TK60 Programming with USB Help
 

Good Afternoon,

In April I purchased a TK60 controller for my Henglong King Tiger tank with airsoft function. Last night I finally got around to installing the card and making the necessary adjustments to the air-soft wiring unit. Plugged in all the connectors as shown on their website, then hooked up my Tactic TTX 850-8 Channel control, then setup the switches to mirror the Flysky 8 channel they had on their site. Started it up and the card didn't work, other than the main cannon elevation sound working (elevation unit itself did not actually move). I then remembered that it came preloaded with the 6-channel program. I tried to use the basic TK programming usb kit but could not get it to work, not to mention that the program is in Chinese from what I can tell. Did some more research and found that the basic programming kit is really just for sound file transfer. I then found a PRO programming kit (includes english!) for the TK60 and ordered that. I am trying to find some documentation or tutorial on how to program the card using the PRO setup from Clark. Their website does not review how to program the functions, but says it can be done with the PRO version.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks

My understanding was that you had to return it to Clark to have it switched to 4 channel or 8 channel firmware

I hope that is not the case. I did what I thought was enough research on the Clark board before I purchased it back in April. I bought the board through tank zone, which is product TK60-KT which according to Clark's identification system is that it is a standard board which means it is sound programmable, they do have ones that are NOT sound programmable but my variant is not one of those. Note: they say nothing about how many channels they are set for or whether they can be programmed or not, which leads me to believe that the amount of channels can be changed. Also on Clark's website they stated that using the TK programmer can do the following on the TK60 boards: "For software, sound, Tank Personalization data programming". This may very well be the case with my basic Clark programmer but the fact that the program is in a different language is making it impossible for me to figure it out. I hope the PRO programmer with the english program will allow me to figure it out. Now granted they seemed to have changed the description of the basic programmer to just changing the sound, NOT programming the card. The description of the PRO programmer says it can do sound and personalization/programming.

I really hope someone on here has programmed one before and can offer some insight or advice.

Regards

Spoke to clark, you need to send back to them to change.

The Heng long 2.4 Ghz is a million times improved over the old RX18 that used to come with the tanks, unless you just want to change the sound I don't understand why use Clark board? The old Heng Long RX18 was a nightmare, never worked for longer then 30 seconds, and no doubt was the reason a lot of people just gave up on the hobby. Now HL finally got smart and just put the 2.4 Ghz in all their tanks from the factory, and confined the RX18 to the dumpsters of mainland China where they belonged in the first place. They probably got tired of all the returns of their products from disattisfied customers, times ten thousand. Unless you just have an older tank why use Clark board? The HL components are dirt cheap, available everywhere and work to perfection, they even offer two kinds of sounds now, although that may not be enough for the scale enthusiast.

Because the Clark board is superior in every way....

Didn't you order one for your t55

Well that's a kick in the pants, must have mis-understood something at some point. Tonight I will just try to hook it up for 6 channel running through my radio setup and see what it does. Now I just need to confirm if I can program the "personalization" options through this PRO programmer or if I need to drop MORE money and get the IR programmer. Biggest thing will be switching it to air-soft mode. If I feel the need for 8 channel control I can always sent it out, just don't feel like doing that at this point and spending more money then I already have.

Bit of a back story is in order. Bought my King Tiger in the summer of 2013 before I started my senior year of college. Messed around with it a bit and even went to a small tank meet that October. Over the course of the next few months I messed around with the tank but grew tired of the old RX18 with the basic controls, old crystal radio setup, and some weird operation (i.e. track recoil). Plus life got busy Basically the tank got put away and I never did much with it. Then in 2015 I looked at different control boards and decided to go with a BARC board but never went through with it. Now fast forward to spring 2017 and I decided I wanted to get a BARC board, then found out he wasn't selling them anymore. Then through research I decided to get a Clark board, I liked the options of sounds, options, etc. for the cost. Granted I got busy with other RC projects and now just getting around to working on it.

If you've got a 6 channel radio with a rotary switch you should be fine. I'm not massive fan of how the elevation works (it's a separate channel now so usually assign it to a pot) but it's better than the standard way on the 4 channel one.

Gottca, the 6 channel control scheme doesn't seem bad at all, granted the 8 channel would be even better (don't really want to send it back across the sea for firmware). My Tactic TTX850 8 channel has two pot like sliders on the back, easily reached when holding the control via 2 hands.

UPDATE:

Got home and correctly hooked up the channels to the correct ports on the Clark board for 6 channel running. After messing around with the walterson gear boxes I got the lower hull up and running with sound! Controls are manageable in the 6 channel configuration. So far, so good with my first Clark experience. I have contacted Clark about the firm ware and programming, waiting on a response now. Really hope I don't have the buy that IR programming setup... I'd rather do it with a computer. :cool:

Yes i did order the Clark board, there was no way around it... on another forum they said the turret ran off servo operation or something like that. So it was the Clark board or own the world's only model T55 self-propelled gun i guess lol

Maybe you just need this remote from DKLM RC?

[Clark] Transmitter and receiver for Tank Personalization

I actually ordered the PRO programmer from them (got the last one in stock)! I was thinking of just ordering the IR programming kit for good measure but I'd rather not drop more money than I have to (found a US vendor that has them in stock for less). Should be able to program the card form this PRO programmer. Like I said, I'd rather use a computer to program the card than a remote control.

Regards

Here is the way to program soundfiles .


In this video I only load the Run file. But I would think, since your card is from april that you need to load the prog file , unplug programer , power on to 'flash' the file( takes 15 seconds and you will hear a small 'popp' from the speaker once done ) . Test all functions , then power down, load the RUN file, and power on and good to go. With the lates release of the tk60 you only need to load the Run files for soundchange with the pro programer

to change settings on the card itself you need the remote , to change say mixer mode, recoil strengt and switch from recoil to AirSoft mode . Now why the remote you would say, so lame.. But it's a bulletproof setup really, no need to install drivers and 3 party programs to computer , just plug in the jumper and IR cable , press a few buttons on the remote and done .

With the pro programer you can also change a 6ch to a 8ch setup( and back if you like ) just like you would change a sound.

here is a challenger I'm working with the tk60 8ch ( s-bus) set to AS mode ( slight rewire was done )