Hi all,
I'm new to the forum, and generally to the RC tank hobby. I'm from the Great White North, or Canada to be precise. I've been following the boards for a while and decided that I should register seeing as I have just finished two 1/16 RC tanks now. One is a Taigen Tiger I, early version that I built from a kit and the second is my son's Heng Long M26 Pershing. I should say, I've almost finished them, because I have run into a snag trying to hook them up for IR battle function. I believe I have the Tiger all wrapped up--I bought a Mako 2 and programmed it for Heng Long compatibility and that tank is working as I believe it should.
The Pershing is giving me some issues though. I can't find any references to the same model as I have--all the pics and walkthroughs seem to be from older Heng Long tanks with the 8 Pin hull connector and separate PCB. Mine came with them together, an 8 Pin connector and 3 Pin connector mounted on the same board on the upper hull. I have been using the very excellent and detailed instructions here (
http://rctanksaustralia.com/news/?page_id=2) and then sort of winging it.
I bought a Heng Long IR conversion kit and have the Pershing set to do both airsoft and IR battling (I just connected the flash unit and secured it inside the hull in case I want to go fully IR and lose the airsoft). Anyway, the tank does everything is should, and still shoots BB's. I can hear the IR powering up, so I think it's been installed correctly. But in their wisdom, Heng Long included a red LED instead of the IR LED in the kit (I've actually read about this happening before somewhere--maybe on this forum?). I didn't discover this until I tried to battle the tanks together, and the LED was lighting up red. Also, because they didn't include a 3-pin connector for the IR receiver, I had to use another connector and wire it up. My questions (finally, I know) are:
1) does it take a special type of IR LED to run the battle function? I've used one scavenged from an old LG remote and it didn't seem to work. (could be because I don't have it hooked up correctly, which leads to the next question)
2) Do I need to run the + and - wires from the 8 Pin turret connector (that comes from the RX18) to the IR LED or will the existing airsoft warning LED function be sufficient?
and 3) I'd like to know if I have the receiver hooked up properly, as it doesn't register hits from the Tiger (as I said, I believe it's set to work with Heng Long).
I've attached a few pics of the wiring areas I'm talking about. Hopefully they are helpful in showing what I've been asking about. The first is the bottom of the turret with the scavenged IR LED soldered circled in red. The second and third are of the 8 Pin turret connector that was included in the Heng Long conversion kit.
If you're wondering why I'm using white tape rather than electrical tape, it's so I can label the wires while I'm working. I will put proper tape on them when I have all the bugs worked out. I do have some previous, self-taught electronics experience with building a life-size R2-D2. However, I'm not as familiar with the innards of the RC tanks as with my droid, yet.
Any and all help or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
