1

Show and Tell / HL T34 with tcb

« on: November 20, 2023, 03:28:46 AM »

just some pics to show you can fit a lot into a T34 with a bit of planning
cheers
rc

2

Open Source Sound Dev / Building OP sound cards

« on: January 10, 2022, 06:03:19 AM »

Hello
I thought I would share my experiences with building the op sound cards. I had all the parts for a while before I decided to brave the build. I read many articles and watched a lot of you tube videos about using an oven for the reflow process. I did try to build a soundcard with a teensy and a cheap chinese 10 watt amp module-- which did work but very noisy and a bit of a mess with wiring etc. So that is when I committed to building the OP sound card and it was a big project for me as I intended to build 15 sound cards.

I bought the boards and a stainless steel stencil from OSH and all the other parts from various suppliers. Being in Australia the freight costs have been costly but just couldn't get everything from the one supplier as stocks weren't always available, some items being last time buy ie the SD card reader for example.

I have a pretty good workbench setup with various soldering iron stations, hot air rework system and also a  desoldering vacuum pump station and being a retired comms technician I know my way around electronic circuits etc.

So to the build. I use a ice cube tray to put the components for one board in it as I found it easy to get the components out and have it close by the board. I set the pcb up on a wooden bread board and stick it down with the supplied aids that OSH provided. The stainless steel stencil is easy to clean which is something very important as the amp chip is the problem device to get right with the reflow process. This component is the only item that has caused me problems. Getting the spread of solder on the board is not to hard but the amp chip is really a bit hit or miss. The main thing is not too much solder on it and maybe very little in the centre of the chip and then cross your fingers and hope for the best.
So I have had a 20 % failure rate as three of the 15 boards have no sound working. All the other functions work as per the LEDs but no sound. I did remove the chip from a board using my reflow hot air, then used the vacuum desoldering gun to clean the excess solder then fitted a new chip and reflowed with the hot air gun , but the device still didn't work. I checked all the supporting circuitry and everything buzzed out ok so just can't tell what is going on underneath the chip !!

I did look at making an arduino control heating unit for the oven so it would follow the reflow curves for the solder, however I watched a video where someone was just using a timer and a temperature probe and turning the oven off and on manually and they got good results.  So this is what I did and got good results for 80% of the time!! So I have three dead boards which are not repairable so I will strip what parts are reusable and throw the rest in the bin.

So was it worth it??
YES it sounds fantastic. I have been using the sound files from this site and with a decent speaker in a good box the tank roars to life!! Luke has done a great job with this device as it has loads of potential for you to customise your tank models. Just a bummer about the amp chip-- I think with more practice I could get better with the solder placement etc-- you really need to be precise when you drop the device onto the board. You can't push it around too much as you  will create shorts under the chip.
So I am short a couple of boards for my TCB units however I have got a few Taigen sound modules so I will use these in my Panzar 3's and also fit these with a Sabretooth serial dual motor drive units (5amp) as these should be ok for the smaller tanks.

cheers and happy tanking.

3

Show and Tell / TCB in KingTiger

« on: April 01, 2018, 10:50:01 PM »

Hi tankers
I finally finished the install on the Kingtiger. This has a Torro metal hull and running gear and metal tracks. It has a HengLong upper hull with a BB turret but I have parts to build another turret which will be IR so I can swap between the two.
This means I will have the upper hull wiring setup to use either the BB/IR option so should just be plug and play.

So what about the driving test with the TCB and a Taigen sound board.
Fantastic is the word to use. The low speed control is unbelievable. Slow turns etc look very life like. I am yet to play around with the different drive settings- some of these you can setup on your radio to swap between so I will do that as it makes it easier to see the difference when driving.

The only issue I have is with the turret rotation. I have this connected to motor port A and when I turn the turret I noticed that the TCB will shut down.  I can still move the turret but I have to restart the engine to get the sounds back, I haven't got the shut off timed function activated so I think because the turret is very large and the motor is drawing perhaps excess current to drive it (I think some wiring maybe in the way and the BB unit hits them and then pushes thru needing more current)  and this robs the tcb of power and causes the shut down.
I will do some more tests -- the airsoft unit does protrude into the lower hull a long way especially if you have the barrel fully elevated-- when I get the IR turret working this won't have that problem so we shall see.
I am going to buy the turret ring (metal) that has the ball-bearings on it as this will help the reduce the turning force required so may fix the problem.

The wiring took a while to work out. I ended up installing a larger capacity main switch and have fused the motor feeds with a 25amp fuse and fused the TCB with a 5 amp fuse.

