Which stick does what

An unofficial resource of techniques, information and best practice to help you get most from your Armortek model.
Post Reply
Online
Martin Donnison
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2023 12:00 pm
Has liked: 38 times
Been liked: 99 times

Which stick does what

Post by Martin Donnison »

Hi guys new to tanks and with all radios they want you to fly.

Could someone please tell me what sticks do what.
I would be interested to know how you have your tanks setup. Which pot, which channel

I would like to setup for single stick drive and steel and use the other stick for turret rotation and main gun elevation.

Thanks for you help.

User avatar
Adrian Harris
Posts: 5066
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:46 pm
Location: Berkshire (UK)
Has liked: 1381 times
Been liked: 1578 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Adrian Harris »

Left stick is turret traverse and elevation. Right stick is drive and steering.

I've converted to using two pushbuttons at the back to emulate a three way switch.

Anything else like smoker element control or lights gets added to a switch as needed.

Adrian.
Contact me at sales@armortekaddict.uk for details of my smoker fan control module

User avatar
Andre Meylan
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:02 pm
Location: Olten / Switzerland
Has liked: 520 times
Been liked: 231 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Andre Meylan »

Adrian Harris wrote:
Sat Oct 05, 2024 8:42 pm
Left stick is turret traverse and elevation. Right stick is drive and steering.

I've converted to using two pushbuttons at the back to emulate a three way switch.

Anything else like smoker element control or lights gets added to a switch as needed.

Adrian.
It all depends on which mode you are used ... I come from helicopters and flew "mode 2" ... so my setup will be exactly opposite to what Adrian (sorry mate) said ... at the end it does not matter as long as the model does what you want to steer ...!!! :mrgreen:

Best regards, Andre

User avatar
Adrian Harris
Posts: 5066
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:46 pm
Location: Berkshire (UK)
Has liked: 1381 times
Been liked: 1578 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Adrian Harris »

I guess it also depends if you're right or left handed. I'm right handed, hence I use the right stick for driving.

One of our group has all his transmitters set for left stick driving, so I always end up depressing the barrel when I want to move forwards...

Adrian.
Contact me at sales@armortekaddict.uk for details of my smoker fan control module

User avatar
Gerhard Michel
Posts: 629
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: near Nuremberg, Germany
Has liked: 3 times
Been liked: 645 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Gerhard Michel »

My preferred solution is mode 4. This means the tank throttle is channel 1 (left stick up / down), and the steering is channel 4 (right stick left / right). Therefore the turret moving is channel 2 (left stick left / right) and the gun elevation is channel 3 (right stick up / down). Gun shooting with recoil is the 'fire knob' at the left stick, machine gun shooting is the 'fire knob' at the right stick. Both functions are mixed in the TX to channel 5. Channel 6 is the stepless brake channel for downhill driving with EMF, channel 7 serves a combined 3 way switch for engine start (switch) and WAV player on / off (pushbutton). Channel 8 serves another 3 way pushbutton for song up / down. The channels 9 to 16 serve things as the stepless volume control (real important when using amplifiers of 200 watts and more), the light (front and rear), the horn and some 'radio messages'. For controlling this features i'm using 3 way pushbuttons, 3 way switches or combined 3 way pushbuttons and switches. To get furthermore funktions each button can be used with either a short signal and a long signal for controlling.
kind regards
Gerhard
____________________________________________________________________
1/6 Scale models: Jagdpanther (AT), Jagdtiger (BT), Königstiger (Porsche turret, NH), Königstiger (Production turret, BT), Pz. IV (SH)

User avatar
Andre Meylan
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:02 pm
Location: Olten / Switzerland
Has liked: 520 times
Been liked: 231 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Andre Meylan »

Adrian Harris wrote:
Sat Oct 05, 2024 10:36 pm
I guess it also depends if you're right or left handed. I'm right handed, hence I use the right stick for driving.

One of our group has all his transmitters set for left stick driving, so I always end up depressing the barrel when I want to move forwards...

Adrian.
:mrgreen:

User avatar
Jerry Carducci
Posts: 761
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:38 pm
Location: The People's Paradise of California, the former Golden State
Has liked: 3 times
Been liked: 1061 times
Contact:

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Jerry Carducci »

Of course I agree with the others- personal preference rules the day. I've used left stick Y-axis for throttle since I began in the hobby,
left stick x-axis for steering right stick y-axis for main elevation and right stick x-axis for turret control.

Everything else depends on the radio and what controls there are are available.

I've been using the FrSky x-20 series of transmitters and there are over 20 physical controls to choose from and the beauty is you can assign any
physical control, switch, button, slider or pot to any channel (or channels) as needed.

Only limit really is imagination.

