Armortek

Each to their own and whatever works best for them.

For John & I, both right-handers, we have turret control on the right hand stick because it was what we were used to, John crewed the tanks, I fixed them.

Dad is left-handed, for the Rolls Royce armoured car and steering being my motor and not servo ( not self-centering ), steering is left/right on left stick, forward/reverse down/up on right stick.
Before anyone asks, yes he does pull the right stick back for the vehicle to go forwards. It defaulted to that on initial setup. I immediately offered to reverse the channel but he wanted it left that way. "you push the accelerator pedal down for the car to go forwards" was his answer.

Mark

Mark, Adrian, thanks. As Armortek now recommends the Taranis X9D, I thought it would be useful to show the potential of OpenTX.

"Gun jump", is, as you spotted, my conflation of two things in the gunnery world, "jump", which is the angular displacement of the gun in elevation to accommodate a ballistic trajectory and "platform rock", the tendency of a tank to rock backwards on the suspension as a consequence of firing. For the technically minded, here are the relevant sections of that unmissable tome, "The Technique of Shooting from AFVs", Part 1:

"The disturbance of the vehicle" became known as "platform rock".

I did consider playing with simulating platform rock but to do that might damage the gearboxes. It's as effective and less risky to add a small movement of the barrel. It isn't how the real thing behaves but the effect is the same and the Man, Woman or Binary person on the Clapham Omnibus won't have a clue anyway. The effect I've simulated is exaggerated, as I said above, and does need to be toned down but not to the point where you can't see it. As Mark mentioned, in reality, it's really only apparent to the crew on board (together with sheets of flame, a cloud of dust, deafening noise and a kick in the fundamentals when the tank rocks backwards, not to mention noxious fumes up the nose.

Left stick, right stick, whatever grabs you. There is no right or wrong. I do believe strongly that for me, one stick driving is much more controllable than putting motion on two. That said, I could run with the primary driving stick on either hand, just as I can fly an aircraft with either hand - your brain soon adapts. I have it on the right stick for a simple reason - I fly model aircraft in Mode 1, throttle right.

Sounds like your Father would have been adept at flying French aircraft of the thirties - they organised things such that you pulled the throttle rearwards to increase power. That way lies madness, as the RAF discovered when they inherited US aircraft built for France in 1940.

Now, where were we...?

I'll quickly tack this on the end of the thread to say that the dual AGM battery monitor telemetry is now working


Still to do is to re-edit the LUA script so that it will monitor the voltages and call out warnings for the lowest voltage of the two batteries.

I'm not aiming for milli-volt accuracy, but rather to ensure the driver is aware of the voltages in each battery, has an indication of whether they are discharging equally and whether one is going to fail whilst the apparent overall voltage is still looking reasonable.

Once this week's work and executor duties are over, I hope to fit it into a model and run it for 10 to 20 minutes to get some 'real world' data.

Adrian.

After swopping the RC system for FrSky Taranis and setting up OpenTX, it's time to move on to the sound system. I've had a trove of original sound files around, which can't be used with the current setup. The Benedini TBS Mini V2.0 has increased capacity but my V1.0 is full.

In order to integrate a new system, I needed to identify all the new interfaces. Easier said than done. I've no idea how my current system is configured. It's sprung up like a pandemic, with new outbreaks here and there, wires and boxes all over the place. I used to employ an Army of configuration engineers to maintain configuration control on big projects, so I know about the perils of incremental development. Not so with the Cent. I've just spent a diverting few days getting to grips with it so I can work out how the new system might look. This is the before:


I haven't a clue either but it looks impressive as a work of art.

I've just uploaded a new video to my Channel, Tank Builders. It shows the results of a few months of work to install OpenTX and a sound system based on the Beier USM-RC-2 module, using original battle and engine sounds from Vietnam. Setting up the OpenTX radio and integrating the Beier with all the functional systems on the model has taken a lot of head scratching but with some inspired help from Adrian Harris and from Beier themselves, it's now all up and running for TankFest.

