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Messages - XRAD
16
« on: July 15, 2018, 01:55:05 PM »
Looks great, jhamm
17
« on: July 14, 2018, 04:47:55 PM »
Your welcome.
The Burn Effect smoker control board has 2 power 'IN's'. One is directly from battery power (for the coil), and second is 6v power to run the board off the transistor via the SERVO wire input, as in diagram.
18
« on: July 14, 2018, 08:57:58 AM »
Is this what you are looking for? Fan speed control comes from drive motor power supply. Fan and smoker control board both turn ON/OFF via OPTCB smoker control plug. You need to have Burn Effect smoker control unit and heating coil. The drive motors, fan motor, esc's, TCB, etc all use same power source and ground. http://www.oospeeddrift.com/subcategory-BURNEFFECTV3-6703-1.html
19
« on: July 13, 2018, 05:43:14 PM »
Benedini sound wired up. I chose the Panther sounds because I liked the engine idle and throttle the best. I am using two series 4 ohm mid-range speakers, and a 4 ohm min sub with a 3.3 ohm resistor. You can get these at Parts Express, not expensive and sound pretty good. They will easily fit into this tank. Found a few cool sounds on the B mini, like a welder, and bullets hitting metal.. I used Benedini 10watt x2 amp. Class D, little heat, and sounds very good with plenty of punch. Waiting on a few suspension parts from Asiatam, and some milliput for the zimmerit... sounds:
20
« on: July 11, 2018, 06:08:15 PM »
wiring all cleaned up and now plug and play....
21
« on: July 10, 2018, 07:46:23 PM »
Ok, got the wiring sorted. Eliminated the 5v 7805 regulator. Not needed when my max V is 7.4v, and allows better modulation of fan speed (and the ESC output was only getting up to about 6.4-7v w/full battery charge). I obviously kept the 6 diodes as the fan still will run off L+R motor power supply. Also kept the 3906 transistor switch and resistor to operate the smoker board. I redesigned a baffled inlet duct for a smaller 5v DC brushless motor. The new one has a 15 mm or so fan diameter. I was getting blow back from the bigger fan and shorter inlet duct even with a single baffle(in addition to the small outlet tubes). The smoke fluid was gumming up the fan. So now a new double baffle taller inlet and lower intake pressure and all seems well. Here is the final version of the new RC smoker for the Elefant. All fully proportional and controlled with single on-off smoker switch via the TCB. Might be a bit too much smoke!!
22
« on: July 10, 2018, 06:34:59 AM »
Hi Luke. Yes right, many ways to get the same thing done. Yes, 5v DC brushless fan.
I did try running both heating coils off the TCB smoker tap. Too little voltage to get the TARR coil smoking (which is apparently what others have exerienced..it measured 15 ohms and others say it needs 10v or so). I tried to run my burn effect coil(measures 3 ohms) off the TCB smoker tap too, but it was too much current, and the coil got very red hot (unless there is a way to limit voltage via OPConfig?). The Heng Long smoker coils, motor noise, and smoke output is terrible, so using one of these was out.
I did try to decrease power from the 'battery' level TCB smoker tap to the burn effect coil, but it did not work as well. Found out this was a direct battery feed when I accidentally plugged battery power line into the smoker tap. Ooops. Luckily, no damage.
So that is why I had to use the original Burn Effect driver board. yes, more wiring and boards.... But the nice thing about the burn effect board is that there is an easy analog adjustment to set smoker function on/off point and it has a very important 9 sec latch, then times out so that I do not over heat the coil. I am sure you could add a few of these functions to the TCB smoke config section.
I really wanted to modulate the fan speed via the TCB, but these DC brushless fans need a certain turn on voltage, and then if I am limited to 5v on one of the aux channels, I can't overclock the fan to get a more proportional smoke effect, which I may try by eliminating the TARR voltage regulator and adding a resistor.
23
« on: July 09, 2018, 06:11:38 PM »
Power to smoker problem solved. using a 3906 transistor and 18k resistor, I tapped into the power from the TCB at the smoker (currently 7.4v) and using the smoker on-off ground, I am able to power the burn effect board on and off , at same time as the fan, using a single radio Tx switch. I thought that I had to decrease voltage to the burn effect board to 5-6v to make all components happy , but I did not. And I now at 7.4v, I have smoke in reverse. I am guessing that the smoker control board needs at least 6v to work well. The reason I could not use one of the other TCB switchable power ports is that there is that there is no ground 'out' on the burn effect board, so I could not close the 'load' loop. I could tap into the 5v supplied throughout the TCB ports for 5v if needed. And I could configure say a 'secondary' light port to activate ground at same time and with same trigger source and same trigger action. But I am still left with only a 'ground' turning on or off, while the smoker board requires 'power' turned on or off. Power remains constant at these spare ports, so I needed to build the 'grounding' trigger with a 3906 transistor, which then supplies power to the burn effect board when ground in activated through really any TCB port I choose. I chose the smoker port because it makes sense. I did run a test with the second light port on the TCB. Nice regulated 5v. But not enough to run the Burn Effect board in reverse for some reason. Back to 7.4v off the smoker tap and all is well again. And yes, I could have used a 5v relay on TCB aux out to power the burn effect board, but what's the fun in that  ...... 
