Armortek

For the first time my Tiger 1 has been running for more than a few minutes. The batteries were done after about twenty minutes - 2x20Ah brand new and fully charged.

At the end of this period the Parvalux motors were surprisingly hot but not too hot to touch. The gearboxes were barely warm. Is this typical?

Also - how much noise should one expect from the automotive components? I do not have a sound generator.

There is nothing obviously binding, everything seems to spin quite happily. The tracks are not stiff anywhere. There is light oil in the drive sprocket cases. At first the speed was a good walking speed and gradients were no problem.

What are other people's experiences?

Hi Steven.

You should be getting a lot longer than 20 mins running time from your Tiger! are your batteries new? as for mechanical type noise the only noise you should here apart from the odd squeek or clack from your tracks is the smooth motor noise...maybe just double check everything and try again not trying to sound smart but we all know its easy to just miss something obvious...is the charger deffinately giving you a full charge.
Hope its one of these things mate.
Cheers Paul

Hi Steven

Everything Paul says correct. If you have consumed fully charged batteries in 20mins, your motors have been working very hard indeed. This basically equates to about 30amps per motor over the twenty minute period. The motors would therefor have been producing 720watts, thats over twice rated output and explains why they were hot.

Somewhere there must be something that is very tight indeed, you need to find it before you damage the drive train either electrically or mechanically. Start by taking each track off and checking they are free and that the sprocket runs free with them off.

Mark

Hi Steve,

There is always some noise from the components, most of the noise you hear will be from the drive gear.

The heat from the motors and gear box doesn't sound bad for 20 minutes constant running. Although your run time on the batteries is not very good, I am getting 40 minutes on a gradient, and just short of an hour on flat surfaces.

Have you been charging your batteries together (24v) or separately (12v), I found they lasted longer if charged together as a 24v pack.

Paul.

Thanks all.

24v charger on order.

I'll start be removing the tracks and see where we go from there.

Hi Steve,

Concerning your batteries you need to know that new lead-acid batteries (most types) need at least 5-7 load-unload cycles to be formatted. After that they will reach their maximum capacity/performance.

Steve,

A simple way to tell if there is anything thight in the drive train is by the way the tank moves with very little control stick movement. A tank with everything working well will move as soon as the control stick is moved. If you have one tight track then the tank will turn towards the tight track and not go in a straight line too well. One motor will also be hotter than the other.

Thanks again all.

Progress so far:

Tracks off and both motors still operational but I suspect one of the speed controllers has died. In the original wiring configuration only the right track ran but when the left motor leads are switched to the right speed controller the left motor works too.

No obvious loose wires or blown fuses or smoke or heat.

The 24v charger arrived like a shot from Hardwareexpress - 10% off too.

What is everyone's preferred speed controller brand and is the rewiring a simple job of swapping the wires to the new boxes?

I don't know if it is relevant but the DMR203 only works if there is a (working) controller attached to the "Controller 1" input, so it can appear as though it only works on one side. BTDT

Can you hear the relays clicking in the LH controller when you move the sticks.

What happens if you swap the connections at the DMR203

Adrian.

Adrian

I think you'll find that Steve has gone more retro than 4QD controllers, and is using the original Electronize FR30HX controllers.

Steve

Upgrading speed controllers is fairly straight forward. You can opt for 4QD controllers, which are very good, and are a straight swap for the old Electronize units. I ran these for the last 5 years, and they performed brilliantly. Armortek even supply a wiring diagram at http://www.armortek.co.uk/gallery/main. ... temId=6594

Even better would be to fit the new Armortek speed controller. It gives better battery life, is a lot smaller than a pair of 4QD's, and of course is backed up by Armorteks legendary customer service. Just fitted one into my original Tiger and initial impression is very good, although I have yet to give it a hard test.

Hope this helps

Mick