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« Last post by Foxhood on December 01, 2025, 04:21:17 PM »
Took a detour from my TCB iterating efforts to experiment with sound involving one of the smaller AVR-Dx (AVR64DD28) and its built-in 10-bit DAC.
My reasoning is that if the original OPSC was a 72Mhz ARM processor juggling "6" channels of stereo, 16-bit, 44Khz PCM data from a uSD card via a SPI bus. Surely a 24Mhz AVR processor could juggle a few 8-bit mono channels. Benedini showed it was possible for AVR to do sound and that was with a older memory constrained ATmega8 type connected to slow Flash memory, no DAC and long before libraries like sdFat became the optimized beasts we know today. Only thing the AVR lacks is a DSP for floating point math so one has to cheat a little to keep mixing data within the ballpark of the ALU by using bit-shifts and multiplications for manipulating volume.
Approach is fairly simple. Two output buffers with one marked as active. A timer routine slowly goes through the active buffer pushing the values to the DAC output while the processor is prepping the other buffer. Grabbing pages of 8-bit signed 22Khz PCM via sdFat from files, manipulating volume and smashing them together. Been running through benchmarks with pages of 1024 bytes and i've managed to get it to handle 9 files before it started to fail at preparing before the DAC Timer caught up to it. Which is very promising considering the old benedini only managed 2 channels and the OPSC could do 6. Honestly would have been happy with just 4 really...
Next is to get Logic running and test with actual soundsets rather than little test-waveform files. Since I'm working with raw-files without a sound library i got a lot of freedom in how i deal with data. Can even do stuff like pre-processing files to make playback easy (e.g. behead them so you get RAW). Gonna take a lot of coding. But I'm fairly excited about my progress.
I've also drafted a small board for it with the minimum components to see how small it actually is. It is really just the AVR, a generic LDO, uSD Slot and the MAX9768 (same as regular OPSC). BOM puts it at like 10$ plus PCB which makes it the cheapest sound-card yet, may be good for existing boards, though i am definitely looking at fitting the circuit unto my TCB Re-design as a co-processor.
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« Last post by IIHadesII on November 26, 2025, 12:39:36 AM »
I will try, its gonna take some time becouse my time for hobby is very limited. But i did some rough calculations and i think that the easyest and cheapest way is to order a pre assembled OP TCB from China (pcbway or so) and sound board+esc, if im not wrong it will cost you around 140€ in total(of course you still need a receiver and transmitter etc). If you order the fatfingers pcb and the electronics+arduino+sound board+motor esc= the price is almost the same but with the difference that you have to solder everything by your self and put the pcb together and hope you did no mistakes..but I will think about what is the better way for me and when I will start doing it, I will post it here. But as I said, very limited time xD
Best Regards
Ilias
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« Last post by LukeZ on November 25, 2025, 01:27:38 PM »
Hi Ilias, thank you for the kind words about the project, I appreciate it and I'm glad you like it.
It's true that there is a lot to learn, especially if you are going to try to create your own board. But it can also be rewarding and gratifying to assemble something yourself, and if you like what we call "tinkering" in English then you certainly have many hours of fun ahead of you (and probably a few hours of frustration!)
But do let us know if you build a FatFingers shield, I'm sure others would be interested to hear your insights about the process.
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« Last post by IIHadesII on November 25, 2025, 12:57:50 AM »
Hey, thank you very much for the information. I really appreciate your effort, and I truly love the work that has been done so far. I’m pretty sure that, from my point of view, your TCB is the best control board for tanks out there.
I’ll try to use the Fatfingers shield and reconstruct it, and I hope I’ll make it to the desired finish line =D. As a new member, it’s a bit overwhelming to understand everything that has been discussed in the forum — you basically have to read everything from the beginning, and that can take ages xD.
I am building a StuG IV right now with the original TCB and OP Sound Board and OP ESC, the elektronics are set up and working fine but i have to finish tank now and build something for the barrel elevation, barel left/right and recoil, all driven by servos but im not sure how to hook up everything (mechanicaly). And after that i would like to upgrade some older tanks of mine to a TCB (Arduino+Fatfingers)and test everything in a IR Battle.
