16

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

17

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

18

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

19

Open Source Sound Dev / Re: Open Source Sound using Teensy 3.2 and PJRC Audio Library

« on: February 19, 2018, 06:04:47 PM »

Hi Luke
thanks for your comments. Could I use a Hot Air Rework Station gun to solder the smd parts to the sound board including the Micro SD unit?  Then I could use a soldering iron to solder the connectors and other items that have plastic parts.
thanks
rockchuck

20

Open Source Sound Dev / Re: Open Source Sound using Teensy 3.2 and PJRC Audio Library

« on: February 18, 2018, 08:20:57 PM »

Hi Luke
thanks for the final release of the sound board.
I have concerns about my ability to do re-flow soldering for the board and I was wondering if you think it would be possible to use a soldering iron to do the job as there are a lot of  large items that would be ok for a soldering iron. I have many years experience  soldering as I'm a Comms Tech.
What I was thinking, I would leave some components off the board that I wouldn't use i.e the RF ch connectors and I was thinking of leaving the 10 watt off the board and use flying leads to connect to a ready made 10watt amp board like the  PAM 8610 class D unit you can buy on Ebay for less than $5. 
So the the number of SMD components to solder is only the power supply and a few resistors for the leds.

thanks again
rockchuck

21

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

« on: December 03, 2017, 01:50:55 AM »

Thanks Luke for your reply.
I did try the Turnigy 9x AFHDS 2A radio with the stock firmware but it was very hard to navigate around the different menus. I did have it communicate with the TCB and when I used the radio commands test in OP the chans did show up and they did respond to stick moments but they seemed very jittery.

Anyhow I couldn't live with the stock firmware in the radio so flashed it to ER9X -- a lot easier to navigate and the response through the tcb in the Radio mode look very stable and no jitters.

I have been looking at the FrSky module you mentioned but they are aud $100 and I have to get them from the HK Global warehouse-- which has very high shipping costs to Australia. I only paid aud $62 for the new 9x as HK had a sale on that's why I bought it-- you can't beat that price for the amount of functions you get in the radio.

However the new 9x radio may look like it is a modular construction for the transmitter unit in the back - which gives the impression you can just swap it out with the FrSky BUT they have the same installation as the older 9X units in that the coax cable from the aerial is run into the Tx module and soldered onto the cct board.

So you would have to do the Tx module hack to fit another Tx unit.

I will try the radio mixer options to see if I can get them to work with the TCB turret stick commands. I have other control units like rcta ASP and a Elmod so I want to keep the radio stick moments and switch functions the same on the different platforms if I can, otherwise I will have to have an instruction manual taped to the different radios so I know what switch etc to use.

Looking forward to the Sound Modules becoming available.
cheers
rockchuck

22

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