Motor control
 

Does anyone make a third party motor control for tanks? Since the Heng Long seems to be weak in this area, I was wondering if there was a replacement available. I have feelers out looking for replacement boards, but nothing has materialized yet. I sure don't want to see my Tiger sitting for long.

RE: Motor control
 

Haven't paid too much attention to this subject but I've heard of fellow tankers using 2 Scorpion ESCs. Have you been to customrcmodels website? He has a HL conversion to proportional control.

Anyone ever figure out our boards schematic wise? I've got a pile of them I'd like to repair

RE: Motor control
 

Hello

There are specific high quality boards for HL tanks, take a look here:

http://el-mod.de/index.php?topic=14&lang=deutsch&land=1

All in german, but people running the shop are very friendly and all of them speak a perfect english. All their boards are designed to suit our needs, be our tanks HL with or without metal gears/tracks/smoke & sound/ gun recoil, etc....and if you visit the panzerketten forums you'll find a lot of info about these boards.

Regards

RE: Motor control
 

You can try searching for tank drive ESCs (Electronic Speed Controls). Look at websites that sell electronics for robots. Scorpion is good, Barello ANT controllers and Dimension Engineering Sabertooth. Most of these are designed to be used with a standard ground radio, I don't know if they will easily interface with Hen Long electronics. I replace the HL electronics with a standard 5 channel radio and used the ANT150 and ANT100 controllers for the track, elevation and turret rotation.

RE: Motor control
 

also clark will be releaseing their 1:16 range of electronics in april 07 which will be fully tamiya battle system compatible; http://www.freewebtown.com/jyliang/eng/index_e.html

but the barello and scorpion controllers are very good and would be very usefull for in progress projects. here4 is a link to a place that does them; http://www.robotmarketplace.com/mark...ntrollers.html they are at the botton of the list.

this place also does good esc's; http://www.dimensionengineering.com/

also if you are upgradeing the electronics it might be worth replaceing the stock motors with speed 400 ones as these will give much more power.

RE: Motor control
 

Thanks for the tips. Ill check them out.

RE: Motor control
 

OK I checked out the web sites and I am happily surprised to see there is stuff out there to get my Heng Long, mobile again. The German website seemed to have exactly what I need. However I do not speak German and have no idea what items I need to buy. IF anyone knows German, can you tell my what items are required to get the tank mobile again.

I'm afraid in less I can see a translated copy of their material I will be forced to stick to something I can read. I am tempted to go the route of Nick as I can read that page. Too bad that German site didn't have an English site, as it appears they cater to the Heng Long market.

RE: Motor control
 

Hi YHR
I think that your tank is an HL Tiger I with metal drives/chains/sprockets/idlers. If so, you'll need the ThinkTank Booster M(for metal), this is the mainboard, contains the speed controllers and the mains input. If you want to replace the HL circuitry for the tower-smoke-sound, then you'll need too the TLS board (Tower, gun elev/depress, gun firing, lights and sounds control). If you intend to keep using the HL Tx-Rx electronics then you'll need the ThinkTank Drive module, it will help you to keep the speed of each track equal to the other (you don't have trimmers in your HL Tx). If your intention is to use a conventional transmitter and receiver (min 4 ch. full proportional system) then you should need too the ThinkTank Prop, that is the set of all the cables/connectors needed for your system to work properly.
It seems at first a bit confusing, but if you visit the ElMod pages and apply a little of "BabelFishing" you'll obtain a clear picture of the clever modular system those germans have developped....
Regards

RE: Motor control
 

Someone got back to me, from the web site and has offered to help me through this, but your help is equally welcome. I would guess there are many Heng long users who will be interested in this topic.

I would like to keep the Heng Long Transmitter and receiver if possible. So this means I'll need to buy the Thinktank Booster, the TLS board and the Thinktank Drive module. I do however have the S&S tiger and it does have trim on the transmitter, so maybe I don't need the drive module???

RE: Motor control
 

found this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ESC-Receiver-4-T...QQcmdZViewItem





Does anyone make a third party motor control for tanks? Since the Heng Long seems to be weak in this area, I was wondering if there was a replacement available. I have feelers out looking for replacement boards, but nothing has materialized yet. I sure don't want to see my Tiger sitting for long.


[/quote]

RE: Motor control
 

Thanks for the info, I had no idea! Will definitely go this route, I like the detailed realistic driving options and turret rotation. Very cool!

RE: Motor control
 

Guys...

You need to supply your own 27 MHZ AM transmitter, and if I remember, it has to be a Futaba compatible (due to +ve/-ve pulse trigger issues)

I think Willy's reviewed this, and if I remember right, someone mentioned after-sales contact is ~non-existant~ so forget about any warranty.

Buyer Beware.

RE: Motor control
 

Their website says you can use the stock transmitter and receiver depending on which version you choose to run.