Best regards,
Ilias
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« Last post by LukeZ on November 24, 2025, 03:01:30 PM »
If you want to assemble something and have all the same functions as the original TCB, the FatFingers shield is your best option. The Baldock shield is missing certain capabilities, including IR.
None of the shields will include sound (the Heclo shield because the Teensy 3.2 is no longer available, and the other shields because they are using the same design as the TCB). However all three shields will still let you use Taigen sound cards, or the Benedini/DasMikro sound cards.
The Heclo shield has onboard motor drivers. The FatFingers and Baldock shields will require ESCs.
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« Last post by IIHadesII on November 24, 2025, 09:42:18 AM »
Ok, thank you for the replies so far, I really appreciate it.
So what would be the go to for low cost ? I read a lot about the shields that are done so far , baldogs shield and fatfingers, but I didn't quite get the difference, both need an sound modul and both need esc for drive motors, but both also can use servos for turret functions and both can use IR battle systems ? So what are the main differences,i really try to figure out the "best" about easy use, cost efficiency and most functions....I'm so confused about all that.i can do some soldering too as long it's not to much smd. I would like also to use home made IR transmitter/receiver for battle system.
Ilias
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« Last post by LukeZ on November 24, 2025, 08:10:23 AM »
Hi Ilias, Yes, it is very unfortunate the Teensy 3.2 was discontinued. Unfortunately, the replacement versions that are now sold (Teensy 4.0 for example) are very different and it is not possible to simply move the firmware from the old chip to the new chip, in fact the firmware needs to changed and we need a completely different approach to creating sound. Maybe some day someone will make these changes, but it is a big undertaking, and for now we must consider the Open Panzer sound project to be at an end. The Taigen sound cards are the best alternative if the goal is to keep the cost as low as possible. Their sound is not great, but they are very inexpensive, and they can be connected directly to an Arduino Mega. In answer to your question about the Heclo Shield, yes it does include motor drivers, so no additional ESCs are necessary. At the same time, it is good to remember that ESCs can be purchased for very little money from the Chinese sellers. I think you could probably purchase 4 ESCs (two for the drive motor, and two for the turret rotation/elevation) for probably 50€. Finally, in regards to the Scout ESC that you have - you do not need to use an FTDI cable with them, nor will they transmit any information in Snoop. All you need to do is connect the Scout to the TCB with a serial cable as shown in the Wiki here. You do not need to worry about the baud rate - when the TCB communicates with the Scout it will manage that automatically.
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« Last post by IIHadesII on November 22, 2025, 12:08:42 PM »
Aber genau das ist mein Problem =D ich möchte nicht alles kaufen, ich brauche ja ein TCB 170€ bei Torro dann brauche ein Sound Modul was auch fast 100€ kostet dann brauche ich noch die Motor Driver und alles zusammen dann +- 250€ und das wird dann alles in ein Panzer verbaut der 100€ wert hat xD.
Ich habe einige Panzer und möchte alle über eine Fernbedienung benutzen (Ich habe die FrSky X9D+) und ich möchte die Möglichkeit haben auf die schnelle die Panzer auf die Selbe Steuerung zu bringen und alle gleich einstellen können. Deswegen fand ich Open Panzer so geil, das Menu ist sehr einfach gestaltet und man kann sehr vieles einstellen so wie man es braucht.
Ich finde es tatsächlich sehr schade das der Teensy 3.2 nicht mehr gibt.... =( könnt ihr nicht so ein Sound Modul mit einem neueren Chip einfach herstellen ? Ich kann sowas leider nicht =/ Das Heclo Shield hat aber die Motor Driver auch drauf oder muss man die Motor ESC noch separat dazu Hollen ?
Und ja ich habe deinen Beitrag für den Arduino Mega gefunden =D deswegen bin ich so heiß auf eine universale und einfache Lösung =D weil so ein Arduino Mega, kriegt man beim Chinesen für ca 20€ ich habe einen sogar hier auf dem bereits Open Panzer läuft =D aber mein Wunsch ist halt :einfach, nicht zu teuer, auf alle meine Panzer das selbe und am Liebsten Open Panzer xD.
