IBU2 problem
 

I have 2 IBU2 control boards and cannot get either of them to work. Installed per instructions, charged 2s lipo, tried two to be sure, transmitter and receiver communicating together, calibrated radio and control board, set dip switches, checked fuses. When powered up green light on control board flashes and headlights come on, but thats it, no sound, no startup, no movement of any kind.

Have you calibrated the sticks with dipswitch 8? I've found that doesn't always take unless I do it exactly right. I turn on TX, then tank, then throw dipswitch 8, move the sticks, throw 8 back, turn off tank, turn off TX, turn TX back on, turn on tank. For me engine start is left stick up and right, and headlights are down and right. I usually try the lights to see if the stick calibration worked. Are you hearing a one second burst of elevation noise when you first turn on the tank?

EDIT, and try swapping out the servo cables. Those are known to cause trouble sometimes.

I did calibrate sticks with dipswitch 8 in the order you suggested, tried swapping servo cables, and tried left stick in every direction for some kind of response with no luck. I am not hearing the one second burst of elevation noise when powering the tank on from either board or sd card. The only sound I get is a very light static sound from speaker when turning power on.

The way I understand it, the 1 second of elevation noise means the IBU2 is communicating with the RX. If you don't hear that noise, it means the IBU is not getting any signal from the RX. I wish I could tell you how to fix that. You're not running any kind of remote volume control, are you? Since it makes static I'd say if the IBU was making the noise you would hear it. Where did you get the IBU2? The guy that designed this board is a forum member here, but I can't recall his user name.

I got them from jcsa in California, no remote volume, using standard tank volume control plugged into board. It does seem like the board isn't talking to the receiver, but cant figure out why it wouldn't. I tested the transmitter and receiver with servo's and they are working together, not using expo or dual rates. Cant find anything in the manual about causes or solutions for board not communicating with receiver.

Your best bet would be to contact the seller. I've heard there has been a higher failure rate of boards in North America than in Europe. They think it might be something that's happening to them during Customs, like x-ray or something.

Jcsastore isnt taking any returns on Ibu2 boards.

I can email Ian and see if I can get you some contact info for the maker (Ivano) unless someone else sees this and knows how to contact him? I can't do it til after work.

I think you may have a failed board. For some reason it seems a higher percentage of boards here in the States are faulty. Reach out to Forgebear, he is the rep for IBU in Europe and he may help you out.

did you get the pro or base ?

if PRO I have only been able to use them using it in 6 channel mode, also ch1 and ch2 were reversed.

I have played with ibus alot and experienced the failures but dont jump to conclusions just yet.
after doing the stick set up and turning all off then back on.
does the turret traverse left and right properly when you move the sick?
Does the gun elevate whe you move the stick up and down.

The one and only thing that happens when it is powered up is the little green light flashes. Besides everything else I have tried, I have now also tried two different transmitters and receivers calibrated and still nothing. I believe the best solution to the problem is to toss both boards into the trash, as I have a very low tolerance for crap, and get something else.

I kinda doubt both are bad the same way.
do you have the servo cables plugged in the correct way?
even the bad boards i have tested worked the turret.
please check and respond

Have tried both boards and both do nothing other than flashing green light, no turret, or barrel movement, servo cables plugged in correctly -+s . tx and rx work servo"s just fine.

If you want to send them to me I may be able to help you out. Or if you are just over them, send them to me and if I can make them work I will give you some money for them..

These things are finicky some times sadly. I think the IBU2 is a great product but a hand full of bad ones is just killing its reputation...


The Clark TK22 is crazy to set up with the tv remote, but they seem to be nearly bullet proof.

Give me your address and I will send them to you. I have no doubt they are great when they work, and i can understand getting a dud once in a while. But two bad ones together! maybe poor reliability is the reason Jerry at jcsa has decided to stop selling them.

Ok sent you a PM.

I would be surprised if both are bad. It does seem strange that it wont traverse at all.
Ive gotten several going for our club guys that were assumed to be bad.

Maybe you can figure out what is wrong with them, or possibly something I am doing wrong

I don't think its you. I think the boards are bad. I just spent 3 hours on this thing and like you I don't have sound or motors. However mine will fire and traverse. This is a similar issue to a guy on the rctankwarfare site.
Now I have another IBU3 to test my other won't load files and won't work when not on USB. If that is bad I'm sending all back to Italy.

Hold the boat! I had to turn on Dip switch 6 on the pro. I still don't have sound though.

Just got the sound up. It won't work if the SD card is to large. I had to use the 1gb card.