RE: Motor control
 

Hi

The Drive module is just an electronic feed-back to the main board of the drives turning speeds, in such a way that the Booster can auto-adjust the speed of each track, if you can adjust your drive speed via Tx, then this module is not a must.
You can keep your HL electronics, in fact, if you want, you only need the Booster (K=plastic or M=metal depending of your drive) to substantially improve the handling and manoeuvering capabilities of your HL tank. The tower/gun/sound/smoke can remain under HL control, TLS just improves all the stuff adding some functions like lights, etc.

The best way for you is to write to the ElMod guys telling them what is the configuration you have now, and the configuration and performances you want. They'll solve any doubt you have.

Regards

RE: Motor control
 

Thanks a lot. This has been very helpful. I have translated the web page and I think I understand most of it now.

I am concerned about my Heng long electronics though. They have been fried, so I suspect that perhaps only the heng long receiver is any good. When they got cooked all the functions where "on" turret rotating, gun elevating, airsoft cannon shooting, and the left track was full on, and the right track dead. This happened as soon as I switched the tank on, with no input from transmitter???

I imagine I may have to totally gut the electronics and replace them. That probably means getting a different transmitter and receiver as well. Too bad because I kind of liked the push button concept on the Heng long transmitter.

RE: Motor control
 

Hi YHR

You can easily find replacement boards for all HL tanks. We're talking of 12 eur.(about 14$) for an original HL mainboard... This way you don't need to change your Tx:D
You could never reach the status of "HL tanker" if never fried one or two HL boards...[8D]

RE: Motor control
 

I haven't been able to find any replacement boards yet. If you know a source let me know.

Thanks

RE: Motor control
 

Thats pretty awesome. I just got two HL tigers(one S&S, one plain(super price). I was thinking about playing with the S&S one and just gutting the standard one for a full repaint and upgrade sled. I could test and swap parts and build a super-nice one from the 'spare' and use the other one as the toy/guinia pig...

RE: Motor control
 

@YHR

Take a look here
http://www.asiatam.de/product_info.p...7c6aa6642d1d1c
or here
http://www.livehandel.de/catalog/cat...sort=2a&page=2
or make a search in ebay, there are a bunch...:D
Regards
Jose

RE: Motor control
 

trying to order from El-mod is a disaster!!! They should really make and English version of the website. It would not allow me to pay with paypal.

RE: Motor control
 

Hello!

At first: thank you for Your interest for our modules! I'm Thomas Kusch AKA Dark.Rider, the developer of Think Tank Modules.

We really know the urgence for an english version of the website! But we are only two guys, having a real job and families. El-Mod is some kind of hobby and it consumes already a huge amount of time. It's meanwhile a second full time job for me.
The english translation is on the very top of our todo list and we will start with it as soon as our actual project, a really kicking ass sound module that will be released in february, is done.
In the meantime don't hesitate to ask me your questions. I will also try to translate at least the manuals for Booster and proportional conversion (the TLS manual is already done) and parts of the FAQ.

Best regards,
Thomas

RE: Motor control
 

Keep checking Mato's site. They showed up again and I just bought two.

RE: Motor control
 

Thanks James, I purchased a few of the Heng long electronics packages once I found out they need to be functioning for the third party items from Think tank.(if you want to continue to use the Heng Long Transmitter.)

Thomas, with Think Tank,:D has been very helpful and fluent in English. I just used email to purchase what I require, as I couldn't navigate the German shopping cart. Thanks Thomas. Could you please also talk about your friend who has developed the IR battling system for Heng Long tanks. There would be a great interest here on this english speaking forum. Many people have purchased Heng long in the past year, and I think there is a huge market for the third party electronics you guys are developing.

:DMany thanks for your help, and I look forward to installing your electronic modules in my Heng Long tanks. :D

RE: Motor control
 

Your welcome. From an economic standpoint I want to stay with the HL electronics. I babel fished El Mods site and saw that the sounds are specific to each tank, so is the turret turning rate and motor speeds. Very cool. My tank budget is overdrawn with the holidays and Mato's sale, I'm going to have to wait before I get those electronics. And I want the PZIII and Sturmtiger too!

RE: Motor control
 

Now that X-mas is over and my bike is put away for the winter, It's time to get going on the overhaul of my HL Tiger1. I also need to replace my electronics, as I have one of the earlier models that does NOT have smoke and sound. The tank runs okay, but the speed control is non-existent. It only goes fast... and faster! I want to get some QUALITY electronics, with a QUALITY transmitter, but my problem lies with the fact that I am not very savvy with how these components relate to one another. I'd like to gut the unit and start from scratch, but all the jargon has me confused, I'm not sure where to begin. I have built static models all my life, but this is my first foray into the R/C world.
I could really use a plain-english description of these components and how they work. Is there a site that explains this stuff? I just want it to operate at the proper speeds, and be reliable. I don't have any desire to drive it in mud or on rocks, climb mountains, etc... I don't need a battle system or smoke and sound either.
I DO plan on doing other mods such as a working idler/tensioning system, a CO2 powered bb gun, and the metal suspension arms from Mato. I have already purchased and installed the metal replacement gears and the metal tracks, also from Mato, so I have some skills, but not with the electronics. I learn a little each time I come here and view all the threads, however I NEED to get up to speed on the R/C stuff. Any help wpould be hugely appreciated!!