OpenTX and Beier both give a lot of added flexibility and control but together, they support things you otherwise just couldn't do. For example, with one toggle switch press, the main gun fires, the recoil and runout are timed to coincide with a sound track of a real engagement, together with gun smoke, gun jump and a laser firing down the barrel.

I'll put a few details of the Beier setup in due course if anyone's interested but meanwhile, here's the vid:

Love the video!

Bravo Stephen, incredible wizardry and an excellent video.
After 9 years this thread just keeps on giving!
Kevin

Just one thing, dare I say that in my opinion I think that you need steel tracks to complete the look as those ali ones just don't behave like they could!

Brilliant Video, certainly the way forward.

Thank you for taking the time to provide the write up Stephen; it takes a significant effort to plan and write stuff like this. You have proved what I always thought was possible with Taranis so well done you. Maybe in a couple of years, i'll get to implement some of this once I overcome stillbrew Btw, obviously interested in the soundcard setup; so much better than other offerings by miles!

and here's the hardcore bit for anyone interested in what's under the hood. Integrating OpenTX and Beier Sound into the Armortek Motion Pack

Why change setup?

- Engine sounds. I wanted a more complex and realistic array of engine sounds, to include starting and shutting down of the auxiliary generator and main engine. I also wanted a much richer set of sounds for running, to include engine revving, track squeaking in turns, moving off, stopping, accelerating to each gear and the different sounds of changing down. This is very noticeable on Centurion, which had a manual gearbox and the engine had to be double-declutched changing down. The Benedini card does all of this with one sound file, so it's very monochrome and flat. I looked at implementing gear changes physically, exploiting OpenTX functionality as Liam Mahoney did. It's attractive and I might well add that but I felt that gear changing was much more about sound than changing driving characteristics which aren't really so noticeable.

Additional Sounds I've a stack of original material including gun firing, loading sequences, machine gun firing, radio messages, amounting to about four hours of material. The Benedini is very limited in storage capacity and therefore length of sound tracks. Although it's now improved with the Mini 2, on my original TBS Mini, I was limited to 91 secs of sounds. I wanted to have effectively unlimited storage on an SD card. I also wanted to simplify the interface on the radio. The Benedini is triggered by a rotary encoder, which is a pain. It's hard to coordinate sounds and actions, such as firing main armament, barrel smoke, barrel laser and sound of firing. Ideally, I wanted all this on one switch. OpenTX is half the answer. Furthermore, I wanted the ability to tailor the recoil action much more powerfully, to exploit the sound files and match the movement to the real sounds.

Random sounds Finally, I wanted to be able to introduce some appropriate background battle and environmental sounds. These are easy to find but there is no way of playing them randomly at present. They add a layer of realism although it's easy to overdo it.

Simple interface I wanted the system to be simpler to control. Each additional sound has its own toggle switch. Complex functions such as gun firing all integrated on a single switch selection.

The solution

The Benedini setup is fine if you've limited sound material to work with and produces a very good sound system. For the added capability I was looking for, I needed a programmable sound module and chose the Beier USM-RC-2. The specs are here:

https://www.beier-electronic.de/modellb ... m-rc-2.php


Together with the flexibility of the OpenTX operating system, the new setup had the potential to do all I wanted. It's taken about three months to work out how to integrate it into the model, integrate the sound module with the Armortek motion pack and with the OpenTX RC system and to install a better interface on the transmitter and edit the sound files. I used a Beier EMS-24-G multiswitch, which offers 24 switch selections, although three are taken up with switching the sound module on/off and with volume control.

https://www.beier-electronic.de/modellb ... ems-16.php


I found I needed some extra servo sequences to programme functions such as recoil and decided to add a Beier EXM-2 Expansion Module. This supports the programming and control of recoil and allows the turret traverse to be controlled proportionally. I understand Beier have discontinued this module and will shortly be releasing a new sound module with the extra functionality included in a single module. The modules are very small and light, so space is absolutely not an issue.