I have a replacement IBU standard I will be installing this week into my Enigma, so fingers are crossed! Sadly, this product has great promise but never again will I buy one. Reliability is key with me and my time is precious. I wasted countless hours on two bad boards. I just completed a resto project on a Tamiya Tiger which smelled like an ashtray and was covered in dust, but the damn thing fired right up within seconds of installing the factory Tammy electronics package and a fresh battery. Maybe someday IBU will be that consistent.

I was about ready to stomp these lil turds into pieces. It seems that the setup proceedure is the problem.

One thing I found is that the my sd cards are formatted for Android rather than pc. Maybe thats the way they are supposed to be, but I thought they were supposed to work with a pc. My pc wouldnt recognize the card files, but could open the sd card on an Android notebook.

That can't correct. My cards had the folder with all the models on them. I just thought I'd use an empty 8gb card I had. You need to format those cards and get the files from the IBU or rcelectronics. Place the sound files and the .INI for the type of tank you are using in the root (not in a folder).

That can't be correct. My cards had the folder with all the models on them. I just thought I'd use an empty 8gb card I had. You need to format those cards and get the files from the IBU or rcelectronics. Place the sound files and the .INI for the type of tank you are using in the root (not in a folder).

A simple test would be set the INI to have engine on start. That way if you have a stick or button mixed up it will still let you know which one is the motors.

I think that's going cause an issue, I remember there's a limit on sd car size that can't be used and it must be formatted fat32, I think the requirements are in the manual.

Wasn't able to open the ini file with android notebook, could only open, choose, and listen to sounds. Pc wouldnt open card at all, said it needed to be reformated.

Format the file fat32. Be sure when you remove it you right click the drive and select eject.

I've been following but staying out of this conversation, I suppose that's troll like but there it is.

I will say this, I have been poking around the 'net for references to damage to electronics due to scanning
and so far I've not come across any examples that have proof. I won't rule it out but I can't see why IBU electronics would be any more vulnerable to scanning than any other of the thousands of electronics shipped all over.

The reason I've decided to stop selling IBU items is not that I believe them to be deficient in any way. Simply put
I don't have the time to invest to determine the nearly limitless possible combinations of what end users can do; what
RC system( both receiver and Xmitter ), rc system software and the variations of same, the configuration choices that
can be made of the IBU units themselves and as you guys just indicated possible variation id SD format and capacity.
There's just no way to control it. I could say I will only support the unit with brand X RC system configured precisely this
way which is why I realize some sellers sell complete systems - for their own simplicity of control. I've been a software developer for many years, once upon a time when choices were fewer we had a more DIY attitude towards design and implementation but now with hundreds of thousands of user devices in our network at my company, the company controls just what can be done, especially by developers, with an absolute iron hand, choices are kept artificially few just for the above reasons. There isn't the resources available and it would be a logistics nightmare to maintain a free for all approach.
I'm not saying anyone is doing wrong or bad things but with the possibility of being able to shoot oneself in the foot it can happen...

Which is what we have here sadly. We want plug and play but that isn't so simple. I hate to say it and I first hated the constraints of limited choices but I've come to see the wisdom of it. I read with interest the Open Panzer project. As a experimenter I think it is slicker than sno....... you get the idea. But in the real world I fear it won't fly well, hope I'm wrong.

Even though I'm pretty cavalier about tweaking, soldering and making changes to my personal stuff I think I know when to
say when. I go strictly by the book and I mean I do everything the way the maker says when I know my insights into the lower level function of a system is minimal or non existent- in other words if I'm unsure I can't back out of a hole I want to dig I'm not going to dig it. For instance I wouldn't consider fooling around with the SD card format or capacity... I mean why? First think I ever did when I got my hands on an IBU was to make a copy of a card on my home network so I could make changes and look at files. I use a tool called TextPad; something I use at work almost daily.

I'm sorry you guys have had problems with the units. If you need to have your sd cards reset send them to me and I'll overlay them with my reference copy. Make sure you can account for every change you've made or deviation from Ivano's instructions no matter how trivial it seems, check all dip switches and ensure the servo cables are working correctly. If your rc system is one of those running advanced software please make sure to begin with it is as vanilla as is possible- get clever only after everything is working. And make backups!

Jerry

Jerry, I appreciate the insight but making a seperate SD card and keeping the original for backup wasn't a bad idea. The board just can't address the entire volume and thus it didn't work. No biggie. It isn't like we hacked the firmware. . I processed the points of failure and that lead me to the card size. JS/PHP/VB/C# I'm not over my head with an INI.


But I get what you mean with user variables. It's not the PnP device that most are looking for. Radio differences alone can be a problem. My IBU3 won't load an IBU sound file. Thats not a user problem. As you stated this is why there are packages / bundles. Clark loads his sounds and you can't change them without the utility he uses to flash the units.