The new panzer IV is available and still no clue how it works.
 

Hi all. I have seen that the new taigen panzer IV is available and can be bought right now in Europe, so Im a bit surprised that I have not seen a detailed show up, and we still have no clue of how the new motherboard and soundboard are or what can they do.

Am I missing the post or the videos somewhere or is still a secret until somebody buys it and shares with all of us?

I see Rctankde carries it in a summer camouflage. I hope Imex does the same. A plastic turret option would be nice too. I'm not too fond of the metal turrets. They're harder to mod plus they add unneeded weight too high up. Keeping the metal parts low lowers the center of gravity.

ERIIIIIIIK, we are all waiting for a review of the new taigen board and soundcard! Dont wait until somebody buys it!

Yep, I agree with you, metal turret is a not needed. But if you take another look to the panzer vs at RC tank de, you can see the turret of the summer version is different to the winter one.!

Same With me , Love my panther F, but the turret could just as well be in plastic for me .

Hey guys, I'm getting around to it :) I'm currently trying to get the PIV fixed before we get our first shipment. I will have the rear return roller fixed for sure, that is the holdup. You guys wanted it fixed so I had to put in requests and due to that there are small delays. The first shipment may not have the fix but I'm doing my best! We will have multiple paint schemes for sure, that I can say. Both a whitewash and a camo scheme will be offered.
The motherboard is on my list, I have customers to reply and catch up to first. That is my main priority first, then I'll get out some new videos. If you haven't heard from me yet and sent me an email/PM since Thursday afternoon please email me direct at [email protected] and I'll do my best to answer asap!

Thanks for your effort Erik, but it really susprises me that I can buy one of the new taigen's panzer IV and receive it tomorrow and we still have not seen not even one photo of what is inside... If you share with us something It would be a great help.

At least one photo or a resume of basic functions...

As I said I'll get to it soon, I'm pretty stacked atm and have other customers to deal with first. It is coming, I just have 10000000000000 things to do at this time. My primary focus is our customers first, then I can support others.

And here I thought your primary focus was keeping your buddy in Detroit happy. Darn. Back to the drawing board. ;) :p :p :cool:

If I can choose I try to keep everyone happy lol. Here you go guys:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2205544http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2205545
Here is an internal shot of the Panzer IV (Summer and Winter are the same, just different paint and tracks). The new Taigen board instructions can be found here as well, I redid them in English for us all :) I hope this holds you guys off for now. Also just a heads up, when bossman and I make our run to the factory next month I'll make sure to bring some back early before the PIV release for everyone ok? I can't promise I'll be able to bring back a bunch but I'll try to take care of you guys first as always.
I will also get a video up soon, I went to get one up today and realized my last PWM receiver is currently loaned out to a friend and I'll need to get another ordered today. I have tons of Sbus receivers and other transmitters to use, but FRSky has been so good to me I hate using others :)

It looks better than I expected! Now we only need to know how many sounds can we play and price. I hope there is a buch of extra sounds like tank commander voice or music to play.

No extra sounds yet, just revamped sounds all around. Different sound cards will come out in the future, those of course are not set in stone yet for additions and such. There is always the possibility of someone making an addon too, you never know :) I would love to see that actually. Other manufacturers... if you are reading this and want to, PM me and let's work together!

Is this a metal hull? Tracks have ice cleats. Looks nice.

What is the metal used in these molded hulls and turrets? I'm simply curious.

Looks like 3:1 gearbox in the photo. Needs 4:1!

Yes but this is not final atm for the winter version. The tracks are just samples and only have 1 mold at this time (need one for each side), but yes it is a SOLID metal hull just like the Sherman and Leopard lower hulls. More may be added or removed from this version. We shall have to see....
I'm not 100% sure on it, but it is what looks like a nicely controlled zinc alloy (I have been on them about this, our molds are improving a lot!). I was suspicious myself when we first got the Sherman until I stood on the tank and it held :) The new lower hulls are quite beasty. I'll get more info next month on this as well.
Yes it does come with 3:1s, but the control from the motherboard has been greatly increased. Slow speed is a lot easier to accomplish with the new system. The 4:1 gearbox should fit, however it looks as if there will be a clearance issue with the upper hull machine gun.

Well, finally we saw a video of the new taigen sound board... Im surprised that the first news and reviews from the taigen products comes from german resellers instead of Taigen itself. In not blaming you, Erik, just surprised of how your company works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jX2BIEEt98

Thanks for the bash! Anyways, as long as our US customers have a video before it launches in the US that is all I'm worried about as we are the NA/USA distributors, not EU. I'm working on new manuals and instructions now including the new control system (which our EU counterparts haven't even updated the instructions!) and tanks. In fact, without the instructions I put here you couldn't even bind your TX using EU's instructions nor is there any clue on helping install the motherboard or what outputs do what. There is also a backwards compatibility with the first generation transmitters as well that needs to be documented and I have tricks on using your own components I wish to add as well. It takes time to do it right and time is a constraint atm as I am getting ready to leave for 11+ days on a business trip and am training help to cover me while I'm gone plus my normal duties (**Due to this, we have also decided not to return to the Toledo show this year**). After I return things will settle back down and more content (both videos and information) will pick up and return back to normal.

It's definitely a step up from the henglong sounds, but I was hoping for a little more given where we are now, doesn't seem well sync'd to stick movements and sounds seem similar to the Clark tk-22 frequency shifted ones.

So a no go if you are doing a conversion and only have 4ch radios? Not a huge deal as a 6 ch is very affordable these days, just curious.

This is just the first sound card, more can and will be added later. Plus, I'm hoping a certain few aftermarket vendors might pick up on the sound card and make something additional or a replacement as well. More options are always better IMO. The sync is actually pretty decent really. Oh and there is now proportional turret rotation and smoke unit output too.
This is correct. We decided not to do the 4ch route as there is just too many functions to put on 4 channels and expect others to program the end points and function assignments for each radio. I personally wanted either PPM or Sbus for additional channels, reduced latency, and better wiring hygiene but PWM is still used by a lot of transmitters still. However, any PWM based TX will work just fine. A good thing about this setup is you can finally put the drive on whatever side gimbal you want :)
(edit: I guess technically you could do a 4ch tx if you wanted, you could probably use a servo tester to start the tank and another to adjust trim and you could use your standard 4ch)

Two questions about the new MB:

- Can the gun elevation be controlled in an up/down fashion? (push stick up, gun moves up; push stick down, gun moves down) It looks like it can't, based upon the instruction sheet included earlier. But, I figure I'll ask. This seems a pretty important upgrade, more so than proportional smoke. I'd be happy to have that even with the current elevation mechanism.

- Can the track recoil be disabled? Even as a jumper on the MB? I like the way to sync the gun sound with the shot, but the track recoil has to go.

Everything else seems like pretty good steps forward, but those two for me would really define a real upgrade vs a slight improvement.

I just got the new Panzer IV last week and I discovered a problem. The tank wont receive hits from other Taigen Tanks.

I asked Dominique at Rctank.de about the problem, because I thought it was a faulty board.
He gave me an update today as he received an email from Taigen Tanks, telling him that the new boards are not compatible with the older boards.

So, for anyone, who like me just like to run with the standard boards, think carefully, before you buy tanks with the new board as you will have to upgrade your older tanks with the new board to get IR compatability.

Here is a test I made, when I thought the board was faulty (and not deliberetly altered to not work with older tanks)

God mode

Exactly... I'm a bit disapointed to be honest...