RC Tanks Australia Forum

Great work Kevin, coming along nicely mate
Cheers
Gra

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Gra's Heavy Tank Regiment
HL Tiger 1 - El Mod, Tiger 1, K T Porsche turret, Panzer III & IV, Stug G & E, Panther D,
Matorro KT, Jagdtiger and Sturmtiger, HL Sherman and T - 34, A7V (WIP)
Panzergruppe South Member

Hey all - lack of daily videos doesn't mean lack of work. I have tweaked the handling of Taipan at high speed making the tank a bit more manoeuvrable at full throttle. I am also adding in 3 different throttle response curves. If you want to think of them as light, medium heavy then you can. These changes mean a board revision which I have also been doing. These new changes will provide:

Airsoft support (finally)
Jumpers for the selection of throttle response

On the technical side I have beefed up the traces going to the motor driver chips and added some pads for the addition of some inductors.

Cheers
KG

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rctanksaustralia.com

Hi there Kev. It's been a long time for me. At last... A great board!! Just what I wanted. So, when will this board be out for sale? Very eager to have this board.

Dealing with EMI

Well the storm has slowed things up a bit here BUT not that much of an impact on T2014 as just before the storm the latest update to the PCB was sent off to be made. So waiting now for the newer PCB. In the meanwhile some issues need to be looked at since the new board offers airsoft - which means more horrible little EMI producing motors to deal with.

With the sensitive microcontrollers used on higher end gear such as T2014 the electromagnetic interference caused by the small toy motors used in tanks causes problems. Regardless of what controller is in use I would always recommend at least 3 filtering capacitors on each motor. I have posted on this before regarding the RCXHL. Typically I use three 0.1uF (100nF) ceramic capacitors. One across the motor terminals, one from the right terminal to the can and the last from the left terminal to the can. Below is the setup on the recoil motor of the Asiatam/Taigen unit. The elevation motor (right) is NOT done



Even with these capacitors there was still some interference. This was reduced further still, if not all but eliminated with the addition of the ferrite bead (black blob).

To some this may look difficult or a bit of overkill. However, for reliable performance such a setup should be done for all of those small toy motors (turret, elevation, airsoft & recoil)

Till next time

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rctanksaustralia.com

Hey All

Quick text only update. The latest version of the Taipan2014 board arrived yesterday and today I have assembled 80% of one.

What's New???

There is airsoft support
Acceleration curve type selection via jumpers
Improved thermal dissipation
Added several more options for random sound selections (250 sounds to fill remember)

Still dealing with hail damaged cars and house so things are going slower than they would of otherwise. However, a big thanks to all that have supported the shop over the past 2 weeks. You support has managed to keep things chugging along rather than grinding to a halt.

Cheers
Kevin G

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rctanksaustralia.com

AIRSOFT SUPPORT:

Ok finally back to video updates. Here is the latest revision of the PCB and a quick demo of the airsoft function. As many of you would know the airsoft unit takes time to wind up and then fire. When the airsoft unit fully compresses the internal spring it closes the microswitch and the unit fires. This microswitch action syncs up the sound and the firing of the projectile. HENCE the fire action is NOT instantaneous with flicking the switch on the radio as it is with IR.



Since all of my airsoft units have either been cut up or thrown out I have none to demo with. The video above shows a turret motor instead. To accommodate airsoft units without a microswitch or failure of the switch a failsafe is included in the program which will turn off the motor after a certain period of time. This will prevent contstant firing of the unit.

NOW here is where I expect dissent. Taipan has a reload period affecting the Airsoft as well as for IR. You can not continuously fire the airsoft as it is subject to the same reload period as for IR. This makes it simple for Taipan to have BOTH airsoft and IR battle function at the same time.

Cheers
KG

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rctanksaustralia.com

KG for added realism on modern tanks would it be possible to program a barrel raising action after the firing recoil sequence like it happens in the real would?

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SpuD

Start Me Up

While trying to come up with some space on the PCB for "ANOTHER" jumper to select Airsoft mode it dawned on me why not have different start up modes using the radio? At present only 100% on CH5 turns on the tank. If a tank is not on then all the other CH5 switches are doing nothing (-100%, -50% & +50%). All 4 CH5 switches can be used to turn on the tank and have the tank operate in a specific mode. These swiches can revert back to their normal function once the tank has started. Not only is this a simple process but having the radio do the job also frees up I/O pins on the microcontroller and space on the PCB.

Hence, Taipan now has 4 startup modes.

100% CH5 - Normal "hardcore" IR battle mode (Tanks needs manual restart after death)
50% CH5 - Soft IR battle mode (Tank will restart 10 seconds after death)
-50% CH5 - Airsoft only
-100% CH5 - Airsoft/IR combo

Once the taipan has started up the -100%, -50% & +50% switches revert to their normal functions (headlight, auxlight, engine off). +100% remains the Shutdown switch for ALL modes.

@spud - probably not an option in the near future. But I'm sure that you could do this with tankER9X alone or with sirvoe if you were using servos for elevation. Plus main program is at 7/8ths full.

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rctanksaustralia.com

I HATE MATH

Some people can do math I can not. So it took ages for me to come up with these simple equations for the throttle curves.

ThrottleCurves.jpg

Taipan will allow you to select one of these 4 types of throttle curve to best suit your tank. Of course with tankER9X you can further modify the throttle response for a virtually unlimited number of responses.

If you have a tank that weighs a lot and is sluggish with existing controllers then Curve 4 is for you.
If your tank has a good weight to motor power ratio then Curve2 or Curve 3 may suit
If your tank needs more control at slower speeds then Curve1

Cheers
KG

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rctanksaustralia.com

Let's Get LOUD!!!

The sound module used by Taipan has an audio output jack which will allow easy connection to any separate amplifier module. Hence, Taipan can be as loud as you desire. There is an amp on the sound module itself but if that is not loud enough for you can beef up your sound to whatever maximum power you can fit inside your tank.

There are plenty of audio amplifier modules available on eBay and most that will fit easily inside a 1/16 tank are under $10. My current fave is the 10W stereo amps shown in the video.



On a side note - The upcoming Diamondback (Taipan's little brother) will be featuring an 8W amp. Depending on the success of that design - it may be ported over to Taipan2015. However, the external output option will always remain so that you can plug your tank into your home stereo system if you so desire

Cheers
KG

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