24
« on: July 09, 2018, 04:18:25 PM »
ABS. The heating element is fairly well isolated of the mount and the red aluminum piece does not get hot. Just have to make sure the heating element does not touch the metal box. Also, to make more smoke and to more uniformly disperse heat from the element, I improved the glass fiber wick wrapping. this distributes more fluid to the heating surface. Also, I drilled two more fan inlet holes.
I plan to find another source for 5v to the burn effect board. Running it off the servo out on TCB is temporary.
25
« on: July 09, 2018, 04:02:39 PM »
Did a bit of modding today. Received a TARR III smoker for RC tanks, etc. Consists of a few diodes and a 7805 or similar transistor , a DC 5v fan, a cast metal box, and a plug to go into Heng Long smoke control RX18 or similar. But the smoke output was minimal. Not enough current to the heating resistor. However, 3 amps supplied by the TCB should be enough to get a small coil hot. So I tested a spare Burn Effect V3 coil. Sure enough, got hot enough to make much smoke. The power transistor on the TCB did not get hot, but the power wires did warm up a bit. So next plan, mod the system. Using throttle forward ESC output 1 on the TCB to burn effect esc control module. Then to the heating element. The fan switches on and off via the TCB 'Smoke' plug. The fan speed is controlled by the 7805. 3D printed a mount for the heating coil and put her all back together. Works like a champ. Fairly decent proportional control of the 5V fan. However, the coil only heats up in forward. No big deal as it makes much smoke. dgm. is of the control board for fan speed. NOTE: I had to use the positive out on channel 1 off the TCB to power the burn effect smoker board. It does not run off the esc. That means middle red wire is connected at the servo out on the TCB. However, on the other end, where the signal passes through the burn effect board, the ESC red wire is obviously disconnected. see pic of messy wiring. Vid:
26
« on: July 08, 2018, 01:30:56 PM »
Had some time today to fart around with the OPConfig. So...had some trouble again connecting with the new board. Checked my physical USB connection, cables, baud rate...com port, all device settings and error hx....etc..etc..etc.. then in middle of this search while in the OPConfig firmware section, OPConfig found an update and I installed it. Not an update to the TCB firmware, but an update to OPConfig... I was not looking for it but OK, so I installed it. I do not recall the version number offhand, but the version I was using before the update was just downloaded off OP page 2 weeks ago or so. I was able to connect to the TCB after the update after a snoop on first try. Then, when I opened my saved file for the Elefant to the 'new' OPConfig, it only loaded 219 out of 220 settings. OK strange. I ignored the warning as it looked like everything I wanted was there and unchanged. I made no other changes to the TCB, to my original file, or on the radiolink Tx. I uploaded this new 219 setting file to the TCB, and what happened?? I now have FORWARD and REVERSE in snoop! I knew that was a good sign. Drive motors now working both forward w/drive stick 12 o'clock and reverse w/drive stick at 6 o'clock. Everything now works like it should!  OK, so root cause is still unknown. I know I did not fix anything. And for completeness: 1) I am using my original OPconfig settings recorded in OPConfig earlier version, via a previously saved Elefant file on the laptop. I did not re-center or re-record stick movements again. No other changes made to this file. My guess is that when writing to the TCB, an error occurred in the file or during file transfer to the TCB, which is not reproduced when saving the file from OPConfig to the laptop or loading this file to OPConfig from the laptop. 2) I put the same ESC back into F-B-R mode. The only difference was that I had to hit the stick twice to get both tracks to go into reverse at same time(which is expected as one track was in the F-B-R mode) BUT they both moved fine once brake was deactivated by second stick movement, and turning, forward and reverse were all 'clocked' appropriately on the Radiolink transmitter drive stick position. 3) one other thing I recall from last week is that even though I reversed several servo switch positions via the OPConfing check boxes, they did not reverse once downloaded to tcb. This included more than one aux switch and the throttle stick position. I had to reverse them via the Tx. Today, all switches are oriented correctly. video with esc's both set F/R:
27
« on: July 07, 2018, 08:59:00 PM »
Hi Luke, Thx for your help! Away for a bit while designing all the 3D parts for the Elefant. If anyone wants them they are at: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2993799Yes, more elimination occurred. Don't know how I missed it but one of the ESC's was set to F-B-R instead of F-R. Once that was corrected, I spliced in my RMILEC SBUS decoder ring and tested it in parallel with the TCB. So I get all TCB functions (lights, MG, Cannon, gun elevation-turret rotation) working fine. And, running the motors SBUS decoded back to PWM, I have full forward and reverse to the drive motors using the RMILEC decoder. All linked functions are off in the transmitter as far as I can tell. Full stick movement = full drive motor power, channel 1 and 2, right stick only, full independent motor function. No mixing. However, this still does not explain the 'clocking' of stick motion that occurred with the drive motor radio stick on initial TCB use (two different TCB's). Like you say, I was expecting both motors to turn when drive stick is in full straight up 12 position, not when stick at 1:30 position for F, and the 7:30 position for R. And why I did not see reverse on snoop... So, now I know that the SBUS signal hitting the RMILEC is correct from the Radiolink Rx, and therefore from the Radiolink Tx. Next will be to drive the motors through the TCB.... I will reset the TCB Rx channel travel and functions to get back to baseline , and then monitor the TCB radio inputs like you say. 'Moving' in the right direction......
