Early Tiger 1 from sPzAbt 503

[Björn Johansson]

Hi
Must be a lot off fun now days for
you. When you can do some feildtest.

Just lovely, really like those details
you´r adding.All those scale bolts :thumright:
Thank you for the link,lost this one in
my computerbreak down this summer.

Think you´r at the right track for those hose
if they are not avalible in black.Maybe anodised
could do the trick?

What kind off radio are you using?
Can´t really tell from those picture´s.

[cahlfors]

Must be a lot off fun now days for
you. When you can do some feildtest.

You bet! Too bad it is getting dark so early, that I cannot quite get it out before it is pitch dark in the weekdays. :( The weekend will be fun, though!

What kind off radio are you using?
Can´t really tell from those picture´s.

It is one of these: http://brixlelektronik.de/index2.htm
The coolest radio to hit the air ever! Will make any conventional radio obsolete. I am thinking that the situation is similar to the battle between the first iron ships, the Monitor and the Merrimack in the American civil war. After one battle, all the navies of the world were totally obsolete, with their wooden sailing ships! It is based on bluetooth instead of conventional technology. As you know, bluetooth is bidirectional and so, the receiver is able to talk back and can report some very important KPI:s, such as voltage, current and some other analog measurements from a model. I am thinking possibly motor temp on my Tiger. There is also no risk of hijacking somebody else's frequency as the transmissions are frequency hopping and coded. There are up to 39 proportional channels and they can be configured for a variety of tasks, such as self resetting turn signals, servo movement simulating hydraulics like on an excavator or front loader or gears simulation, so that there is low, mid and high speed range on the tracks, for maneuverability or speed.
It is a tad expensive, weighing in at about twice that of a conventional 6ch system, but the "receivers" are really cheap and one "transmitter" will hold the settings for all the models you can possibly afford, even if you are Donald Trump. I only have one model, but still have absolutely no regrets. Long term testing and weather will have to confirm, of course. You are recommended to set what you want to happen when you switch it on and when contact is lost. On a tank, you typically want any movement to stop and any lights to hold their settings. Engine sound and smoke to idle, maybe? It is all done through the menu on the "transmitter". I write "transmitter" within quotes, since it is in fact both transmitting and receiving. Maybe "control unit" would be more appropriate? It is a perfect joy, anyway!
If anyone is considering one, you should be aware that they are built to order and that they want six weeks for it. Brixlcontrol is their sidekick, which also affects customer service. They are very welcoming and nice to deal with, but they have day time jobs which have first priority. All quite natural, but you should know. Provided that the system stands up to wear, tear, aging and weather, I would rate the system *****TEN STARS*****

Cheers,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

Field test #3 yesterday went entirely hassle free! Not a single issue anywhere. I guess it only took two field tests to sort everything out. That was way beyond expectations.

I have also looked more into the feedback system. Here are the voltage and current devices:

Now hooked up and in operation, the display on the transmitter looks like this:

The 0.1A is the current (obviously), in this case at idle. 25.7V is the voltage from the main batteries and 4.91V the voltage at the receiver. They all have high and low alarm levels with a vibrator and red lights on the transmitter. Nifty!
I have yet to field test it with this configuration.

Thanks for looking in,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

Instead of working diligently with my model, I have been playing with it instead. Again.
And again, everything went perfectly smoothly. Going back to the workbench to finish it is getting more difficult with every test run. You see, driving it is a little bit too much fun. Right now, I am thinking more along the lines of piling dirt for interesting "scenery", maybe building a bridge, a road, some obstacles etc. I have already outrun the size of my yard. Maybe I should buy an old farm with some land? This IS getting expensive.

Anyway, it was also the first test run with the feedback system installed. All went well, but the 10A limit of the current meter is too small. It can handle more than that intermittently, but the alarm goes off when making sharp turns. If I had had this installed earlier, I would have spotted the binding idler in ten seconds instead of ten minutes.

Thanks for checking in,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

The disadvantage of using many, small batteries instead of a few big is that it is very time consuming. Installing the batteries and making all connections with appropriate length wires, takes days. Then, when I remove them and reinstall, I do not seem to be able to do it the same way again.

Here, I have installed battery rails the Peter way:


The concept worked very well - I took it out for a spin again today. Hopefully, it will be easier to reinstall the batteries the same way with the rails in place. More rails will be installed, but laying them out effectively around the obstacles inside the hull is, eh, time consuming.

Thanks for following the story,
/Chris

[Peter]

Nice to see that I have inspired someone
I am working on suspension and electrical system myself. Alot of work scratch-building it but I travelled past ELFA last week and stocked up on some components so now its "Friskt kopplat, hälften brunnet!".

[Björn Johansson]

Hi
Thank you for a good information
on the radio. No wonder I haven´t
heard off it. Specialy made 39 channell
Just love to read about all you´r field test
Keep up the good work

[cahlfors]

Nice to see that I have inspired someone

You bet - thanks pal!

I am working on suspension and electrical system myself. Alot of work scratch-building it but I travelled past ELFA last week and stocked up on some components so now its "Friskt kopplat, hälften brunnet!".

I managed to empty the ELFA house on yellow spade lugs - maybe you noticed?

Not much progress, really. I have been planning the interior, which is much like rearranging the furniture to squeeze everything into that first bachelor apartment.

So, like any consultant, I will cover up the fact with some pictures instead. The black batteries in the front are secured to the Peter rails, the rest is squeeze testing:

The batteries without connections are dead and act as dummies. I had hoped to be able to squeeze a couple more batteries into the turret area, but the turret requires plenty of clearance.

