Newbie Jarlath here. Asking the questions you are all sick of telling newbies
However I think that many newbies would benefit from a small section dedicated to how to upgrade/mod your tank in order to compete in Battledays... Not have a top of the line tank, or one that is bulletproof, but for the guy looking to participate.

Lets go with the first portion.
1. Conversion or upgrade of stock tanks to usable Battle System.
Example (Not me, just an example): I have a stock 2.4GHZ HL Tiger I with a metal gearbox, otherwise all plastic, 6mm BB launcher. What needs to be done to it in order to make it compatible with the battle system used by CAN-AM RC Tank Club? (Any different with an older 27Mhz system?)

Example Question #2:
2. I have a Stock HL Tiger 1, metal gearbox, drive and idler wheels and metal tracks, but otherwise all plastic, with the 6mm BB launcher. What skills/tools will I need to obtain/possess in order to modify my tank to compete with others at CAN-AM RC Tank Club?

3. I have not yet bought a tank, but I am interested in getting started. Are there any tanks out there that can be run out of the box and compete with the battle system used by CAN-AM RC Tank Club?

Etc... Etc...

That's an excellent run down of questions jarlath, but I'll leave this to the experts on this one , myself as a newbie bought my first basic tank from matomart last November then put a clark into it along with an economy hobby king t6a radio and receiver , an upgraded battery , and away I went , I'm under 450 bucks for that whole setup rtr , the heng long chassis hasn't let me down yet , no broken parts as long as you keep it light and don't add too much weight to it , and lots of blue loctite lol , that's just my rundown on my first tank, that's canam compatible

Just to give you an extreme case........ Jughead picked up a used Pershing for $30 I think, I put on a new set of 2.4 Ghz radio/receiver from Heng Long, mounted a used MAKO on it (a signal translator basically) which I sold him for $25.

I just put everything together for him and it is a battler. No flash, no recoil, nothing fancy and no mods, but battle just the same for $100. The BB still works to boot so in the odd times when you want to shoot some squirrels.......

My point is that most of our money are spend on extra that we want. To make a battler is probably the simplest step in the whole upgrade journey.

MikeC wrote:

Just to give you an extreme case........ Jughead picked up a used Pershing for $30 I think, I put on a new set of 2.4 Ghz radio/receiver from Heng Long, mounted a used MAKO on it (a signal translator basically) which I sold him for $25.

I just put everything together for him and it is a battler. No flash, no recoil, nothing fancy and no mods, but battle just the same for $100. The BB still works to boot so in the odd times when you want to shoot some squirrels.......

My point is that most of our money are spend on extra that we want. To make a battler is probably the simplest step in the whole upgrade journey.

But will that unit work for the standard battles that are done by the Club? I have no doubt that you can get a 1/16 scale tank to screw around with cheaply. Some people will spend over a grand to have a turn key Tamiya because their skills for crafting the unit may not be a strong point and they have the $. Another who wants to get into the "fun action" may have a limited budget, and not have someone like yourself (RC Converter King) to have spare parts and do the assembly work for them.

That is the point of the questions. What do they need? How much skill will they need if they have to do it. What tools will they need. I had a quick glance at some of your tool sets and I bet there is at least $100 worth of tools in most of the "repair kits" I saw. Soldering guns, micro and regular screw drivers, glue, epoxy, tape, pliers, cutters, wire, screws, zip ties, etc... How many had a spare board or apple? Extra motor, pin punch, etc...

Extras like customizing for historic accuracy, upgrades to components (Hulls/bogies/etc...) and just plain S&G's aren't part of that question as the customizing in itself can be limitless.

Jughead wrote:

That's an excellent  run down of questions  jarlath,  but I'll leave this to the experts on this one ,  myself as a newbie bought my first basic tank from matomart last November then put a clark into it along with an economy  hobby king t6a radio and receiver , an upgraded battery , and away I went , I'm under 450 bucks for that whole setup rtr , the heng long chassis hasn't let me down yet , no broken parts as long as you keep it light and don't add too much weight to it , and lots of blue loctite  lol , that's just my rundown on my first tank,  that's canam compatible

So by replacing the original board and a new radio/receiver, it was a plug and play affair to make it CanAm battle ready? No changes to wiring? No splicing? Simple?