Jerry
http://tanks.linite.com/ - RC tanks: stay home, build a tank and save a life!

Sjouke Kooistra
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2024 4:54 pm
Location: frysân NL
Has liked: 90 times
Been liked: 30 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Sjouke Kooistra »

Jerry Carducci wrote:
Sun Oct 06, 2024 9:01 am
Of course I agree with the others- personal preference rules the day. I've used left stick Y-axis for throttle since I began in the hobby,
left stick x-axis for steering right stick y-axis for main elevation and right stick x-axis for turret control.

Everything else depends on the radio and what controls there are are available.

I've been using the FrSky x-20 series of transmitters and there are over 20 physical controls to choose from and the beauty is you can assign any
physical control, switch, button, slider or pot to any channel (or channels) as needed.

Only limit really is imagination.

Jerry
very much this ... I only need to figure out how to do this still. baby steps in my case :mrgreen:
Stug III no 54 "Helga"

User avatar
Gerhard Michel
Posts: 629
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: near Nuremberg, Germany
Has liked: 3 times
Been liked: 645 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Gerhard Michel »

My choice may look a little strange, but it results from flying model airplanes. The throttle is left, the rudder and the steering for the landing gear are right. The two hand steering in combination with a desk (?) TX and long sticks gives finest control for narrow routes:

Image

Here my modified TX with 'fire knobs' on both sticks. You can also see the telemetry information; here battery voltage, actual current and -first of all- the consumed energy. Other infos are chosable and acoustic warning hints are given automatically.


Image
kind regards
Gerhard
____________________________________________________________________
1/6 Scale models: Jagdpanther (AT), Jagdtiger (BT), Königstiger (Porsche turret, NH), Königstiger (Production turret, BT), Pz. IV (SH)

User avatar
Andre Meylan
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:02 pm
Location: Olten / Switzerland
Has liked: 520 times
Been liked: 231 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Andre Meylan »

Gerhard Michel wrote:
Sun Oct 06, 2024 10:30 am
My choice may look a little strange, but it results from flying model airplanes. The throttle is left, the rudder and the steering for the landing gear are right. The two hand steering in combination with a desk (?) TX and long sticks gives finest control for narrow routes:

Image

Here my modified TX with 'fire knobs' on both sticks. You can also see the telemetry information; here battery voltage, actual current and -first of all- the consumed energy. Other infos are chosable and acoustic warning hints are given automatically.


Image
Hello Gerhard

Looks serious !!! I intend to using something similar with my Futaba FX-32 ... what I am still curious about is how to start the programming ... do you choose a simple airplane model and the Armortek electronics do the rest ?? That means that smooth steering will just slow one chain and full steering input should make the tank turn on the spot with one chain going into reverse? If not, how to program the mixers?? Is there a working thread in the knowledge base ??

Best regards and schöner Sonntag, Andre

User avatar
Gerhard Michel
Posts: 629
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: near Nuremberg, Germany
Has liked: 3 times
Been liked: 645 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Gerhard Michel »

Hi Andre,

well, to smooth up my steering I'm using another ESC (TVC B-100 from SGS Germany), which gives also the controllable EMF function for variable downhill driving speeds using a seperate channel. Switches and pushbutton functions are combined with TX mixers (a feature of the TX, no additional hardware), some sounds (e.g. turret rotation, gun elevation) are added with RX mixers. Sounds are processed by the versatile Beier sound module, which controls also a variable gun recoil with up to 10 seperate speeds, random sounds and so on (overall up to 96 functions I mean).

The 'fire knobs' are accessories for this TX.
kind regards
Gerhard
____________________________________________________________________
1/6 Scale models: Jagdpanther (AT), Jagdtiger (BT), Königstiger (Porsche turret, NH), Königstiger (Production turret, BT), Pz. IV (SH)

Christoffer Ahlfors
Posts: 683
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:19 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Has liked: 708 times
Been liked: 307 times

Re: Which stick does what

Post by Christoffer Ahlfors »

In the beginning, I also didn't know what would be best, so I built the model with selectable one or two stick control (the kind where the left stick controls the left track etc). Immediately, I noticed that it was quite difficult to go straight. Everything else was super easy. The use case for this was that I needed to navigate two doorways very close and at a right angle to get out of the garage. Since those days, I have only used one stick control. Learning to use one stick was pretty quick and I was soon able to navigate the difficult passage without even bothering to switch over, although it was just at the flip of a switch.

The chief advantage of one stick control is that it makes tank driving a "gentleman's sport". That is, you can hold your drink in one hand and do the sport with the other... :P Having one hand free while driving is very useful. You can open gates, hold cameras and what not.
A little too much is about right...

Post Reply