28
« on: June 30, 2018, 08:10:12 AM »
Thx for reply Luke,
1) Fixed the connectivity issue. I purchased a second TCB board. It connects without issue.
regarding asymmetric drive issue:
Tried TCB different turn modes and unchecking of zero turn. Currently it's in mode 1, one side driving only on turns. Seems to work the best and is what I originally used.
Tx: tried mode heli, quad, and acro (plane) and various modes withing each vehicle mode. No channel mixing or linked channels. All mixing nulled or off. All unused channels nulled. tried changing left and right stick for driving. Tried second TCB board with same ELEFANT file from first board. All radiolink Tx channels centered and with full travel according to the radio output and my servo testing. Still the same issue.
Tried a second radiolink Rx (which works fine on all servo channels in standard PWM mode). same issue with drive asymmetry. I do not have another sbus or ppm Rx/Tx to try.
Side note: I did change up ESC's and drive motors, right side still weaker in Sbus. When ESC's running off Rx in PWM mode, drive strength is symmetric.
Unfortunately, at this point I accidentally deleted my radio file and will have to reprogram the Tx. I think your idea of not recognizing end points (and therefore the signal confusion) is valid (even though the limits were all the same on all four stick movements in the OPConfig set-up, and all saved) and will be my next step once radio reprogrammed. I will look for reverse in snoop. Even though sbus is supposed to be a uniform code, it may be possible that the conversion to sbus by the Rx is somehow off due to the suboptimal signal recognition. My other option is to try my RMILEC (which defeats the purpose of sbus), but I can't find it! to many projects...
These issues are not drawbacks. I like the challenge. Easier than trying to shave off a few bytes of code to get a program to fit on a trinket......
29
« on: June 29, 2018, 01:23:43 PM »
Thx Luke! I have many more builds under XRAD on rctanwarfare.com and modelboatmayhem.com. Yes, the radiolink Tx/Rx seems like a quality unit for the price. Easy navigation and set-up.
Back to the TCB. Only 2 issues:
1)
Had some issues 'connecting' to the TCB with the recommended FTDI VCP driver and set-up. The baud rate, com port and driver are all correct. In my case, I used com4, but tested on com3 as well. I have used two different windows computers, one w/12GB ram and AMD 3.3GHz processor win10 with all updates. Same issue both computers.
I am able to snoop and update firmware no issue. however, opconfig failing to 'connect.' So I tried snooping several times and then connecting, and connecting is still hit or miss but better after a snoop. I tried updating the firmware(newest version, easily loads 100% each time), and then connecting, and this usually works. But I don't want to have to update firmware each time. In snoop mode, i can see all switch functions (gun fire, engine on, MG, smoker) working fine. I can see also forward throttle but not reverse left,right, or turret turn -gun elevation. USB com4 works fine and detects the TCB. OPConfig just not making easy connection. once connected, I can download and upload to TCB no issue and connection is pretty solid (does not drop).
2)
Second issue is that I have uploaded my config settings (after setting stick centers and limits on channel 1,2,3,4) but the driving stick functions are a bit wonky. Turret and gun elevation work fine. but with driving, stick straight back is not reverse, but rather back and slightly left. forward is up and slightly right. Weak right turn, strong left turn. I changed up motors/esc's and tried 're-centering/limits' on drive channels, no change. maybe the radiolink Rx puts out a bit different sbus sequence for these channels than expected. Using hobbywing 40amp esc's(with 5v red wire removed).
Anyone w/thoughts or ideas?
30
« on: June 26, 2018, 04:48:24 PM »
Hello All, Been working on this 1/16 predominantly scratch build for a while. Built many arduino IDE based trinket and other microprocessor projects, including writing code for some basic sound and light control, both button press and RC for laser blasters, glowing crystals, live steam, and many scale models (if interested: https://www.youtube.com/user/goldenarch3/videos ) Also, created many 3D printed parts for these. This is my first build with the OP TCB. So far, all the basic functions work, cannon, barrel pan and elevation, cannon flash (HL), and MG1. I am using a RadioLink 12 channel with the 12 channel sbus Rx. I plan to use the Benedini sound card as it, IMHO, offers the most realistic engine throttle sound algorithm. The OPConfig program worked like a champ. I did have to update the board firmware twice but after that, no issues. Waiting on two ESc's for the motors. Thank you OP for creating these boards. I know it is MUCH work and time. Some pics... more to follow.
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