Integration

Physical installation The sound module needs to be accessible from outside to give access to the SD card, particularly when you're editing and optimising files. I chose to put it beside the driver and I can reach the SD card through the hatch. It's mounted on a small tray, canted up to give the best angle for the card access.


The Armortek Recoil and Sound Modules are removed. The Beier module requires a 5-14V DC supply. A second Castle Creations CC BEC Pro powered from the redundant 12V Amplifier Module supply feeds 11V 30A to the USM-RC-2.


The final solution is here:


This layout opens up a lot of real estate in the hull, perhaps for a bigger set of speakers.


Installing the EMS-24-G multiswitch has one pitfall - Beier and Fr Sky don't agree on the colour coding of their wires. It took a while to work it out. Once that's sorted, it's simply a question of using a spare proportional channel on the TX to connect the multiswitch, configuring it in OpenTX and making a bracket for the TX. I used the S2 Pot.


It's probably worth doing a bench test. This one doesn't include the EXM-2 extension module, which I added later.


Software Integration

I've covered the transition to OpenTX in previous posts. This bit is about populating the Beier SD card.

The Beier website does have sound files for some of the Armortek Models, particularly German and American. The Panther G files are a good starting point from which to edit your own files. I had to master the freeware sound editor Audacity and be prepared to spend a lot of time extracting the bits I wanted from the archive files, editing them to produce a set of sounds which were seamless. It's not hard but you need to be prepared to spend time to smooth out the sounds and make them sound natural and integrated.


Rather like Companion for OpenTX, Beier offer software to configure the modules. The Sound Teacher includes a very useful simulation which allows you to test the outputs on a PC. With the sound editing software to hand, it's easy to make changes, test them and write them to the SD card. After my system was up and running, I still made some changes when I heard the difference between running on the bench and running on tracks outdoors. Beier offers that flexibility to allow changes to be made on the hoof.

Installing files:


Configuring the gear changes:


Testing in the simulator:


So was it worth it? Like doing anything for the first time, discovering, learning, testing takes a long time. I wish now I'd kept a change log so that next time around, I could avoid the pitfalls. Once you have got a few things sorted, it's all relatively easy and I'd certainly repeat it on another model. So, my conclusions"

- It's only worth doing if you've got access to a large sample of original files

- Be prepared to spend a lot of time editing files and then optimising gain, tempo and pitch to make the various engine sounds seamless

- Result is a much richer and complex set of sounds which are much more realistic. Multiple simultaneous sounds, gear changes, triggering of output sequences such as recoil, barrel smoke, flash all together from one sound. Adding sounds to functions such as turret turn. LEDs such as MGs controlled directly from sound.

- This is a list of the additional functionality in the new system:

- USM-RC-2

- driving and engine sounds for two motors (twenty or so files, engine start (warm/cold), idle, moving off, stopping, 5 gears (up and down, 8 sounds of change and running in gear), acceleration and deceleration in gears, turning sounds

- 30 additional sounds (radio traffic)

- 8 random sounds
 (battle sounds, environmental sounds)
- 4 proportional channel inputs

- 2 programmable servo outputs with sequences or positions

- 12 switching outputs (lights - programmable - not used but could use to control the searchlight) 

- sound volume controllable via potentiometer and via transmitter

EXM-2


- 6 more proportional channels (10 total with USM-RC-2)

- 10 more switching outputs, controllable brightness between 0-100%

- 2 more programmable servo outputs with sequences or positions

- 1 motor controller with proportional output (5-15V, 8A)

Yet another fantastic write up Stephen! it is certainly useful to me since I have the same soundcard. I plan at some stage to add in another amplifier to increase the output and drive my dual coil subwoofer with a further two smaller speakers. I for one will certainly find this very useful indeed as I am sure others will too.

