I'm thinking of upgrading my Heng Long 6.0 tanks to 7.0 boards, and I've got a quick question about the 7.0s:

The understanding I got at Aquino was that the 7.0s can both send and receive hits from the other Tamiya compatible tanks.  Is this correct?

Apparently although in practice it hasn't work out. I think Dean and Tom tried it with the Mississauga crew who are all on HLs mostly. Something about hitting but not dying or something like that. On the web all I see is people complaining about 7.0 and wanted to go back to 6.x because the HL battle is screw up too ?

Not a HL guys so this is all heresy.

In the case of the Clark boards, they default to accepting hit from both Tamiya hit codes and HL Hit codes. They can only emit one type of primary weapon IR code however (Tamiya or HL, not both).

Yes but apparently 7.0 is Tamiya compatible which means Clark would be set to Tamiya both receiving and emitting. i.e. there is no HL signals.

I quote people who have tested this more than I.

Quote :

The older Heng Longs used to have their own IR protocol also, but as of the TK6.0 and higher Heng Long has changed their protocol to the Tamiya version. So Torro doesn't work with any other tanks, but newer Heng Longs will work with Tamiya. Heng Long is not recommended to fight against a Tamiya as the Tamiya will be at a disadvantage. Tamiya has built in firing delays and the tanks take "battle damage" with each hit. Basically they slow down until they are killed. Heng Longs don't have those functions so they have the advantage in a fight against a Tamiya. The Heng Longs also don't accept IR hits from as well as Tamiya vehicles. The Tamiya "apple" is more sensitive than the Heng Long "mushroom". So the Heng Long tank will repeatedly hit the Tamiya, but the Tamiya will struggle to hit the HL because it's less sensitive especially in bright sunlight.

Other than the timing of firing (i.e. HL can just fire at will with no delay), with Clark and IBU we do not ask people to set their tank for battle damage, so even without HL, Tamiya is still at a disadvantage.

It would be interesting to keep track of who win battles and see if they are more likely to be Clark than Tamiya accounting for difference in numbers between Tamiya/Clark.

Dean/Tom is working on a apple for HL so that would hopefully level the playing field a little more.

Okay, so next question...does anybody know if an upgrade from a 6.0 to a 7.0 requires anything more than the new control board and the remote (or do you also need to get a new internal receiver, etc.)?

Let me be clear, yes, you can run around with your HL system and "play" with us when we don't care about hits and such BUT in order to participate in club battles the HL system is not acceptable. 

In fact, we will be moving into a certification system for club battling this year starting next weekend. And YES, those with Clark boards, ElMod, IBU's will also have to set up for damage the same as Tamiya in order to qualify.

dgsselkirk wrote:

Let me be clear, yes, you can run around with your HL system and "play" with us when we don't care about hits and such BUT in order to participate in club battles the HL system is not acceptable. 

In fact, we will be moving into a certification system for club battling this year starting next weekend. And YES, those with Clark boards, ElMod, IBU's will also have to set up for damage the same as Tamiya in order to qualify.

That's fine.  Should the day come that I really want to participate in club battles (and can make it out to one of the battlefields to do so), hopefully I'll be able to afford the upgrades that will make it possible.

For the time being, it's about basic fairness (and being able to turn off the airsoft gun) - I just don't think it's fair to be playing around on the field and take pot-shots at others if they can't possibly hit me back.

Robert B. Marks wrote:

For the time being, it's about basic fairness (and being able to turn off the airsoft gun) - I just don't think it's fair to be playing around on the field and take pot-shots at others if they can't possibly hit me back.

Then you are Russel! LOL!

dgsselkirk wrote:

Let me be clear, yes, you can run around with your HL system and "play" with us when we don't care about hits and such BUT in order to participate in club battles the HL system is not acceptable. 

In fact, we will be moving into a certification system for club battling this year starting next weekend. And YES, those with Clark boards, ElMod, IBU's will also have to set up for damage the same as Tamiya in order to qualify.

