Latest Heng Long Electronics Swapping
 

So I decided to poach the electronics out of my new Tiger and install them in my Leopard because I just couldn't wait any longer. I apologize in advance for the pictures not being the best, my camera is currently at Nikon being repaired. This swap does require a little bit of soldering, so be aware that it's not a direct plug and play.

First order of business is obviously opening up both tanks, my donor being a Tiger 1. Separate the upper and lower hulls, remove the turret gear and turret, split the turret and remove the airsoft unit, barrel, elevation unit and switch. I'm going to assume that can be done without pictures. The first picture shows the difference in wiring on the older version (left) vs. the newer version (right).

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6739.jpg

You can see there are 2 positive wires on the original elevation unit. On the original HL tanks, the on/off switch for the airsoft gun is soldered between the positive of the airsoft motor and the positive of the elevation unit. Go ahead and remove this switch, we will not need it. The elevation units are the same, so I mounted the unit from the Tiger into the Leopard turret.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6740.jpg

Next up we are going to remove the 3-pin connector from the Leopard airsoft unit, which is also tied to the elevation unit. Remove the white/red wires from the old elevation unit and set the unit aside. Now remove the rblack wire of this same 3-pin connector from the motor on the Leopard airsoft unit and set it aside. Now all we have to do is take the 2-pin plug off the Tiger airsoft unit motor and solder it to the Leopard unit motor.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6741.jpg

When done it should look like the picture below and you should have the 2-pin on the back of the airsoft unit, the 2-pin on the airsoft unit motor, the 3-pin from the MG LED and the 2-pin on the elevation unit. The cannon LED is soldered to the airsoft unit motor connections to get its power when shooting, those are the red/black wires up at the top. The red/white go to the MG LED.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6742.jpg

This is the biggest difference from Tiger to Leopard, the MG LED on the Tiger is in the lower hull and soldered to the mini PCB and the Leopard has the MG up in the turret next to the cannon. You can see that the Tiger board has an empty 3-pin location and we are going to use that for the Leopard MG LED connection with a plug, where on the Tiger this same connection was soldered to the bottom of the PCB on the same pin locations. So, now we need to remove all the wires from the mini PCB in the Tiger.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6725.jpg
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6743.jpg


Now solder the red/black for the Leopard headlights here.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6744.jpg

That's it, we are done with the soldering! Now just feed the wiring back through the turret ring gear, screw the mini PCB down to the Leopard chassis and plug the plugs in like they were in the Tiger. Shown in the picture they are (top) RX18 Cable, (left) MG LED 3-pin, (middle left) airsoft motor 2-pin, (middle right) turret rotation unit 2-pin and (right) elevation unit 2-pin. The 2-pin from the airsoft unit goes into the MG Fire port on the MFU.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...r/IMG_6746.jpg

Fire up the tank to make sure everything works before you zip-tie the wiring and put the hulls back together! The only thing I left out was swapping the bind button. Older versions it is a 3-pin connector, new versions are 2-pin. It would just take swapping the plugs. I also swapped turret rotation units as the Leopard unit is really loud and the Tiger is much quieter. You don't have to do this, I chose to. Good luck and feel free to ask questions, I'l try my best to answer them!

How many leopards do you have?
Jimmy

Nice! :)
Thanks for sharing this.

Just one since yours is leaving this morning.

Thanks SH, this just confirmed I'll buy a new Leopard for the swap if I want the new sounds that badly. :eek:

It was worth the time to figure it out!

What mods if any have you done to this one besides the electronics swap?
Jimmy

Electronics right now. I am soon installing Mato metal tracks with rubber pads, metal sprockets, metal idlers and a Visaton speaker once I build a box for it. I'm going to install bearings in my metal gearboxes once I figure out the sizes I need. After that I'll probably leave it alone.

I'll be interested to see if you notice the performance drop off with all the metal you are adding.....................

cheers

CaptB

My ZTZ 99A is setup with Taigen V2 3-1's (at 39-1) and the metal upgrades he has listed and running a lipo. It runs very well and has good power. Just enough weight to let it run in grass and have traction to climb. The gear boxes were a huge improvement over the stock henglong.
Jimmy

Yea those ball bearings gearboxes make such a huge improvement, I was surprised at my first few tests myself. Glad you liked them, I wasn't sure if you were going to stay with them or the 4:1s.

It's not anymore metal than my Tiger 1 or Bulldog have and both of them are great runners.

Erik for these modern tanks the three to ones seem to work well. The stock gearbox was 30 to 1 and your are 39 to 1 so you do get a 30% lower gear to pull the extra weight and the better motors to keep most the speed. The lipo does help a good bit also. I also have the Tiagen electronics and I think that also contributes to the drivability as it seems to control the motors better than the henlong. Next will be a better control board and the 9X. It looks like the new henglong stuff does a better job than the old controllers. Hopefully the OP will keep us informed as the upgrades progress.
Jimmy

I went with tank model over the new electronics since I'm still so happy with the last gen 2.4 (compared to the RF) and I just couldn't risk missing out on a $106 Abrams. This is good news for you guys because it means a new gen 2.4 Abrams will be available before Christmas. :p

I like the previous 2.4Ghz systems, but it bugs me so much that my Abrams sounds like an old diesel or something. It might be the only one of my tanks to get a TK-22 and I have a super cheap 4-ch TX/RX from one of my planes I planned to use. I gotta have that turbine sound!

you guy's notice one thing with the latest 2.4 system that kind of stinks ... you can just fire the main gun anymore you have to actually cycle the airsoft gun and shoot it now to make the gun sound.

Well that's no fun.

I was helping a friend trouble shoot his first HL tank (Leo from Costway) over the phone and the lack of blinking headlights made me send him to go buy a new battery and charger. Luckily it was a DOA battery anyways, but that change really threw me when he mentioned the new battery still did not make the lights blink before start up.

I did notice that, it is sort of a drawback and you can't turn the airsoft gun off anymore either unless you added a switch.

A heads up my sherman did not work at all I needed to bind it to the radio with the button inside the tank battery compartment...It tried a few times then i got it and it worked.

I've airbrushed 3 tanks today, figured I'd post a picture of the Leopard now that it doesn't look showroom new! Made her a little muddy. :D

Looking good!

I was all ready to mud mine up until it dawned on me that frozen earth does not make mud and white camo is worthless the minutes the snow melts...

Got a present today! Mato tracks for the Leopard 2 and M1A2 showed up!

Nice!

If anyone needs a set of sprockets and idlers for the Leopard, hit me up. I now have extras, didn't realize the tracks came with them.