Armortek

Hello Adrian
your second vidio is just as good as the first you can just make out the differance in idle and running , there is a lot more air presure in the second version both versions are very good . Will you be doing a vidio of the new style smoker as well ,looking forward to seeing how it will look in my pzIV . All the best ,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

I've uploaded a video of the new style Armortek smoker with the radial fan, interfaced to the new system, just for Nick

Well, anyone with the new style smoker.

One of the disadvantages with good quality fans is that they keep going after the power is removed, so the smoke doesn't stop as suddenly as the engine sounds.



I must admit I threw this together after the Grand Prix, so it leaks smoke like a very smoky leaky thing, but still seems to work OK.

Adrian.

Hi Adrian
that is very nice its going to look great ,thanks for going to the trouble of making it and posting it ,looking forward to upgrading my pz1v well done all the best,, ,,,,,,,, nick

Adrian,

You have a PM.

Dennis.

I would just like to let everyone who expressed an interest in this module know that this is still a work in progress but I've been badly let down by a supplier of one of the connectors I need and am now awaiting a delivery from HK.

Once that has arrived, I should be able to fully test the prototype and then start production.

Apologies for the delay.

Adrian.

G'day Adrian,

No problems just let me know when.

Ray

HI Adrian
Still interested and waiting patiently just let me know when your ready .
all the best,,,,,,,,,,, nick

Heres what im currently testing in the Sherman. Unit started life as a Wiggytronics smoke module but have made a few changes since then. After playing around with a few designs I have come up this. Using a 97mm fan with a large opening should provide me with the air velocity required at the exhaust to eliminate what I refer to as the cigarette smoke effect which is the wispy smoke you see when there’s not enough air pumping it out. Real exhausts pump lots of air so this should be reflected in the model. However the downside to such a big fan is it it provides a very large opening compared to the exhaust output which allows the smoke to pour out when the fan is not spinning. To eliminate this I made up a flap on the mouth of the fan which closes when the fans off stopping the smoke escaping. It is also much quieter than the 40mm fan so it should not be audible under normal operation. You can also see the housing is much bigger than the Wiggytronics unit meaning will store more smoke which is needed with the higher air velocity. I also positioned the heating element out of the direct path of the fan as I found the fan cools the element reducing smoke output.

From left to right, original Wiggytronics smoke effects unit, prototype number one, final product.




Here you can see the high tech flap (made from the finest sardine tins available ) to stop smoke escaping through the mouth of the fan. Also took me a while to find a suitable material to wick up the oil to the heating element. First attempts were not good as the material burnt out until I came up with a great idea which was to cut up the misses kitchen fire blanket ::) This is perfect as it will not burn. The char marks are old oil deposits only.




The element voltage is adjustable to vary the amount of smoke output.




Heres a short test vid. The sound is rubbish as I had the volume turned down to hear what the fan was doing and was only using a tiny speaker for this test. also startup engine sound needs to by synchronized to the smoke. You can adjust the SFX7 card to suit and for this test I programmed it to run at 100% for 4 secs for a start up burst and 30% for idle and 100% max throttle.

Model Sounds Inc. SFX7 Armortek Sherman engine smoke test

Looks like some interesting solutions to the smoke problems

I use a higher powered fan on the original Armortek smoker base, but using a custom made lid, which has much a much larger aperture for the fan. This does let smoke through when the fan is not operating, so your sardine can flap is a neat solution.

One thing that I don't think anyone has fitted yet is a simulation of the cooling fans in a Sherman. All the engine variations have pretty large cooing fans, so the smoke and dust at the back of a Sherman gets blown around quite a bit when the engine is at full revs. One of the reasons they ended up fitting the diffusers at the back of the later models.

My favourite Sherman video, though you can't actually see the tank for most of it



Adrian.

Yeah that's a great vid. Don't call it "Spit Oil" for nothing do they

If I was to design again I think i would incorporate dual exhaust outputs as that the single output looses a lot of air velocity when coupled up to a dual exit pipe. Would also love to work out a way to pulse the two exhausts as well.

BTW what heating element are you using? Im just cannibalizing the wiggytronics one but would like to know what to use if I ever burn this one out.

And finally im thinking of a secondary smoke unit for the turret to blow out a little smoke upon firing, any ideas and im all ears....

Cheers