If you buy an HL tank let's say , can you use a Tamiya IR setup to make it qualify for the club battles? Or they do not communicate with each other ..

Depends on the system. The 7,0 are now the same signal as the Tamiya IR system and yes, can hit each other BUT These tanks cannot be in certified battles and are generally frowned upon when batting for several reasons. 1. no reload time. Basically you can fire the HL like a machine gun. There is no time lag between shots. Second, no range. Although the IR emitter can hit our tanks the HL apple is so bad it has a range of like 6 feet in bright sunshine so we have to get ridiculously close to hit it. IR emitter spray. The cone on stock HL's is very wide. On some of them you can be sitting side by side and get hit from your buddy! LOL! As everyone is saying best thing is to come out and you are more than welcome to run around and play but it will quickly become obvious the issues with stock HL tanks. BUT that is what we all start with! :-)

dgsselkirk wrote:

Depends on the system. The 7,0 are now the same signal as the Tamiya IR system and yes, can hit each other BUT These tanks cannot be in certified battles and are generally frowned upon when batting for several reasons. 1. no reload time. Basically you can fire the HL like a machine gun. There is no time lag between shots. Second, no range. Although the IR emitter can hit our tanks the HL apple is so bad it has a range of like 6 feet in bright sunshine so we have to get ridiculously close to hit it. IR emitter spray. The cone on stock HL's is very wide. On some of them you can be sitting side by side and get hit from your buddy! LOL! As everyone is saying best thing is to come out and you are more than welcome to run around and play but it will quickly become obvious the issues with stock HL tanks. BUT that is what we all start with! :-)

So all I'm gathering is buy once cry once and get a tamiya that's good to play anywhere . Roger that 

Sure, if you find a good deal on Tamiya always go for it. It is good for a first tank. But keep in mind you want to make sure you are buying full option. you will usually have to buy a TBU ($100 U.S. min.) and a radio.

And those of us who have customs, we don't cry... we make the Tamiya guys cry... :-)

grimmmreap3r wrote:

dgsselkirk wrote:

Depends on the system. The 7,0 are now the same signal as the Tamiya IR system and yes, can hit each other BUT These tanks cannot be in certified battles and are generally frowned upon when batting for several reasons. 1. no reload time. Basically you can fire the HL like a machine gun. There is no time lag between shots. Second, no range. Although the IR emitter can hit our tanks the HL apple is so bad it has a range of like 6 feet in bright sunshine so we have to get ridiculously close to hit it. IR emitter spray. The cone on stock HL's is very wide. On some of them you can be sitting side by side and get hit from your buddy! LOL! As everyone is saying best thing is to come out and you are more than welcome to run around and play but it will quickly become obvious the issues with stock HL tanks. BUT that is what we all start with! :-)

So all I'm gathering is buy once cry once and get a tamiya that's good to play anywhere . Roger that 

Unfortunately yes, but with NIB Tamiya you have to build the sucker. For some people that's part of the fun, for others who just want to battle it is not so much fun. Heng Long/Torro you can buy RTR, but not RTB so work is on making it battle capable rather than building the tank itself. Basically you have to pick the journey you prefer but the destination is the same.

There is intricacy in the electronics/battle ready side so I would say in general if you want to be safe you can't go wrong with a Tamiya.

dgsselkirk wrote:

Sure, if you find a good deal on Tamiya always go for it. It is good for a first tank. But keep in mind you want to make sure you are buying full option. you will usually have to buy a TBU ($100 U.S. min.) and a radio.

And those of us who have customs, we don't cry... we make the Tamiya guys cry... :-)

I'll have to get you to elaborate on these customs when you have some free time and I can pick your brain lol . I assume they're X body with custom internals etc  .

