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Offline hutchice

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Air soft setup
« on: October 22, 2017, 02:07:27 PM »
I am attempting to setup a taigen airsoft firing mechanism.  I have rewired the unit as the instructions stated and have it plugged into the recoil port on the tcb.  I have followed the instructions on setting up my radio and set the barrel type to Airsoft.  The default cannon fire function has been deleted and replaced with a new cannon fire function where I assigned the trigger to Aux channel 1 position 1 which is a two way switch.  When I test this the firing mechanism it continues to fire one shot after another and will not stop.  The firing mechanism does not seem to respond to any command from the radio.  Any ideas?

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2017, 02:57:28 PM »
I hate to say it, but this sounds like the faulty behavior we would expect if Hobby King sold you one of the boards from earlier this summer with the wrong MOSFETs. I don't know what kind of MOSFET they used but the result was that the connection was always live no matter what. This would explain what you are seeing.

The MOSFET that controls the airsoft motor is Q8 on the board, I've highlighted the location in the attached picture. I don't know how good your eyesight is, or your ability to take close-up photographs. Can you see any markings on this MOSFET? Does it looks like it has been resoldered by hand? Perhaps you can take a picture.

tcbtop.png
Air soft setup tcbtop.png
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Offline hutchice

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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2017, 04:53:15 PM »
MOSFET is signed 23eg which seems to be the same issue that were on the original boards.  This is a bit disheartening considering these are the new batch that HK has on their website.  I will take a look and see if the other mosfet’s are tagged the same.

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Offline hutchice

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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2017, 04:55:30 PM »
Yes it appears all of the MOSFETs have the same 23eg. >:(

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2017, 05:27:06 PM »
I'm really sorry to hear that, but thanks for letting me know, I will post in the other forums so people can be warned. You will need to submit a return at Hobby King. I will send you an email in just a minute.
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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2021, 07:26:28 PM »
Hi LukeZ

I’ve just encountered the same issue here (appropriately rewired airsoft unit on continuous duty as soon as power is on, and not responding to any switches / settings in OP Config). 

As indicated in this thread it sounds like I have acquired a couple of defective HobbyKing TCBs. 

Since HobbyKing stopped selling these TCBs ages ago (return and exchange is out of the question), has a work around been figured out yet?

I’m thinking of plugging a receiver controlled switch into a spare channel on the receiver to switch the airsoft unit on and off.  Going to try this next, but would love to know if I can use / adapt another port (e.g. one for the lights perhaps) on the TCB somehow.

This forum is really valuable.  Thanks for all the work that went into it.

RCBM

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2021, 09:06:15 PM »
Hi RCBM,

Unfortunately the only real work-around is to replace the MOSFETS with the correct version, which requires some rather fine soldering and I don't recommend it unless you've done a lot of similar work before, otherwise it is too easy to damage something and make things worse.

There is also not a good method of substituting another output for the airsoft functionality, for two reasons: first, the defective TCBs had the wrong MOSFETS on 8 outputs which include all the LED outputs. But more importantly, the airsoft (and mechanical recoil) units have a switch that the TCB needs to read as an input in order to know when they have completed a cycle. So you need both an output and an input on the TCB as well as the code to tie them together, and right now that is only possible on the specific Airsoft connection on the board.

You certainly could use a receiver controlled switch (or a 5 volt relay circuit connected to one of the general purpose I/O outputs) and then just manually turn on/off the airsoft. This will not be very precise and you will probably end up shooting twice in one go, or not at all, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

You might want to confirm for sure that your board is indeed defective or whether something else might be going on. Can you read what is written on any of the MOSFETS Q1 through Q8? Here is a diagram that shows where they are. If it says "23eg" that is bad news.

Alternatively if the writing is unclear, as mentioned above if the board has the wrong MOSFETS then none of the light outputs will work (Aux output, L1, L2, Brake, MG), the IR transmitter will not work, the IR notification LEDs will not work (these are the LEDs inside a Tamiya apple), and the mechanical recoil/airsoft output will not work, for a total of 8 outputs. By "not work" the behavior we typically see is that they are always on no matter what. Is this what you observe on the other outputs as well? For example, you can try to connect an LED to the L1 port and assign a trigger to the headlights on/off function and see if you are able to turn it on or off, or whether it is always on no matter what.
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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2021, 07:00:27 AM »
Thanks Luke

I can see that the TCB certainly has '23eg' marked on those 8 MOSFETS. You saved me a lot of time, thanks! I'll see what I can do with that TCB later...

So, I tried another TCB.  Got the airsoft gun to shoot, but did not manage to get the lights (L1 and L2) or the AUX to work.   I cannot read what's written on the MOSFETS, but it could be 'G7R87' or 'RL...'   

I'm still a bit slow on the uptake with assigning switches and positions to the various functions, but I did get the smoker to work with different switches and in time with the motors etc. I thought simple on/off lights would be a piece of cake.  I'll give them another go after work tomorrow. 

A side issue that I'm trying to solve is the barrel elevation. Is there a way to abruptly halt the motor cycle? I have had the  barrel elevation motor assigned to the left stick, and now on one of the sliders. When I powered up, with the barrel elevation assigned to the stick, the barrel elevation motor started rotating and would not stop, even with stick carefully held in the neutral / centre position.  So, I assigned the barrel elevation function to a slider (which is spring loaded to centre position) which helped in that the barrel didn't start moving immediately when I powered up the tank. But, once I activate the slider, the barrel elevation motor just keeps on cycling.

Thanks for your help so far, it's really appreciated.
RCBM

Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2021, 10:54:11 PM »
Follow up on the last post. 

I realise there is a lot of info on the wiki about setting up lights.  Sorry, I'll go through the info carefully before asking another question.

In terms of controlling gun elevation, I have now assigned this function to a switch instead of the slider or a stick. Simple; I toggle the switch and the gun elevation changes. Toggle again, and the gun instantly holds steady. 

Thanks again for all the help.

RCBM

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Air soft setup
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2021, 11:07:39 PM »
Hi RCBM,

Several things. First, you certainly do have one of the mal-constructed TCBs from Hobby King. There are any number of thing that can be written on the correct MOSFETS, and not all the same. But only one thing can be written on the wrong ones and that is 23eg. So that is unfortunate, but as for your second one, I think it should be ok.

As for the lights, you're right, it's all in the Wiki but I admit it's a steep learning curve. Basically you need to go the Functions tab, select one of the light functions, there are several, but for example "Light 1 (Headlights) - Turn On." Then in the Trigger Source drop down there are again tons of options but you will probably just want to assign this to an aux channel, for example if Aux 1 is a two-position switch you could select "Aux Channel 1" for the Trigger Source and "Pos 1" for the Trigger Action. Then click add to link this function to this action. Next repeat the process but select the Turn Off function and set the Trigger Action to Pos 2. Now when you toggle this switch the light will turn on and off.

You can also verify that things are working correctly by connecting with Snoop on the Firmware tab and watching the messages that appear on the screen as you toggle the switch.

Now as for the barrel, my first guess would be that you need to perform (or re-perform) the Radio Setup process, here is the wiki page on that and there is also a video there. Maybe something else is going on but this seems to me the most likely.

If Radio Setup wasn't completed correctly, or at all, then all kinds of strange behavior will occur. Radio Setup teaches the TCB exactly what the center points are for your sticks, for one example. If it doesn't know that it will make a guess which will inevitably be wrong, and what will happen is that what you see as the stick resting in the center position it reads as some kind of positive command, so you get the movement that you see when you'd rather there be none. So I'd try to go through that first of all and see if it helps. But if it doesn't, let me know!
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