I am looking for information on RC controlled tanks. I bought an old Tam. RC tank without the control box. It looks to have motor, wheels, tracks in usable mode. Can a Nichmo-made controller work with this tank? How do you hook up the wires from the drive motor to the batteries? Do the batteries go in the hull of the tank? Any information greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Leddy
It may be helpful to know whuch particular model you have.
Over the years, Tamiya have made incremental improvements to their RC tanks as new models have been released.
Typically, you will need a two or three channel radio system to “drive” the system. Any brand will do, but make sure that you get an RC unit with the appropriate frequency range for “ground” use, not “air”.
From memory, the earliest kits were “single speed” units with the servos controlling a clutch system for steering and a forward/reverse “on/off” switch for drive power. Later models incorporated a variable speed system which provided speed control. Typically, these were of a mechanical variable resistor type, with a servo moving a wiper arm on the speed controller to control the current flow to the motor. You may be able to use a more modern electronic speed controller in place of the mechanical unit.
Again from memory, I believe these tanks were powered by a 6 volt SLA cell, contained within the hull of the tank (the upper hull should be removable, secured by a quick release clip system)
like stated which model ?one elect motor? parts can be had from the big T still but becareful on drive system parts are scarce.a new transmitter with servos and reciever can be made to work,get a speed controller cuz the stock system runs way to fast.there are plenty of web sites on rc tanks . rc universe.com
There is a red/white set and blue/yellow set of wires coming out of the drive motors. How do they connect to the battery?
Thanks for your help!
Leddy
ya need to id. the model. early/late. i,m guessing late cuz it seems ya got 2 motors,mine is early and has one motor.get in touch with the big T and get instructions.the wires go to a controller not the batt. rcuniverse.com look under radio controlled tanks
The red/white wires are soldered to the motor terminals. I would expect to see bullet terminals on the ends of the red and white wires. Are the blue and yellow wires attached to anything? - they would normally be attached to the switch unit or speed controller.
As described above, the forward/reverse motion of the tank would have been conrtolled by one channel of the radio unit, with the servo driving either a forward/reverse on/off switching arrangement or a variable resistor type speed controller. The battery would be connected to the speed controller, not directly to the motor.
The connectors look like this The one with the clip is usually attached to the speed controller and the other one to the battery.
Edit: A slight correction to my post above, they don’t use 6v SLA batteries, they use standard Tamiya R/C batteries as in their R/C cars
I may have misunderstood your description above. If you have two drive motors, then each motor drives each track independently. In this configuration, there will be no clutch mechanism as in the earlier models. Both motors would have been connected to an electronic control unit which slows the appropriate motor to turn the tank when a steering input is received by the radio system. (Tamiya DMD-01 (?) control unit ?)