RC Tanks Australia Forum

Hi Kevin,
I have just got my 2nd ASP board from Gary at Victorian Armoured RC Club. ( These boards are very popular in the club )
But I am in need of some help.
I have read the ASP wiki notes on the flash unit and recoil motors several times and am still confused.
I have a Taigen recoil system with a High Voltage flash unit and are confused about the wiring.

Firstly, the flash has 5 wires coming from it, red blue black and 2 from a micro switch. How can i tell what order to fit the red blue black to the V0 V+ V+sig pins. I know the pins range from top to bottom but don’t know what colour fits which pin. 
Also, do i disregard the wire from the microswitch because the flash recoil timing is synchronised by the ASP ?

Secondly, the recoil motor. It has a black neg wire, a pos white and blue wire with a small inline switch from the + of the elevation motor. Also a yellow wire from the neg side of the recoil motor goes to a microswitch which has a large red wire that connects to the neg side of the battery on/off switch.( constant neg supply ).

How does all this connect to the ASP recoil 3pins. (Left pin V- signal, middle pin is BV+ and the right pin is V0). 
Can you help explain the wiring below:
Connect BV+ direct to recoil motor,
V0 connects to the common pin of the recoil motor's microswitch.
The V- signal connects direct to the other terminal of the recoil motor.
A short wire then connects the NC contact of the switch to the same motor terminal as the V- signal.

Attached is a pic of the Taigen elevation recoil & flash unit.

There a few other people in our club who are in the same situation so any assistance would be great.
Thanks Steve

OK I'll try to give you a hand.

A lot of the info you seek is already available in the Komodo+ posts/videos. For both Komodo and Asp you need to convert the wiring on the flash.

First up the Flash unit does not have 5 wires coming from it - only 3. These 3 wires go into a 5 pin plug with the other two wires being the microswitch on your factory Taigen. Instead of using a 5 pin plug with these two elements combined Asp uses separate 3 pin and 2 pin plugs.

The microswith plug should be a no brainer simply connect the 2 way cable from the microswitch to the microswitch input on Asp. You ONLY need to do this IF you are using AIRSOFT. For IR you can remove the microswitch completely.

You have to carefully remove the 3 wires from the flash unit out of the 5 pin plug and re-insert them into a 3 way JST-XH plug. There should be a blank connector in the header. Typically the colours are Red-V+ Blue-V0 and the black wire is the V+ signal. Note: no colour co-ordination with Taigen stuff (you would expect the black to be V0 but it is not). Insert these as directed and your flash is taken care of.

As for the recoil motor it really helps to understand how the recoil motor works. The motor is connected direct to battery voltage with the V- wire passing through a microswitch. When turned on the recoil motor will startup and spin as it does so a tab will eventually turn round and press on the microswitch. When this happens the microswitch is turned OFF and hence the supply to the motor is cut and the motor will stop in the ready to fire position as it is no longer getting a connection to V- (ground, V0, V-, all these are the same for this).

I always find it best to remove ALL the cables from those Asiatam/Taigen recoil units and start fresh. They are wired far more complicated in the factory than they need be. So remove the 3 way JST - XH cable. Now follow as the directions suggest.
Connect the BV+ (battery voltage+) wire direct to the recoil motor terminal that is towards the outside. This is the simplest connection.
Now connect the V- wire to the MIDDLE pin on the microswitch. TO complete the circuit get a short length of wire and connect the INSIDE pin of the microswitch to the OTHER terminal of the recoil motor (inside terminal).

With these two wires connected the recoil motor will run until the tab turns off the microswitch.

In order to get the recoil to activate by turning on the motor - you have to bypass the microswitch with a second V- signal. So you simply connect the V- SIGNAL direct to the recoil motor terminal on the inside (obviously the one opposite to the V+ terminal).

Below are some shots of my testing recoil motor and flash unit
Red is BV+
Black is V0 (V-)
Yellow is the V- signal (and also the wire from inside microswitch to terminal)

2015-12-04 06.50.10.jpg

2015-12-04 06.51.20.jpg

Cheers
KG

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rctanksaustralia.com

Hi Afrikakorps,
Just remember the big red cable up the top with the HL antenna connection is the earth, and I don't use the HT flashes just a super bright LED, easier and better uses less room.

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

Hi Kevin,
thanks for the detailed explanation. Much appreciated. Tried it out on the weekend and all worked well. Bit of trouble when Toro/Taigen hot glue the flash and barrel to the recoil unit.

Gra, i usually do use a super bright led, but this build came with a HV flash so i wanted to try it. Thanks for your advice.

Now, i have just have to get the right sounds to work from the SD card. ( not that easy with a Mac )
Will let you all know how i go with that.

Cheers Afrikakorps

There will be a bit of a lull here till after XMAS but then early next year I plan to make a available a range of Asp accessories. Even though you can simply copy & paste the sound files for each tank type to the root dir of the SD Cards just getting good cheap SD Cards in the first place can be a bother.

The shop will offer next year cheap SD Cards with an option for any tank sounds to be pre-loaded

Cheers
KG

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rctanksaustralia.com

Hello
Firstly thanks for the ASP - brilliant
I am a complete bozo when it comes to electronics. I can follow instructions but haven't a clue what I'm doing! I'm using the taigen recoil/ elevation and flash
I have rewired the flash per above and it works great. I,m still using the existing earth wire.
I think I can follow the instructions above regarding the recoil unit(although a picture of the Microswitch would help confirm)
However as I am using the elevation motor of the taigen unit I would appreciate your help.
With the factory wiring the wires from the elevation motor go to the 3 pin plug as well. Your pictures don't show the wiring for the elevation unit.
Can you help - pictures with the words so I can see what needs to be done.
I'm sure you know what I mean but I attach a picture of the unit.

The elevation motor should be pretty easy to work out. Asp allows for complete control of the elevation motor and as such you should remove all factory wires going to the elevation motor. You need now to treat the recoil and elevation motors as completely separate non-connected units.

Once the factory wiring is removed from the elevation motor all you have to do is wire one of the 2-way 300 mm JST-XH cables that came with your Asp to your elevation motor and plug the connector end into the elevation motor connection. Pretty simple. UNLIKE the recoil motor it does not matter to which motor solder tab the wires go.

In the end all you will have is a 3 way cable for the recoil and a 2 way cable for the elevation motor. There is no need for the microswitch at the top of the unit (you can remove it completely)

Cheers
KG

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rctanksaustralia.com

Absolutely fantastic!
Recoil and elevation working great.
Just one more silly question.
Can you tell me where to put the red earth wire (politely!) Which was factory soldered across the outer and middle pins.
Cheers
Bob

The factory red earth wire is removed completely along with that top microswitch with the red & black wires.

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rctanksaustralia.com

Thanks for your speedy reply.
I am sure you can do without ignorant customers like me and this will be the last question.
From my school days I recall that an earth wire was to protect against electric shock. Can you spare a minute to explain why the red earth is there in the first place and why its not needed now. Its not that important - just trying to understand.
On a more positive note.
The ASP board is excellent even for twits like me especially when combined with tanker9x.
I have just ordered another to replace my IBU2 boards (i would have ordered 2 but only one in stock)
Cheers
Bob