Hello Stephen
It really helpful for all of us, that you share your knowledge.
All the best
Frank

A real Wowser Stephen

I was almost reaching for credit card by the end of the post.

Richards enthusiasm for this sound module and all it sophistication is well known on the Chieftain Topic.

Great to see it in the flesh.

Many moons ago I have experienced an earlier version of the Beier card, namely the Graupner Sound Switch One. Less sophisticated, but big in the model truck world. Limiting factors were the control of sounds, unless huge additional modules were designed and added.

I have an old Sound Switch One fitted in the quad, where it is easy to control, I found I needed to buy a dedicated amplifier (An extra £25 S/H from ebay), better speaker which improved the sound quality no end, (I did find a standard amp, trying several, just did'nt work well).

Stephen has shown the community that once setup, the Beier is so advanced it is head and shoulders above what has gone before.
Brilliant.

Having said that

I still like the Red boxes for all their minor faults, they look really neat and can be nicely laid out as we have seen on models on the forum.

I like the originality.

Got some red paint for my additional boxes too.

Personally

I wish Armortek would allow changes to the Chieftain sound module, my only real gripe. It's so easy to change sound files "if" you have the original file. Which I can't borrow or buy.
Or they could offer an option on what addition files as a preference, just as Thomas Benedini will and does.
The music files are amusing, but tiresome after a while.

I would have preferred some up dated 1970's radio chatter as Stephen has added to his Beier card on the Centurion

"Ranging Sabot tank on, Loaded" or "Loading HESH" or "Shoot" or "Fire" or "Bloody L60's broke again"

Customers will demand change and the Beier sound cards and sound cards like it are the future.

Look forward to seeing it in action at the shows. Thanks Stephen

Thanks chaps. As I said, the Benedini solution has the considerable merit of being plug and play. The Beier/OpenTX route does take a lot of effort to get right. As an example, I thought I'd illustrate some of the editing needed to produce engine files. I use Audacity to edit sound as it's freeware. I produced 29 separate files for the engine sounds alone, although in the end I found some were unnecessary. It can make for a very choppy overall sound if you use too many disjointed files.

Beier gives you the option of running a sound file once, either all the way through once started or start stop on a switch. I used this for Additional sounds such as the Aux Gen start, run, stop, so that I could switch it off when the main engine is running.

The third option is to run the file in a loop and this is the way the engine sounds operate. The shorter the file the better the sound. You're looking for a maximum of 3/4 secs.


I had a selection of original sound files which were recorded from a static point outside the vehicle. The Cent started up, drove off, accelerated, returned, changing up and down the gears. The files have a Doppler effect which wouldn't sound good on the model, which remains much closer to the observer. So, to start with the original file, first chop out the bits you want to use eg idling, moving off, changing gear, running in each gear. You can then work on each section as a separate file:


A problem arises if there is any distinctive noise in the track as it becomes very noticeable when repeated. You can edit out the sound but that produces a cut which is also audible. The solution is to superimpose a bit of "even" sound over the gap, so that it is seamless, as here:


This is what you're trying to achieve:



The next issue is that when you string the files together, you can "hear the joins" as one files changes to the next, for example changing from the Engine Idle sound to Moving Off. (You could run Beier on a single file, as Benedini does, but then the advantages wouldn't be exploited). To make the transition between files seamless, you can add in very short clips of the adjacent files:


and here:


Beier stores sound files in "slots" on the SD card. Files are allocated to slots in the configuration software Sound Teacher. You don't have to occupy every slot with a sound. Beier requires as a minimum that the Idle Sound and FG1 (engine sound - first gear) are populated. This is similar to the Benedini setup. If you've got the original material, you can go to town and occupy as many of the available slots as follows.


The Sound Teacher Software is a very powerful configuration tool and it also has a simulator for testing.


If there's interest, I could post a short explanation of the ways in which sounds are controlled by Beier. Hope this is useful. Thanks for your great feedback so far. Stephen