RC Tanks Australia Forum

Hi everyone,

I'm just finishing up my M41 build and starting on a T55, but I have run into a bit of a problem and I am wondering is anyone else has come across a similar issue. My M41 is an RX18 / RC2HL / Turnigy 9X setup and the problem I'm having is when I engage the turret traverse (usually only when traversing to the left I think) things go a little haywire... the main gun starts firing, the motors do their little HL recoil jerk and usually the tank then decides it would like to shut down. If I put a Pothead into the setup for volume control, then when traversing the turret left the sound will fade out after a moment, and then fade back in again (usually with no gun firing, recoil jerk or shutdown though, which is a bit of an improvement at least, though I have no idea why). While I diagnose the problem I am just using the basics...RX18, RC2HL, basic HL speaker, motors & turret motors, Turnigy 9X (running tankER9X) and 8ch Rx...no I.R. boards or equipment connected for now.

I have tested with a spare rx18 with the same results, the wiring to the turret motors looks to all be in order, and if I don't go playing with the turret traverse everyting else behaves beautifully. I am a little bit stumped. Any ideas?

Also, switch 2 on the RC2HL, seup for the reverse lights, does that require resistors on the LEDs? I have a vague memory that it doesn't and remember reading about that, but I cant locate where I was reading it.

Aside from my turret traverse problems I have to say that everything else is working like a charm and I am really happy with this one. I really should update my build thread. I can't wait to get started on the T55, though with a move to Victoria on the cards it'll probably be a good few months before I can finish that one up. I guess by then Taipan will probably be out, so I'll probably go that route for it.

Anyway, does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong?

Jan

As an update, I was incorrectly recallingwhat I had read about switch 2 on the RC2HL. After measuring its output I dropped a 330 Ohm resistor in on the reverse lights and job done. That works perfectly

And after further testing it seems I was wrong in my description of the turret traverse problem. It looks as though it doesn't matter which direction the turret is traversing, the problem can happen in either direction, and it also doesnt matter what is plugged in to the volume switch, the result is usually some combination of the earlier mentioned things (gun firing and track recoil / shutdown etc).

Strange. Oh well, I'll keep messing about and see what else I can uncover.

Hi Jan
A friend of mine kinda had same type of problems and it turned out to be elec interference from the turret motor, had to insulate and move the units away from the t motor.
If problem persist send an email or PM to Kevin

Cheers
Gra

_________________
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

Thanks for the help Gra. Yeah I also thought that interference could be a possibility, but even seperating everything as far as cables allow and taking some minor steps towards shielding hasn't helped. I guess I'll mail kevin when I get a chance and see if he has any ideas.

Cheers, Jan

Hi Jan,

I experienced something similar. I tried adding a pre-twisted servo extension wire, twisting the pothead's wire, as well as moving it to a different location within the tank. (To save Kevin a bit of typing one of the other suggestions offered was to put the pothead inside an anti-static bag [the silvery plastic ones some of your gear may have shipped in]). I thought I had the turret traverse volume fluctuations licked for a moment but then I tried another turret function (I can't recall which now) and the volume fluctuation returned.

At the time I decided just to remove the pothead and save it for a future project.

In addition to the volume fluctuation I also had another problem with the tank. It would intermittently act as though the gearbox was binding, i.e. while driving along suddenly stop for a moment before moving again. After checking the gearbox, trying a different RX-18, and moving the Turnigy receiver, I seem to have stopped the problem by swapping to a different Turnigy receiver. This made me wonder if the problems with the pothead were actually receiver related too - I haven't put it back in to find out.

So, do you have another Turnigy receiver you can try?

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the suggestions, if the problems persist I'll try those ideas. For now though it appears that all is well, and the issues seem to have disappeared. Unfortunately I don't have any useful information to leave here for anyone in the future who may suffer a similar problem.

I messed around more with it all yesterday. One moment things were playing up as described earlier, I switched everything off and went to do something else. When I returned later everything was behaving properly. I think the only thing I changed was to add a bit of a limit on ch3 (I think) on the 9X with the intent of stopping the left stick from controlling the main gun and since then there has been no sign of the problems coming back. It's wierd, but for now I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

That said now that everything is playing nice and I have run a couple batteries through, I have to say that that the whole setup is rather nice to use, and offers a lot of flexibility.

As the stock sounds on the RX18 are just too generic, I am quite looking forward to the new soundcard / taipan stuff for my T55, and I'll probably look at moving my M41 over to that system too eventually. I cant wait to work on some new sounds, at least that is familiar territory for me, hehe.

Anyway, for now, things are working smoothly. I'll update the thread if anything resurfaces.

Thanks everyone, Jan

Hi again Jan,

Glad to hear your problems are sorted. What you said about limiting the travel gave me another idea. Have you calibrated your transmitter? Given that the turret control stick down and right turns the tank off, maybe the stick center position could be out of whack?

Best regards,
Dave