IMPORTANT: Before you read this review please take a look at the thread entitled "IR Battle Systems?...... Heng Long 6.0 vs Tamiya" it will help you understand the poor performance issues related to the stock Heng Long IR receivers that this new aftermarket IR receiver addresses.
For a few month now I have been working with a small company and encouraging them to make a Heng Long 6.0 compatible version of their existing low profile Clark/IBU/Tamiya IR battle receivers that would address the many short comings of the stock Heng Long one. Well they final worked up some prototypes for testing of which I was given three for fitment and performance testing. The following are my findings and will be in two parts, first will be performance the second about interfacing with the HL 6.0 control board (MFU) and fitment on the tank.
PART 1: Performance
The tests were conducted side by side with stock 6.0 Heng Long IR receivers some with, some without sunshades and Tamiya IR receivers installed in Tamiya MFU equipped tanks as base line comparisons.
The harshest condition for IR receivers is bright sunlight, so I conducted the static distance testing in it. I started at 10 feet (~3m) which was slowly increased. At each distance I fired several shots at varying angles to the turret from stock Heng Long, stock Tamiya and aftermarket high performance IR bulbs to ensure all could be read by the new receiver. At 35 feet (~10m) in bright sunlight the stock "unshaded" Heng Long receiver was useless and the shaded one was reduced to reading ~60% of the IR hits. The new aftermarket receiver was reading 100% of the hits.
Moving out to 50 feet (~15m) the shaded receiver was reading less then 50% of the IR hits depending on the turrets orientation to the IR beam and the new receiver was still reading 100% of the hits. Moving back further to 75 feet (~25m) the shaded stock receiver was only able to read ~10% of the hits while the new receiver dropped slightly to ~80% . Some of drop in performance for both receivers was do to the increased difficulty aiming the IR beam to hit such a small target. The last static range was at 90 feet (~30m) and at this distance the shaded stock receiver indicated no hit, but the new receiver was indicating ~50% hits.
It must be noted that the Tamiya IR receiver was indicating 100% hits at all distances out to the 90 foot (~30m) mark.
Next was the more practical testing of moving and shooting at typical club battle ranges of 5 - 40 feet (~1.5-13m). Here again the new receiver out shined the stock receiver (with or without added sunshade) and was more consistent with indicating hits while moving. The stock IR receiver needs a solid .5 -.75 seconds of indicated IR energy for the 6.0 system to reliably read a hit. This does not sound like a long time, but compared to the industry standard for battling set by the Tamiya system it is. The new receiver is near instantaneous just like the Tamiya system. This levels out the playing field and reduces the unfair advantage that the stock Heng Long IR receiver has with its long delays( = very hard to hit while on the move or taking a "snap shot" at).
When did performance fall off? There was a loss in performance when the tank batteries dropped below ~40% capacity. This is a function I suspect more of the 6.0 control board/MFU suppling less power to the IR bulbs, less power means less beam energy = harder to read. It is not solely a Heng Long 6.0 issues, Tamiya/Clark/IBU have this issue too, though to a much lesser degree.
A few other notes that should be mentioned. The test receivers I was given came with "45 deg" sunshades (as seen in the photos). These shades mimic the built in "hit angles" of the Tamiya IR receiver and like the Tamiya are meant to simulate resistance to glancing cannon fire hits on certain hull angles. The "45 deg" sunshades work well in the Tamiya/Clark/IBU versions of this new receiver, but maybe too well in the Heng Long version (again I suspect this is more to do with the 6.0 control board/MFU) and I would not recommend them to those just starting out and not yet versed on how to use them properly. The better option for 6.0 Heng Long tanks is the 360 sunshade also offered for these new IR receivers. Don't worry the shades pop off / on easily so you can switch them out and change performance needs to match your game play.
Overall I am very impressed with the new 6.0 Heng Long version of this IR receiver. It is as good as their versions made for Tamiya, Clark and IBU and goes a long way toward making the new 6.0 Heng Long tanks much more compatible in game play with the other widely accepted systems. With this new receiver installed the only thing now lacking is setting weight class and damage speed reduction, but then these things can be addressed in other ways as mentioned in the "IR Battle System" thread referred to at the start of this review.