That is the type of  info new people need to know.

Jughead's Pershing case is a bit extreme, but I guess what I am saying is that the battle part can be done on a budget with NIB stuff from Heng Long. The battle system is almost like a FPV system, in the sense that you can just "add" it on top of a stock tank and then off you go.

This is of course assumming that you are okay with stock tank, which will not have the realistic sound, canon flash, barrel recoil, and realistic tank movements etc.

I would say that a good start would be something like a Clark board bolted onto a stock tank, which is what my Challenger was set-up. The one thing I did do is put in a barrel recoil and a flash, but that is basically the extent of it. Everything else is stock. So other than wiring for the battle system and the flash, installing a Clark board is pretty straight forward. Not plug and play mind you, but pretty close to it.

On the otherhand, if you get a full option Tamiya and purchase their battle system you will be ready to roll.

Heng Long and Clark is just the cheap solution and you will need to get your hands a little dirty, but Tamiya would have everything integrated for you in one kit. It will cost more but it will work flawlessly.

The bare minimum for MYSELF is to junk the stock HL / Taigen internals, order a Clark board & clean up the wiring into the turret for easy maintenance later on. Drill out the 'warning' red LED that's on the turret of most HL tanks and install my IR LED gun tube and LED there. 
I also order the Clark sensor base designed to fit Tamiya sensors, because I just LOVEEEE being able to take hits at 20-30 feet on the field  
Once you have a TK-22 installed it's very easy to later on install a servo for barrel recoil & the high tension flash unit (about $20!) so that you give everyone else a nice visible indication that you've fired.

Strato50 wrote:

The bare minimum for MYSELF is to junk the stock HL / Taigen internals, order a Clark board & clean up the wiring into the turret for easy maintenance later on. Drill out the 'warning' red LED that's on the turret of most HL tanks and install my IR LED gun tube and LED there. 
I also order the Clark sensor base designed to fit Tamiya sensors, because I just LOVEEEE being able to take hits at 20-30 feet on the field  
Once you have a TK-22 installed it's very easy to later on install a servo for barrel recoil & the high tension flash unit (about $20!) so that you give everyone else a nice visible indication that you've fired.

What do you guys use for IR LED's? Specific wavelengths? Voltages?
Also what do you use for your ultrabright flash LED's?

There has been many discussion about the IR. If you ordered a Heng Long IR tanks (Which supposedly are no more.......) it will come with an IR emitter. I have been using after market stuff from Digikeys which is 940nm wavelength, but apparently Tamiya is 890 nm ?!?!? Anything under 5v should be fine. 

The ultra bright flash is the Heng Long Hi intensity flash unit that Clark supports and its plug compatible.

..and that ultra bright flash unit is CHEAP too. Tank army has them for $7 AUS, and HL hit apples for $10... not bad. Order a bunch of stuff if you must because shipping is awful.

http://tankarmy.com/heng-long-tank/index.php/general-use-replacement-parts-c-2_29?page=1&sort=3d&osCsid=9i4q4m9t83lg5hiv87fohplnv3

I got my IR LED's from Jameco, I really like them they have a SOLID range, in the shade... for some reason I have a harder time hitting certain apples, but they love to hit Tamiya's. I get a range of about 40' from my tank in the field to my tank sitting on the bench. I really liked them because, as with anything I buy, they have nice detailed STATS, including amps drawn and a beam pattern diagram..!!

http://www.jameco.com/1/1/48169-lte-2871-led-special-high-intensity.html

I have a bag of 100 of these and probably about 85 left.

That's funny. Mine from Digikeys had tough time with Tamiya's but will hit everything else !

I'll have to install both I guess..