Anyhow the Tcb is great -- you have a very good control over all the functions and you can customize for each tank-- well done Luke and co. Now to get started on the others.

cheers
rockchuck

4

Open Panzer Help / Power switch and cabling issues

« on: March 22, 2018, 09:30:13 AM »

Hi tankers
I'm in the middle of fitting a TCB to a Torro hull King Tiger. It's very heavy with full metal lower hull and running gear.

I was looking at the standard power switch that came with it -- pretty much identical to the switch in the Heng Long stuff and it looks a bit on the light side to me. That switch is ok for the standard Heng Long/ Taigen MFU which wouldn't pull much more than 10 amps maybe 12 if you had metal tracks etc but with the TCB being able to run the seperate ESC which I am using (the Xcar X45 unit) you could be pulling maybe 20 - 25 amps with a heavy tank uphill etc.- ( the KT would be about 7 kg when finished).

I have an Elmod ECO board about a 2014 version before the Fusion series and that has a very heavy duty switch and that unit is rated to 20 amps so I think they may be on to something.

So any ideas out there ?
Also what about fusing the battery supply side ?

cheers
rockchuck

5

Open Panzer Help / JST - XH 2.5mm pitch connectors need crimping tool

« on: March 22, 2018, 09:17:53 AM »

Hi tankers
does anyone know of where I can get a decent crimping tool for the jst- xh 2.5mm pitch connectors.
I'm in Australia and I have tried Altronics and Jaycar but the tools they have aren't really fit for purpose. They kinda crimp the connectors but the crimp is not good -- very out of shape etc.
I did look at RS Components and they do have a tool but at Aud $752 I think that price is rs so I won't be buying there.

thanks
rockchuck

6

Open Panzer Help / check TCB visually before power up!!

« on: February 25, 2018, 10:25:43 PM »

Hello Tankers
thought I would share my experience with the five TCB boards I have purchased and the problem I have.
OK four of the TCB have operated correctly. I have flashed the latest firmware etc to them all -- loaded my custom functions settings etc and done a complete function test on a test setup board with the X45 esc motors , smoke unit , Taigen Sound card, recoil servo . turret motor , elevation motor, leds, airsoft -all the functions.

The fifth one however does not respond correctly and ends up with multiple functions all operating at once after a switch is thrown.
I get comms to it-- flash firmware ok -- I complete a snoop and it shows all my settings that I have loaded in-- exactly the same as the other four.
However when I reconnect comms and check what settings I have it shows the default values however I check snoop and it tells me my custom settings are in there the same as the other 4 TCB units.

So I finally get out the mag lamp and start checking the board for shorts/ dry joints etc. Of course at this stage I 'm silently kicking myself for not doing this before I put power on -- but there it is-- bridged pins on the big processor!! So using a fine bladed hobby knife I remove the fault however it did not change anything, looks like the damage was already done when I put power on the first time.

So this bridged pin fault I think occurred when HK did the mosfet repair by hand as the bridge was at the top of the pins and it was a small piece of solder that had lodged in there.

So 4 out of 5 is not bad I suppose. I did get the boards at the discounted rate so with this faulty unit means I have paid full rate for them. I can't really complain as we all want cheap things and HK does that very well.

So chaps check yer boards especially if they have the mosfet repair done. Good practice to do this also with the non repaired boards (if there are any?) 

cheers
rockchuck

7

Open Panzer Help / How to use all switches & pots on Turnigy 9x radio

« on: December 02, 2017, 09:29:16 PM »

Hello Luke
first up I would like to thank you for all your work and the other developers who have made this TCB a success.
I have just started to get into my TCB. The radio I'm using is the new Turnigy 9x AFHDS 2A with the IA8 PPM rx. I have flashed this to the latest version of ER9x and it works ok -- however you won't get any response from tcb when you are in the radio function -- you see the chans but no response. I had to set the PROTOCOL to NEG in the model setting in the 9x radio then it could see the chans responding to input.

My questions is regarding the aux chans 1-4 that I have access to as the radio is only 8 chans.
The radio has 6 two way switches , 1 three way switch and three pots that all have to share the 4 aux channels.  It looks like its a one switch per channel only option which means more than half on my discreet switching/pot options on my radio can't be used unless I upgrade the TX/Rx modules to 16 chan. The latest ER9x software - suppports 16 chans so is this my only option.

I read about the Turrent stick also doubles up as a 9 position switch. Can I used this to set up some mixes on my radio to then assign the unused switches to these 9 positions? How will this impact on the basic turrent functions-- I assume you can't use this 9 positions at the same time that you rotate the turrent/elevate gun etc.

Thanks again
Rockchuck