I bought 2 tanks finally..

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Cultana
Kettenrad Driver
Kettenrad Driver
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2018 12:56 pm

I bought 2 tanks finally..

Post by Cultana » Wed Dec 01, 2021 6:23 am

Well I have finally bought 2 RC tanks. Both are MATO ones. I did look at the TAMIYA ones but the price turned me off a bit. Also it was hard to see if they were fully functional IR battle ready electrically.
I had a quick look at the Hooben tanks and in reality not that a big difference to the MATO ones. Both appear use the Clark TK22 MFU system.

With much deliberation I got a Pz. Kpfw. III, (appears to be modelled on the Ausf L), and a King Tiger tank from MATO, BB and IR versions.
To change it's just a mater of swapping the turret.

Both are plain aluminium with metal track. They need to be painted. Possibly North African paintwork for the Pz III and either European or Russian for the King Tiger.

The Pz II needed the tracks to be tensioned, as they were loose. Easily done as the tanks come with a track tension system built in. I did end up removing 1 link per track on the Pz III to get this correct. The King Tiger did not have this problem.

The only other thing I had to do was apply a little grease to the metal gearboxes. That quietened them down a lot.

The IR system is substandard.
It is rather primitive as it uses the Clark programming system, i.e. IR receiver and LED flashing light.
The IR emitter is in the gun barrels. With the Pz III it is not a big globe.

In the picture you can see a little black piece coming out of the commander's cupola.
A picture of the Clark IR programming system added as well.

The bigger problem:
In side the system is sort of Ok, but the range is poor. Outside in sunlight no hope of working at all, even at a distance of 30 cm.
I am not sure if that is an IR issue or to do with this specific set up MATO uses.

Possible solution:
I was wondering if the Piranha system would be better for IR battles.

It should not be hard to add this as all the wires are there.
I may have to upgrade the slip ring feeding cable to the turret, as the current wires used are very thin. No big deal though.

Thoughts?
Attachments
Clark program system.jpg
Clark program system.jpg (85.04 KiB) Viewed 43988 times
PZ III.jpg
PZ III.jpg (1.65 MiB) Viewed 43988 times

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