The Official Armortek Forum - World leader in one sixth scale metal kits

hi tankers and a Merry Christmas

Hope everyone got what they wished for My wife bought me a 1 ton scissor lift for my JagdPanther so I was a happy camper

To my question:

I have one LED for my MG attached to the Armortek Sound box - can 2 LED's be installed on the same MG output so that they will flash together when triggered. My thought is to have a LED for my MG that is standing on the roof of the JagdPanther on its tripod.

cheers
Steen

Hello Steen,

Yes that is possible.
You have to use a Y-lead cable to connect the 2 MG guns
best regards Yves

Thanks Yves

The LEDs will be sharing a single current limiting resistor - the 270R one Thomas has incorporated into the TBS5 output - so if the LED voltage drops are different, you may find one is brighter than the other, to a lesser or greater degree.

Adrian.

thanks Adrian

I have now done the mod on the MG so both MG's are flasning when firing the MG sound.

ITS GREAT and looks super

Seeing this thread, I have a slightly different question. Is it possible to have 2 seperate led outputs from the sound module? The Centurion has 2 machine gun sounds and I would like to use 1 for the standard .30 coaxial mg, the other for the .50 ranging gun fitted to some Mks. As the sounds are selected separately, splitting the optical output to both guns won't do.
Does anyone know if there can be more than one led output?
Many thanks
Kevin

Kevin. It's not possible to split the sounds with the Benedini TBS5 sound card used in the standard Armortek Amplifier module, as they are programmed at the factory.

Looking at the Benedini manual for the TBS5, it is possible to configure other sound activated outputs via the "Universal Connector", but I've never seen anyone attempt it. The instructions are somewhat limited.

Another option would be to use a separate system to operate the LEDs. I would envisage that this unit would 'listen' to the same RC channel that is used to control the sounds, via a Y lead, and then flash an LED when the appropriate sound was activated on the sound card. It would take a little time to 'teach' the unit when to flash each LED, but should be fairly straightforward after that. No reason you couldn't get it to run two machine guns plus the main barrel flash.

Adrian.

I don't know anything about the Armortek supplied Benedini, but it is 100% correct about the universal output. I use this for the bow Mg. It has 2 outputs, the middle connection is +5v and the top and bottom are the negatives output 1 at the top and output 2 at the bottom. It already has resistors on the board so you can connect LED's directly to it. I would recommend reading a copy of Thomas's manual which you can download from his site.

Just remember one led output is for the machine gun and the other is for the main gun.

Dennis.

Hi Guys,
I cant remember for certain,but I think that the MG LED output flashes which ever
MG sound is selected.
If this is the case the 2 MGs can be split up with a relay.
I use a radio controlled relay from active robots or the ones for my King Tiger I have
just got from Tecknobots Hampshire.
With a Futaba 7c I have controlled this by assigning switch G to channel 7 and using the Y lead and 2 extension leads.
there is no soldering or end points to set up on the radio.
With the Futaba leads the MG uses the black and red cables,I chose to cut the black wire
from each extension lead and then the 2 blacks free ends at the y lead end of the
extension go to the common on the relay and the 2 other black free ends go,one to the
normaly open and the other to the normaly closed,
the reds got to their respective Leds.
this means one MG will always be able to fire and operating the switch on the radio
will swap to the other gun and isolate the other.
It was too cold and dark to try the other MG sound on my Tanks but I am fairly sure
the led output flashes with both.
At least Steen could split his guns from firing together all the time.
The latest ten amp relay from Tecknobots called "BattleSwitch RC Relay 10 amp part
number 3400-021 was £15.90.
A bargain if you don't want any soldering and just connect up the wires.
Hope this helps,I have used the same relay for the search light on my T34 85 and the
front light on my Tiger 1.
Cheers
Phil

A quick PS to the above
I forgot to mention the obviouse that you would have to memorise the which gun is
allocated to whitch switch position and choose the appropriate MG sound to save Red
faces
Phil

Phil,

Sorry to have to contradict you but the led outputs are available only on two selections of the TBS5. The main gun being on position 4 of the TBS5 and the machine gun being on position 5 of the TBS5.
Positions 1 to 3 being engine sounds and from 6 onwards depending on the model.

Dennis.

Oh that's a shame
Still its a good easy way to split the guns.
Thanks Dennis
Phil

Adrian Harris wrote:The LEDs will be sharing a single current limiting resistor - the 270R one Thomas has incorporated into the TBS5 output - so if the LED voltage drops are different, you may find one is brighter than the other, to a lesser or greater degree.

Adrian.

Hi Steen, Adrian and other tankers,

I have same wish as Steen's and Adrian's. But using Y-lead resulted in no flashing on both LEDs at all. A friend said it was because the output voltage dropped-down through Y-lead that became too low to light up both LEDs.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Hi Chang
The 2 MG's should work without any problem with the Y lead.
Double check that you put the little black connectors the same way round so that they
match each other and they are still the same way round when connected to the Y lead.
The colours can be different on some Y leads if you are not using Futaba.
Another one to try is if the Main Cannon sound is selected and they flash once the Y
lead connection needs to be swapped round on the sound module.
Hope that helps for you.
Cheers
Phil