Electronics for Turret?!? - Page 2

BillyBonz · #16 12-30-2002, 09:36 AM

mcap27,

Thank you so much for those pix. My camera just doesn't have the rez to do shots like that.

It seems to me that they were so close to making those turrets work. I'm starting to think they left out the electronics required to make them work, but I'm not going to give up yet.

Oh yeah, welcome to the board!

#17 01-06-2003, 08:59 AM

I know how to make the motor for the turret

you use the motor from another gearbox and the worm gear then use a small bit drive gear that goes on the motor.

jayd177 · #18 01-06-2003, 12:19 PM

I don't think the mechanics of the gearing is much of a problem. Right now I'm concerned about how to control it. Putting in the motor and gears is pointless if I can't control it.

I was really hoping that the solder points already in the tanks and controller would operate a 3rd motor, but it doesn't (unless I goofed, but I double checked).

Assuming the +'s move the tank forward and the -'s are reverse, then the best I can come up with is to wire the L+ and R- to the 3rd motor to turn the turret right. Then wire L- and R+ to the 3rd motor to turn it left.

I don't like this at all though. There's no independent control here. All that would do is turn the turret in the direction the tank is turning, and only when the tank is turning. It would do this when turning while driving forward and doing the super spins, but would turn the turret away from an enemy when reversing and then executing a turn (it would always turn toward the inside of the turning radius).

Example: I'm reversing and I want to shoot someone on my left. If I press right, so the front of my tank is facing the badguy, then the turret will turn right also. So you'd actually have to turn even further around than you would right now.

I personally think that this whole idea would suck, and that I would be constantly over-aiming, so I'll keep hoping someone else figures it out.

P.S. I have another theory about why they may not have included this in their tanks. As it is now you can only fire when you're not moving. I wonder if this is because the IR can only send/receive so many signals at a time. I'm thinking that maybe you wouldn't have been able to send independent control to the turret while driving, or fire while controlling the turret. Oh well.

Panzer · #19 01-06-2003, 08:17 PM

Jay, what are you talking about? The turret motor was most likely soldered to the two points labeled HM- and HM+ on the circuit board in the tank. The red wire is attached to the + and the black to the -. The direction that the motor turns depends on the direction of the current in the circiut. The third and fourth shoulder buttons were apparently the buttons that controlled the turret. If you pushed the left button the turret would turn left. If you pushed the right button the direction of the current would reverse and the turret would turn right. I would not be surprised if the ability to utilize the turret were still there but what needs to be done is to take out 2 shoulder buttons from a second controller and solder them to the empty points on the controllers circuit board(upper left in the picture in this thread). The thing that bothers me though is that I could only find two solder points on the controllers board.

Panzer · #20 01-06-2003, 08:21 PM

My theory for why they left out the turret control is this: there is only a limited range that the turret can turn and in order to keep from ruining the motor or stripping out gears (when the max of each turn is met) there would have to be some sort of clutch. They may not have been able to make an appropriate clutch that would work well in the space that they had.

jayd177 · #21 01-06-2003, 09:28 PM

hey Panzer, (read the whole thing please)
I'm not trying to be rude here, but did you read the first post in this thread?? I posted that about the HM+ and HM-. In that post I also said that I already tried exactly what you said about soldering wires into the controller (at m+ and m-) and soldering another motor into the tank at HM+ HM-. I also said that nothing happened. It didn't work. No moving motor. Inside the controller I tried crossing m+ with m- and Nothing. Then I tried crossing m+ with ground and Nothing. Then I tried crossing m- with ground and Nothing.
Also, you should only need the two solder points and a ground. M+ and ground would send a positive signal and M- and ground would be negative. Example: Forward and Reverse are controlled using the left thumbpad only, correct. In this picture that is on the right side (because it's flipped over) and you can clearly see only 3 solder points. If you trace them you'll find that two are for signal and the third is a ground. Exactly the same as what should be m+ and ground or m- and ground. 3 solder points. (the other set of 3 on the same side doesn't come from the thumb pad. It goes from the controller's pcb to another pcb just for the IR leds). The 2 solder points I mentioned in the FIRST post in this thread (M+ and M-) are visible in the picture and the ground can be soldered directly to ANY ground in the whole controller. That's what I tried and did not work. The difference is that when the thumb pad for Forward and Reverse are pressed an IR signal is passed on to the tank and the tank decipers the message and sends juice to both the Left and Right motors. Well for what I tried either no signal was sent, OR it isn't being decipered by the tank and sent where it needs to go.
The point of my last post (before this one) is that the IR signal just isn't getting sent or decipered. Since they scrapped the idea, it probably isn't even programmed into the chips in the tank or controller. What I was trying to say is that THE BEST I COULD ACCOMPLISH is a completely alternative way to wire a 3rd motor up, and that is to use the leads for the first two motors. That is a separate idea that would make the turret movable, but it isn't good enough for me. I put that up as a possiblility because I know that RM+/- and LM+/- are definately getting juice and someone else might want to just go ahead and do that. HM+/- is getting Nothing.
If you don't want to take my word for it open it up and try it.

Again, I'm really not trying to be rude, but if you had read the posts completely you would have seen that I had already said what you did.

jayd177 · #22 01-06-2003, 10:39 PM

Off Topic (sorry) I finished my Mame Cab!!!!!! WooHooo!!
DrJsArcade

ruf · #23 01-07-2003, 07:47 PM

2 probs.

1) U6 is not installed.
2) the gear mechanism to drive the turret is going to be a serious PITA.

jayd177 · #24 01-07-2003, 07:51 PM

Ruf,
Could you please elaborate on the U6? Thanks

ruf · #25 01-14-2003, 04:04 PM

Sorry, I don't check this board often.

HM- and HM+ appear to be connected to an 8-pin device labelled U6 that has been "not installed" or omitted from the BOM. My guess is that U6 is the motor driver.

jayd177 · #26 02-15-2003, 08:50 PM

To everyone who was involved in this thread..... If you haven't already, check this thread out. .Controllable turret video You won't be disappointed

Meltdown · #27 02-16-2003, 06:44 PM

Hello, i'm new here. Just ordered a two tank set.
(panther/T34). On the subject of the rotating turret:
Now that we know that only one of the firebuttons (instead of two for normal operation)
and the right stick is used to rotate the turret on the forthcoming models has anyone tried this
with the HM+ and HM- terminals? Could be that it works that way.
I will try when my tanks arrive.

Meltdown · #28 02-18-2003, 06:05 PM

Just got my tanks. Awesome!
Will look into the turret thing.
The mecanics won't be a problem for me.
Iv'e got a watchmakers lathe and mill.
I can make my own gears.
The electronics are another matter.

jayd177 · #29 02-18-2003, 09:26 PM

When I wired the motor to the H+/- I did not try to operate the turret the way it shows in the video. However, I still think it won't work unless Maybe you get the upgraded roms from the new tanks. I say this for 2 reasons:
1. The roms for the new tanks are supposed to be different.
2. Pressing a single fire button (left or right) causes the old tanks to fire. You don't need to press both simultaneously. So what would happen is when you press that fire button trying to steer the turret it will fire a round.

I'm happy with my old tanks, but I'll be getting the newer ones anyway.

Meltdown · #30 02-18-2003, 10:05 PM

Where did you see that Rom info?
Do you mean the detachable rom on the controller? Why is it detachable anyway
if they don't plan to upgrade the older tanks? I think that the missing U6 chip
is the key to it all.
The controller and the tank's pcb seem to be ready for turret operation.