So as you may have seen if you were at Aquino, I finished my eldest son's King Tiger. I basically just got it mobile and functional using a cheap, battery powered, soldering iron. It was a meh soldering tool, but worked in a pinch. Of course when I quickly rebuilt it at the field, I didn't optimize anything. No mounted switches, pots, etc... On/Off switch, Sound Volume, and Smoker switch were loose.  Well the cheap solder joint on the power switch failed on Thursday evening do to shifting and vibration on the cheap solder joint.

Time to re-wire/rebuild...


The original plastic gears held up way better than expected at Aquino... That Plastic "Torque clutch" works surprisingly well. The fact that there is no metal running gear likely helps a lot... Receiver antenna on the left track cover.


The Clark Board layout and added cross brace. Note the smoker on/off switch has been mounted and the volume control replaced with the jumper (I blame MikeC for that and maximum volume...) Yes I like a clean wiring job...


I kept the original speaker and smoker unit, but did re-glue the speaker mount and screwed down the speaker itself. Rewires the main on/off switch to an external hull mount (Remember this is for my eldest son).


The new on/off switch location on the outside, between the exhausts. simple and easy to get at.


Use of adhesive backed aluminum wire guides to clean up the wiring routing... I like it clean and organized.


Nice open and exposed Clark Board for easy access for upper hull/turret wiring.

Binding plug jumper = Volume knob setting 11.

MikeC wrote:

Binding plug jumper = Volume knob setting 11.

The direct plug is actually louder than via the Pot? I guess there is always some excess resistance?

Always seems louder to me but it could be my crappy volume is controls.

I'm looking to try a small sound amplifier.



6-12V input with 18W max output. Love Ebay... ~$2 CDN shipped.

Thread resurrection! (And that Amp didn't work.)

So when my son's KT was last out battling he kept throwing tracks, so it was time to upgrade slightly...


First thing was to remove the old plastic gearboxes (that work phenomenally well in this all plastic tank...).
I found that 2 of the 6 mounting posts were completely stripped and held nada.



And then we resin poured the front base area for a stronger mounting surface & reduced front flex, and re-installed those same plastic gearboxes.
Used through hull m3 screws and nylon lock-nuts. Them gearboxes ain't broke, so I isn't gonna fix em!



As you can see the forward gearbox mount "holes" are on the front lower glacis plate, so they are countersunk.
I will "trim" the corresponding screws when they arrive.


Ripped out the original smoker & speaker unit and installed a Henntec Idler system.
Luckily for me I was a pretty good guesser with alignment and there was no interference with the back hull plate.

Time for a new speaker box (Victor doesn't care about the smoker) and new wiring! Huzzah!

Looks good Mike. One question. The styrene plate where the Henntec idler system is mounted to, did it come with the Henntec set or did you make it yourself ? I thought the Henntec comes with properly sized brass plates.

Have to laugh at the blue heatsink blade for the motors. I think the gearbox will melt before the motors need the heatsink blade. On the otherhand it looks really cool !

MikeC.

It came with the Henntec set for the HL KT.
My guess is it is a spacer for making sure the idler mounts align the idlers properly.
I had to trim the brass connecting rod (It was maybe 0.5mm too long IMHO, so I chopped 6mm).

Oh, the Heatsinks are because Vic will drive that tank completely for a full day (Draining two 5000 MAh 2S Lipos…). Gonna add a small fan too I think...

Less heat is always good...

And M3x20 flathead hex socket screws arrived and gearbox installation complete. Them puppies are mounted rigid!

Very nice! I put heat sinks on the motors for the Pike too. Had them laying around so I figured wth. Cheers.