RC Tanks Australia Forum

Replies continued....

@ranman38 - When ready what you get depends on what you want/need. You can rip all of the electrics out of your Heng Long right now and replace with a Taipan V1 board. Anyone could have done this moths ago. However this only gives you the basic drive functions and turret. SO if you were converting a tank as a camera platform then Taipan V1 is all you need. If you want sound only you could get a Taipan V1 and a Benedini sound card. This would suit a Bergepanzer or like tank with no weapons.

If you want all that a standard HL provides you will need to get a Taipan board and a Sound board (Juno) AND a Turnigy 9X or 9XR radio. To access all of the functions of Taipan you will need a radio with all the features of a 9X system. There are lots and lots of functions with Taipan and the programming of the 9X Radio goes hand in hand with development.

At present the functions are as follows

CH1 - Steering RUD
CH2 - Acceleration THR - (momentum, speed limiting and auto reverse light)
CH3 - Gun Elevation ELE - proportional control, Cannon fire, OR Flakpanzer, MG1 fire OR MG2 fire
CH4 - Turret rotation AIL - proportional control
CH5 - Switching/Control Ch - Tank ON/OFF, Headlight ON/OFF, Aux Light On/Off, Engine sound on/off
CH6 - Sound control CH - Volume control, Activate User sounds
CH7 - Spare
CH8 - Tank ID control channel for Octopus Model Matching.

Continued Pt III

@ ranman38 - WRT product becoming obsolete - That unfortunately is a consequence of development. Even within a certain product. MAKO when it first came out had only a 8 pin microcontroller - now it has a 14 pin controller. At some point all that new developments have to offer outweighs staying with the old product. With the Taipan it is only the RC2HL and Mako boards at issue. Octopus, Remora even Pothead/Viper are independent and will be able to interface with Taipan. What is very important to note is that 90% of the time incompatibility can be solved solely in the program running on the chips and so all that is required is a software update (more on this later). So a board that is "obsolete" at present could just need a software update to be come relevant again.

If you get Taipan with JUNO sound then straight out no need for the RC2HL or RC5HL (more on this later too). It is a choice of A or B

RE: MAKO II - from a space inside tank point of view then the MAKO function is best combined onto the JUNO board. I think trying to stick a Taipan, Juno & Mako into a tank will be too much. So count MAKO out of the picture as well. HOWEVER, MAKO II is perfect for use with a Panterturm or other fixed gun emplacement. So the Big Fixed Gun (BFG) emplacement system will require MAKO. So all your old MAKO boards can go into battlefield guns.

Finally PRICING - straight up there is no way I can compete with Chinese made boards. At present I make, program and test each board by hand ( and it is only me) on the other hand the German made boards are far too expensive. SO expect price points inbetween the two.

Cheers ALL

Sorry last part

Part IV

What better way to show what's going on than to take a photo of my work bench.

MyBench.jpg

A- My computer - upon which 99% of RCTA stuff emanates

B - My Visaton speakers at present connected to the JUNO development sound board. Note there are 2 at the moment. One speaker for the Engine and another for everything else. On final board these will be mixed so you can use 1 speaker for both or 2 if you have the room.

C - Taipan V1 board. Note no connection with Juno as yet

D - Main, turret and elevation motors all connected to Taipan V1

E - A sound module - these are what you will be able to program yourself or buy already programmed with sound sets. They just plug into the JUNO boards.

F - JUNO development sound board. YES it is big. It is a development board and will drastically shrink in size on next production.

G - Octopus attached to Turnigy 8 channel receiver. Who says everything takes a long time? Octopus took less than 14 days from first thinking of the idea to a fully operational board. No they are not in the shop as there is nothing to use them with as yet that's how quick Octopus was.

H - Programming cable - connect one end to 'puter other to the programming connection on board. Unfortunately latest batch of these cables from China do not work.

I - a battery probably running low and is in need of a recharge - before it becomes a balloon.

J - my favourite little screwdriver which I can never find when I need it.

K - Down the track fantasy stuff - this is a ultra sonic distance detector. Imagine automatic gun emplacements that are able to track movement out on the battlefield and when an enemy tank is close enough BANG your dead

L - more down the track stuff - this is a gyro - think automatic gun stabilization - essential for say long (and I mean long) range artillery pieces utilising LASER IR. No not sharks with frickin' lasers " " in my secret lair a la Dr Evil but real battle field guns able to get you at over 40 metres. Yes LASER IR works and yes you can plug an IR laser module directly into a MAKO (bet you didn't know exactly how advanced a MAKO really is:) ) BUT you need a second targeting laser using visible light & to be a darn sniper to get it in the hole.

Probably a good thing I don't have the time to get to any Tank Battle days. I think I'd piss too many people off shooting them up at 40 metres with the laser IR and Tamiya 2 shot kill signal not to mention my MAKO equipped Quadcopter raining death from above. Ahhh the future can't wait.....

Hi,
This is really great news!! I was planning to use two speakers all the way. This sound board is the ideal board for me. Guess I want to have the Taipan and Juno set.

Regards,
Hajime

Hey Hajime

Sorry about the cables - Andrew & I are sorting it out - I may have a slightly different type that will work fine. You will really need a cable to update the demo boards otherwise it is of little point getting one.

More video soon

Cheers
KG

Hi,
First of all, thanks for your concern. It would be frustrating if I have a non working cable.
Okay, send me an invoice again when the Taipan and Juno is ready also the cables.
It would be nice if Juno has a dedicated output for engine sounds and a dedicated one for the
other sounds.

Planning to use two AURA SOUND one inch speakers. Also want to try to make one of those
acoustic smoke units I saw from other forums.

I hope the engine sounds are different from those HL or TK22's. I have also assembled a
10W x 2 sound amp to use for testing. Planning on using a tone control too.

Also want to test brush motors vs brushless motors. Upon using BL motors, what type or how much
KV should be used?

Regards,
hajime

Hi there,
Any news?
How's everything going?

Regards,
H.S.

Here is the latest video. At some point I will have to fix up a tank to show off ALL of Taipans features



Enjoy
KG

Hi Kev,
Very nice video. I'm really excited of when will it be out. engine sounds truly great.
Is the Taipan and Juno be able to operate at 11.1V?

Hope to get my hands on this baby soon.

Regards,
hajime

HI Hajime

First up it looks like we have solved the programming cables - it appears that the cables don't like MY computer but are fine with everyone else's. SO everything is back on track there.

Yes the setup will work with 11.v but not the evaluation boards unless specifically modified. Final release will run 3 cell LiPos - Don't forget Taipan has enough grunt to run tanks bigger than 1/16th.

Cheers
KG