MikeC wrote:

grimmmreap3r wrote:

dgsselkirk wrote:

Depends on the system. The 7,0 are now the same signal as the Tamiya IR system and yes, can hit each other BUT These tanks cannot be in certified battles and are generally frowned upon when batting for several reasons. 1. no reload time. Basically you can fire the HL like a machine gun. There is no time lag between shots. Second, no range. Although the IR emitter can hit our tanks the HL apple is so bad it has a range of like 6 feet in bright sunshine so we have to get ridiculously close to hit it. IR emitter spray. The cone on stock HL's is very wide. On some of them you can be sitting side by side and get hit from your buddy! LOL! As everyone is saying best thing is to come out and you are more than welcome to run around and play but it will quickly become obvious the issues with stock HL tanks. BUT that is what we all start with! :-)

So all I'm gathering is buy once cry once and get a tamiya that's good to play anywhere . Roger that 

Unfortunately yes, but with NIB Tamiya you have to build the sucker. For some people that's part of the fun, for others who just want to battle it is not so much fun. Heng Long/Torro you can buy RTR, but not RTB so work is on making it battle capable rather than building the tank itself. Basically you have to pick the journey you prefer but the destination is the same.

There is intricacy in the electronics/battle ready side so I would say in general if you want to be safe you can't go wrong with a Tamiya.

The build is definitely a big part for me , I used to play warhammer & with the drag racing it was full ground up builds with carbon Fibre chassis etc . I love the building part of it .

If you love building the tank then I would go with the Tamiya Tiger. It's a great tank to build. I built mine in April 2021 when I had no idea if I could even build it as I had no experience in RC at all and also wasn't sure if I would be able to paint it. It just goes together so easily. Only the torsion bars will initially throw you for a loop but once you figure the first one out it's easy plus I've learned a few tricks with them which makes it so much easier. Axel's in Germany has a Tiger 1 kit which after he takes the VAT off will cost €504 and iirc when I bought one of my KT's from them it was €89 shipping plus the duty here. It's still worked out way cheaper than getting the same kit from AAF Museum in the US (they don't have any Tamiya kits left now) because of the strong $US and the brutal charges from UPS. You will still obviously need to get a radio, battery and Tamiya battle unit but that can be spread out over the winter and you can get help on that from people in the club. 

 https://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/katalog/en/rc-military-models-1-16/rc-tanks-1-16

Martin is Axel's stuff FO ? If not then eBay from Japan would be the way to go as all of them are Full Option (With Radio and battery) from Japan. Shipping is also cheap from the land of the raising sun.

I have couple of NIB kits lying around but I don't think any of them are you cup of tea Jeremy. I have an Abram M1, Japanese Type 10 and a PvIV L/70. Plus a Display Porsche KT but I have the gearboxes and all the mechanical stuff was one of my project.

No the ones from Germany are the same as the US. No radio. But the older kits that I've got from Japan might have had the radio but were the FM27 Attacks not 2.4's so still need to buy a radio. The JPIV came with a 2.4 radio and I know all the newer one from Japan do as well. I agree on the shipping from Japan but not sure you are going to get a NIB Tamiya Tiger on eBay for less than $750 CAD before shipping anymore. I was fine getting them from Japan when we were in the 80-81 cents US range but since the sellers there price them all in USD they have become too expensive even with some but not all cases lower shipping. Germany is cheaper than getting them from AAF because of the UPS nonsense

I love AAF for Tamiya parts but although USPS is normally about $10 more it avoids the duty charges and the crazy duty and bondage you pay if you go with the UPS option

UPS from AAF was brutal. Killed all the savings you get from AAF. I have only gotten new release from Japan so they are all the new Attack4s

UPS wasn't too bad when I got the Tiger from AAF but it climbed again for my KV-1 and they hit me up for $240 on the KT so Germany was way cheaper and got here just as fast unlike the smaller parts from the German dealers

Plus UPS delivered the one tank 2 doors down. Just what you want $1000 tank sitting on somebody else's porch

Just looked on  eBay for NIB Tigers and Axel's is going to be the cheapest by a longshot. Even cheaper than the assembled ones. Also be wary of the Tamiya KT's that look like good deals too. Always lots of the older ones on there that would require a pretty fair chunk of extra money to get them battling on the field

I never would have thought that Europe would be cheaper but that's great ! I might have to go that route , price isn't too bad at all . Really appreciate that insight , super key .