Electronics for Turret?!?

[jayd177]

Hey all,
I found some interesting things inside of my controller and tank. I popped open the controler and to my surprise I found two solder points that had no wires soldered to them, labeled M+ and M-. So, out of curiosity I opened my tank and found that the left motor is soldered to two points called LM+ and LM-, and the right motor is soldered to two points called RM+ and RM-. Are we starting to see a trend yet? Now get this. Above the LM+ and LM- there are two more solder points with no wires coming from them and they are labeled HM+ and HM-. Exciting, huh! I believe they fully intended on making the turret controllabe and took it out for whatever reason. This could also explain why we see a lot of those curious 4 shoulder-button controllers in pictures (like on the back of the box). The upcoming sub controllers look very similar, but they're in a different color scheme.

Well, there's a snag. I tried soldering wires up to the contollers' M+ and M-, and an extra to a ground in the controller, and I soldered one of my little motors to HM+ and HM-. I tried all combinations of circuits and unfortunately, nothing happened. the tank was definately charged. I may have goofed the soldering job. I may have the wrong ground to complete the circuit. Maybe they just never programmed the IR for that function since they scrapped it, but it was cheaper to leave the manufacturing equipment the same. I really need someone whose better at electronics and pcb's than I am to look into it.

I'll keep messing around with it and maybe I'll stumble across something that will work. I'll keep you all posted. Jay

[BillyBonz]

Jay, Nice find! You forced me to take apart my controller and take a look for me self. It really makes me wonder why they abandoned the rotating turret. I really can't see why it wouldn't work. All I can think is it was a cost decision. These tanks are somewhat costly as it it.

Another strage thing I noticed poking around in the controller was there appears to be an IR receiver module under the PBC by the IR LEDs. Why would the controller need to receive anything from the tank? There is not any bi-directional communication that I'm aware of. Any ideas out there?

For those who are smarter than some of us and don't take their toys apart, here is a pic if the circuit board in the controller.

[BillyBonz]

Here is a shot of the front where the IR LEDs live and the receiver module.

[jayd177]

The only thing I can think of is that the tanks broadcast their id. I tried setting two different model tanks on the same id and it wouldn't let me set the second one. I wonder how their going to add the 2 new Japanese tanks, or if it will always be 4 player max?
Anyway, Billybonz top picture shows those two extra solder joints I was talking about. On the left there are 3 connections for steering, and then 2 connections for the shoulder button, and then 2 empty solder spots labeled M+ and M-. I imagine you'd need a ground also so it would be M+/gnd for one direction and M-/gnd for the other.
Billybonz, can you post a pic of the pcb inside of the tank showing those 2 extra solder spots HM+ and HM-. They're just forward of where the left motor is soldered. I don't have a digital camera, and maybe it will help someone else who wants to give it a shot. Thanks, Jay.

[BillyBonz]

Jay, I tried to get a pic of the tank PCB but my camera doesn't have a macro mode. Maybe I'll see if I can get someone at my old job to snap some good pix off the microscope. While I'm at it I'll get an x-ray of the tank too. I won't help anyone out but they sure look cool. I sure miss having access to all those neato tools at work.

[Jordan_person]

the 4 button controler(silver) is for the digi q submarines

[BillyBonz]

Look at the back of the box on the tanks. They show a green controller with 4 buttons. There is an empty space between the two drive motors that is the same shape as a drive motor, a ring gear on the inside of the turret and some holes for prolly a drive shaft. There is little doubt in my mind they tried moving that turret. As soon as JayD177 figures out how to make it work, you'll see. hehe

[Helix]

Originally posted by BillyBonz

Another strage thing I noticed poking around in the controller was there appears to be an IR receiver module under the PBC by the IR LEDs. Why would the controller need to receive anything from the tank? There is not any bi-directional communication that I'm aware of. Any ideas out there?

BB,

if im correct, the controller is a bi-directional IR unit as it needs to receive info from the tanks when registering HITS.

[Purple Penguin]

I don't have one of these tanks yet so I'm not sure but I read somewhere that when you fire they kind of jerk backwards to simulate the recoils of firing. if this is true it may be the reason they decided not to allow the turrets to rotate, maybe they thought it was corny when the turret was facing behind and cause the tank to jerk towards they way you fire, or if the turret were facing to the side the tank woud jerk to the side and it just didn't look real enough for them. so instead of programing the different recoils into the tank they just decided to scrap the rotating turret. or maybe they simply couldn't find a motor slow enough to make it enjoyable to rotate the turret. again I don't have one so I might just be sounding like a complete moron here, but I figured that I might as well throw out my theries.

[jayd177]

I thought about that too, with it looking silly when the tank recoils backwards when the turrets facing sideways. Here's a couple things about the tanks to help clarify:
1. The turret only rotates about 30 or 40 degrees off center, so it never faces completely sideways or backwards.
2. They wouldn't have scrapped the turret control because of the recoil because it still looks goofy. I can manually rotate the turret all the way to one side, but the recoil is straight back, so why not let us rotate it with the controller.

And here are some points for Jordan:
1. If you read my top post here, it says that the SUB controllers are in a different color scheme. (Silver/blue) I said that.
2. The controller on the back of the box is not for divergear, it is not the divergear color, and it is pictured immediately next to a tank.
3. Those pictures of the 4 button controller (in green) were showing up before the first tanks came out, well before the concept of divergear was released to the public.
4. Those older pictures of the 4 button controller (in green) were in a series of pics showing the then up-coming combat tanks.

I agree that the sub controllers have 4 buttons also. What we're trying to say is that the sub controller isn't out yet, and imagine when it does come out that it only has 2 shoulder buttons because they took a feature out. That's what we're saying happened with the tank, 4 buttons and the turret.

[jayd177]

You can go here to see a close up of the pcb. http://www.geocities.jp/s_lx60/cd/make.html This is the same page as all the cool mods.

On the bottom right of the pcb there are two vertical points for rm+ and rm- for the right motor. On the bottom left are two horizontal points for lm+ and lm- for the left motor. Just above those are two more horizontal points labeled hm+ and hm- which are for nothing. How very curious.

[JTM]

an easy way to test this is just wire up another motor, connect them to the pcb on the tank, then hook the two connections on the remote up.. and see what happens

[jayd177]

Yeah, I tried that (2nd paragraph, 1st post). Nothing happened. I'm wondering if there needs to be another wire leading from the IR inside the turret to the pcb (there aren't any extra) or if they just didn't put the programming in the controller and pcb. Either way, I've given up for now. It's back to school.

[mcap27]

I got a digital camera for Christmas so here’s a pic of the tanks PCB. I hope we can figure out how to get it to work. I also noticed the design has room for a 3rd motor and a worm gear (similar to the drive train). The set up should be simple enough if the electronics work. Notice the HM- HM+ . I can’t wait!

[mcap27]

The slot looks like it would fit the same size motor as the other two in the tank. I could almost make one fit in but the wires were to short and I didn't wnat to take them apart.