With the deck installed:


The rat's nest area is intended for a large speaker box:


I got some braided cable management hose from ELFA, like I discussed earlier. It is very flexible and looks like the tubing I already have, but as it came on a roll, it has been flattened:


With a stiff hose inside:


I will see if I can find a flexible hose to put inside it, like silicone.

On the other hand - I do not know why the hatches need to open anyway. This is what would be found inside with the current layout plans:

The engine hatch would only reveal a large speaker box with a flat top, as it looks now. I would need some access holes to the "on" button, a speaker volume control if I do not manage to remote control that and to the fuse box without disassembling the entire top.

A disadvantage with my strategy to put the heavy batteries as far forward as possible is that the sensitive control electronics and speaker box end up in the rear under the gratings, where rain can get to it easily. :x Got to think of something.

The current internal planning also means that the model is pretty close to its final weight. Only the main gun and speaker box remain. I took the opportunity to check the attitude:

Slightly forward-heavy (this is seeing from the rear), but nothing noticeable from the side.

The plans next include finding a suitable standard box to act as a speaker enclosure to avoid having to build and water proof one myself and some more battery rails.

Thanks for checking in,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

I have managed to find some more suitable profile at Ståldepån and installed the remainder of the battery rails:

While I was at it, I reinstalled the original grub screws for the torsion bars. The big allen head bolts I had installed just took too much space from the batteries. I hope they will hold!

A picture with all the batteries installed in their rails:


Thanks for your interest,
/Chris

[johan1]

Looks like you got more Ampere Hours than a nuclear powerplant

[cahlfors]

Looks like you got more Ampere Hours than a nuclear powerplant

Yeah, lead power!
Since I am not really sure now much I need, it is better to add some more to be on the safe side.

Today, I conducted another field test. Now it was time to check if it would work with all possible batteries installed. The first test was to see if I could drag it on the cart across the gravel driveway to the lawn:


It was notably heavier, but it went reasonably well as long as I was on flat ground. On the sloping lawn it was a different matter, however. I *might* tear the front wheel assembly off the cart one day. Remind me to check it before each run.

Here are some clips of the test runs. Just off the cart:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4638.mp4

Look out behind the corner!
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4639.mp4

Passing by the astounded camera:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4640.mp4

And again, to make a lasting impression. This time a little closer:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4641.mp4

Crossing an obnoxious log:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4643.mp4

A difficult obstacle:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4644.mp4

Helping my wife to turn the dirt in the flower bed:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4645.mp4

Any mishaps today? Yep, two. First, a tire came off again. Don't know if silicone rubber is to be recommended as glue for this purpose, or if it was just one of those I did with old silicone that never quite cured.
Secondly, I finally managed to melt the 10A current sensor. I have tried really hard in all the field testing to see if I could break it by overloading and I finally managed - despite taping it tightly against the rear aluminum bulkhead for cooling. Well, after exercising it with at least twice its rating for prolonged periods of time, it just had to happen.

I also tried the Brixlcontrol R/C track mixer function to see if I could control the model with just one joystick and I liked it. It does free up one entire hand for more important purposes, like a beer... Gee, what am I going to use all these controls for?

Thanks for reading,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

Cheerio, miss Sophie!

It has been a while since the last post, but I have not been lazy. Instead, I have concentrated on planning the interior, which has taken a lot of time to make sure that there would be no spare room where another battery could possibly be squeezed in. The batteries are now installed on their rails à la Peter and now I have concentrated on speakers and electronics.

I could have built a custom sized wooden speaker box, but to save labor I chose a suitable, sealed electronics box from ELFA to put the full range speakers in:


Here, the finished speaker box is installed in the engine compartment. After I took the picture, I have installed rails for the speaker box too, so that it would be tightly secured.


Yeah, I know - the engine compartment is a real rat's nest with wires all over the place. The next part involves tidying up the installation from a functional testing and experimenting area to something more permanent looking. I will go and buy myself a couple more boxes for that.

Thanks,
/Chris

[cahlfors]

Today was a wonderful day of field testing!

Following advice from Volgograd, I first let the Tiger sit half an hour outdoors to cool off, so that its tracks would not melt the snow and freeze back with ice.

We have a couple of decimeters of snow here, which means that it would drag its belly in the snow. Would it be able to make its way through this?

The tiger getting its paws.. eh tracks into the snow:


It seemed OK with the snow, so off we went.

Toward the Kalmucken-lawn!


A little bashful perhaps, but Tiger was good at making tracks in the snow and seemed to enjoy the new medium:


Just as on the prototype, snow collected in the tracks and between the wheels. It was only -2C, so the snow was wet. Drier snow (colder...) would probably be better:


Short vid:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4662.mp4

Filming while driving was a very mediocre idea. The vid will not impress anyone and I did not quite see where I was driving - and got stuck:
http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... i_4663.mp4

Tiger is back in the garage now, thawing up. I turned the dehumidifier on to make sure that any corrosional activities are kept as short as possible.

Thanks for following the story,
/Chris

[pepppe75]

hi chris!!!

it so nice to se the beast in the snow!!!!!!


kind regards peppe.

[cahlfors]

In an earlier installment I have discussed using silicone hose and braided cable management hose for the air cleaner arrangement. I have finally made it to Kuntze's rubber store and got something still more flexible: Latex hose:



The cable braid was very difficult to work with and takes every chance to "unbraid" itself.

I am not thrilled with the looks and will have to think of something better:


However, it is very flexible and it is now possible to open the engine hatch with the hoses attached:


I will let this be and move on. Perhaps I will revisit it when I get some idea.

Thanks for checking in,

/Chris