Ahja, habe versucht heute mit einem FTDI Kabel die OP Motor ESC zu connecten aber das funktioniert leider nicht und wenn ich snoop nutze bekomme ich keine infos. Beim snoopen steht aber das er Verbindung hat aber so normal kriege ich keine Verbindung und über das tcb mit baudrate von 38400 kann ich auch nicht verbinden die ESC.
Ich finde es so traurig das es bisher keine lösungen gibt das selbe system wieder aufzubauen wie vorher mit Open Panzer Sound, ESC und TCB und das ganze vielleicht als eine einzige Platine.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ilias
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« Last post by LukeZ on November 22, 2025, 08:08:57 AM »
Hi Ilias, I'm glad you are liking the Open Panzer controller, and you were indeed very fortunate to get a sound card since those were never manufactured. Your assumption about an Arduino Mega + Heclo Shield is correct, EXCEPT, that the Teensy 3.2 processor which is needed for sound, was discontinued by the manufacturer a couple years ago, and is no longer available. So PCBWay would not be able to obtain it, and although the Heclo shield would still work, you would have no sound (the Heclo shield combines the TCB and the Sound Card onto a single board). The two other shield designs (FatFingers and Baldock) also let you create a TCB with an Arduino Mega. The FatFingers shield basically recreates all the functionality of the TCB, the Baldock has fewer functions. Like the original TCB, neither includes sound or speed controls. However, by the time you purchase these boards you will probably have spent just as much money as it would cost to simply buy the TCB from Torro. Depending on what you want to control, you can also use an Arduino Mega all by itself but with limited functionality. By connecting an ibus or PPM receiver, and some RC speed controls directly to the Mega, you can drive your tank and control the turret. Some have even added lights and recoil servo directly to the Mega. But if you want to use the smoker, or IR, or airsoft and some other things, then it becomes necessary to add other components through a shield or your own custom board, and the Mega by itself is no longer enough. This is the thread where all discussion about using a Mega as a TCB is discussed, I'm sure you have already found it: TCB Firmware with Stock Arduino MegaThe first post in that thread has information for using the Mega alone, but then the discussion continues for a long time on all the various shields and circuits other people have experimented with. Making your own TCB with a Mega is a fun project, but the more you want it to resemble the original TCB, the more complicated the design becomes, and eventually it makes more sense to just buy a prebuilt TCB. Luke
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« Last post by IIHadesII on November 21, 2025, 11:41:11 AM »
Hallo, Ich habe vor kurzem einen RC Panzer Konvolut aufgekauft für 200€ und da waren 6 Panzer und einer von denen hat eine Open Panzer Steuerung, das TCB, Sound Karte von Open Panzer und den Motor Driver von Open Panzer (Eigentlich erstmal Jackpot) =D. Ich habe mich sehr viel belesen im Forum und habe erstmal herausfinden müssen wie alles zum laufen gebracht wird und wie alles eingestellt wird etc. Tage lang beschäftigt und nun läuft alles und ich finde es meeeega Geil, ich bin der Meinung es gibt einfach nichts besseres als die Open Panzer Steuerung. Nun habe ich mich weiterhin damit befasst und bin soweit gekommen das ich verstanden habe das man das ganze auch von einem arduino aus steuern kann. Ich habe allerdings nicht ganz verstanden wie der einfachste weg ist, ich bin kein Programmierer oder Platinen Bastler und deswegen brauche ich eine "Einfache" Lösung. Habe ich es richtig verstanden das man mit einem Arduino Mega (Oder Analog) das Heclo Shield drauf machen kann (Muss man aber vielleicht bei PCBway oder ähnlich Bestellen) und das ganze dann mit OP Config einrichten kann und alles dann läuft ? Quasi Arduino Mega +Heclo Shield = RTR TCB ??  Entschuldigt mich falls den gleichen Thread schon mal gibt war ich vermutlich zu blöd diesen zu finden.  mit freundlichen Grüßen Ilias 
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