. There is still the rear left switch that can be used for something else.

This set up is ideal for battle or just very clean for driving around. I guess one of us should do up a demo video.
For us as a club where guys own an average 6 or 8 tanks, cost does become a factor. And when 20 tanks are running around the field the sound really is just a mesh anyway. Since we pretty much have all systems under the sun we as a club have come to the conclusion that for the money the Clark is the best for us... To give you an idea we just did a club order for 26 boards as an opening order...

Gary,

I do build from scratch a lot. Because usually, nobody makes what I need. I could even turn a dog into a goldfish:rolleyes:

I answer to almost anything. Troy is on the license.

Hi Troy,I am another user of the TK22 and Benedini combo with Turnigy 9x as my tx flashed with er9x firmware. Just like what dgsselkirk said, I find that combo gives me the most control with the configuration I want. I have moved all the MG, cannon, lights and benedini sound to the toggle switches on the 9x. The left stick is dedicated to turret traverse and cannon elevation while the right stick is only for throttle and steering. Anyone that have used a TK22 complains about the weird cannon elevation on the left stick but you can program the 9x such that the up and down left stick takes care of the elevation control. Thanks to strmnd54, I even have my benedini control my smoker. I have the Clark sound turned off by a switch and another switch controls the benedini engine sound but they can be on at the same time if I choose to. The Clark also can be tamiya compatible if you are into IR battling.
If you have any questions feel free to ask away. Good luck with your choice, whichever way you go, clark, ibu2 or the DBC3/benedini from Dan, they are all very capable boards, it's just a matter of what features are important to you.

Cheers,
Danny

You guys have me thinking I should move my clark to the 9X radio and see how that works. After this battle today I may have some questions. I'd love to get the clark to a point where I'm more comfortable driving it because it's small enough to fit in the PIII and IV and I really want to get my Panzers to hobby grade boards. But for the heavies I really like the IBU. Maybe I'll feel differently after I try one of those Benedini units in my Mato PIII with the TK22.

Are you guys using vipers with the 9X to get volume control from the TX? I am, and so far, so good. :)

Thanks for the info Danny.

Sooo, let me get this straight. With the clark board, you can have all steering and throttle on one stick. Turret rotation and gun elevation only, on the other stick. And not have to do any "stick dancing". Only move the stick up for gun up, or move stick down for gun down. You can put shoot/recoil on a separate switch/channel. You can also put sound and Mgun on separate switches/channels. ?

You're the second person that mentioned using the 9x. Is there something really special about it? I have a DX7.

Also, could you give me a brief overview of setting up the board? I understand that you may need a IR remote to set the board?


Troy

Yes, you need a Sony remote to set the parameters of the Clark board. There are many choices you can do to make it perform to your particular situation.

Herman

Troy,

I used to be a Futaba user when I was into RC helis and RC rally cars back then. Then I went on a hiatus and got pulled back into the RC hobby because of RC tanks. I thought a newer tx is in order and ended up with the Turnigy 9X. For an 8 channel tx it is cheap (Hobbyking.com) and the best thing is there's an open source community that makes firmware for it. Without the ER9x, it would probably be not as popular as it is. I think Imex-Erik uses the original version made by Flysky called the TH-9X (the 9x is just its clone) which has a lot better stock firmware and a better tx module. One caveat though, you will have to modify the radio to flash ER9x or you can buy a modified one from RCTankAustralia (I think Gary went that route) or get the Turnigy 9xr which has already the flash port and has er9x installed (I think).

Enough about the 9x, there's millions of info in google :)

With regards to the Clark and Benedini, the attached links will give you an idea of what you can do with the combo mated with the 9X. He's better in explaining and I basically used his instructions as a guide to what I did with mine. If you have any questions,feel free to ask. Here are the links, he has a ton of info that was very useful with regards to RC tanks.

http://jbwid.com/art74m.htm (Setting up the Clark TK-22 with the 9X)
http://jbwid.com/art74n3.htm (Setting up the Benedini with the Clark)

As for programming the Clark, yes you will need a Sony remote and an IR receiver cable. Clark has all the instructions in his website, http://clark-model.com. in my case, I went to one of the goodwill stores near me and bought a Sony remote for like a $1.50. It is not exactly the same as what Clark sells but it works at least for all the major settings that I wanted changed.

Hope this helps.

I agree this website is done very well in explaining how the Benedini works with the Clark. I also have a tutorial on my website on the physical hook up of how the TBS hooks up to the TK 22.

The one drawback with the Clark as I mentioned before is the fact that you do have to do a bunch of servo cable switching and radio programming to get the control more intuitive. Lots of people are intimidated by this, and if you haven't got the skills or the radio to program then the stock set up is not that good. However even with a standard radio you can make the Clark control more HL or Tamiya like by using different channels for different functions.

Here is a video from a couple of years ago with a Clark/TBS. The control has been made to act just like Heng long with all the drive functions on the right stick and the turret functions on the left. This was done with no radio programming, just swapping channels between the Clark and the receiver.

The Clark is producing all the turret and cannon sounds and the TBS is producing the engine sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzLCe2iWdKQ

I completely agree with Dan on the initial complexity of getting the Clark to a point that you're happy with. But from what I assumed based on Troy's post, he's been around the block when it comes to RC so he could probably do and will enjoy the challenges. Programming RC helis are a lot more complicated than RC tanks :). The IBU2 and the DB3/Benedini are great boards, especially the DB3 because with it you can get the benedini's full potential and was actually planning to use either of them on my 2A6. When I got the Benedini from Dan (who is great by the way) which I can move from one tank to another (t have three), I decided just to use the Clark (since I already have 2) and maintain the common controls between all of them. I am also just using 1 9X tx that I have 3 model profiles of my tanks loaded.

Here ya go, Troy, see if these help at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M-Zmn07lsI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YykIaQ-e_D0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qezmTBN8MJ8

Good effort on the video's. I could never get use to the Clark default setting, and I think that video demos why a lot of people have issues. I set mine up this way at the start to get an idea of what everything was supposed to do, and then I started playing musical chairs with the servo cables until I got it working like a Heng Long. This of course then no longer follows the Clark instruction sheet . I wish you well in getting used to the stock set up.

The change was easy, just swap cables 2 and 3 at the RX, so it will be just as easy to go back, I'm going to try turning off the super spin and see how I like that. I guess the lesson I learned is that I should experiment a little bit and find what works well for me. Being so new to RC (less than 3 years) I'm still learning a lot about what I'm the most comfortable with. I've found that I can set the clark up like the HL, but it still doesn't drive the same as the HL and that wasn't working for me. Driving it the way it is on the clark website just works better for me.

Thanks bradgreene.

The links helped.

Gary,

Thanks for the videos! Looks like you had a nice place to run on.

After everyone's comments, the great links, and re-reading the clark site. I think I will be going with the clark.

Right now I have some mods to make to the Tiger. I'm going to relocate the traverse servo so I can cut out the engine hatch and make it easier to disconnect the battery. Also having some electrical glitches with the barrel functions. Need to rewire the system anyway, it's a rats nest in there.

Thanks everyone!