Next up is part two were I will go over installing the new IR receiver. It is not 100% plug and play easy install, but it is also not hard to install either.
Below are some of the photos taken during the testing, sorry most of the best ones could not be uploaded as they are mgbt heavy. I also have more photos and videos of the testing on my Instagram @fsttanks so feel free to check those out as well. If you are interested in finding out more information about these new IR receivers you can PM "LegoDEI" he is the member here and fellow tanker that builds these. Please keep in mind these are prototypes and are not ready for sale as of the writing of this review.
Photo of move and shoot testing phase. Attacking tank is ~50 feet away circled in red.
The prototype IR receivers have red LED hit indicators, the production one is suppose to have super bright blue LEDs to be far more visible in daylight.
The tank has just been hit but it is hard to see the red LEDs. The blue LED are much easier to see in all lighting conditions. This tank was ~40 feet away when hit by another 6.0 Heng Long IR beam.
For a few month now I have been working with a small company and encouraging them to make a Heng Long 6.0 compatible version of their existing low profile Clark/IBU/Tamiya IR battle receivers that would address the many short comings of the stock Heng Long one. Well they final worked up some prototypes for testing of which I was given three for fitment and performance testing. The following are my findings and will be in two parts, first will be performance the second about interfacing with the HL 6.0 control board (MFU) and fitment on the tank.
PART 1: Performance
The tests were conducted side by side with stock 6.0 Heng Long IR receivers some with, some without sunshades and Tamiya IR receivers installed in Tamiya MFU equipped tanks as base line comparisons.
The harshest condition for IR receivers is bright sunlight, so I conducted the static distance testing in it. I started at 10 feet (~3m) which was slowly increased. At each distance I fired several shots at varying angles to the turret from stock Heng Long, stock Tamiya and aftermarket high performance IR bulbs to ensure all could be read by the new receiver. At 35 feet (~10m) in bright sunlight the stock "unshaded" Heng Long receiver was useless and the shaded one was reduced to reading ~60% of the IR hits. The new aftermarket receiver was reading 100% of the hits.
Moving out to 50 feet (~15m) the shaded receiver was reading less then 50% of the IR hits depending on the turrets orientation to the IR beam and the new receiver was still reading 100% of the hits. Moving back further to 75 feet (~25m) the shaded stock receiver was only able to read ~10% of the hits while the new receiver dropped slightly to ~80% . Some of drop in performance for both receivers was do to the increased difficulty aiming the IR beam to hit such a small target. The last static range was at 90 feet (~30m) and at this distance the shaded stock receiver indicated no hit, but the new receiver was indicating ~50% hits.
It must be noted that the Tamiya IR receiver was indicating 100% hits at all distances out to the 90 foot (~30m) mark.
Next was the more practical testing of moving and shooting at typical club battle ranges of 5 - 40 feet (~1.5-13m). Here again the new receiver out shined the stock receiver (with or without added sunshade) and was more consistent with indicating hits while moving. The stock IR receiver needs a solid .5 -.75 seconds of indicated IR energy for the 6.0 system to reliably read a hit. This does not sound like a long time, but compared to the industry standard for battling set by the Tamiya system it is. The new receiver is near instantaneous just like the Tamiya system. This levels out the playing field and reduces the unfair advantage that the stock Heng Long IR receiver has with its long delays( = very hard to hit while on the move or taking a "snap shot" at).
When did performance fall off? There was a loss in performance when the tank batteries dropped below ~40% capacity. This is a function I suspect more of the 6.0 control board/MFU suppling less power to the IR bulbs, less power means less beam energy = harder to read. It is not solely a Heng Long 6.0 issues, Tamiya/Clark/IBU have this issue too, though to a much lesser degree.
A few other notes that should be mentioned. The test receivers I was given came with "45 deg" sunshades (as seen in the photos). These shades mimic the built in "hit angles" of the Tamiya IR receiver and like the Tamiya are meant to simulate resistance to glancing cannon fire hits on certain hull angles. The "45 deg" sunshades work well in the Tamiya/Clark/IBU versions of this new receiver, but maybe too well in the Heng Long version (again I suspect this is more to do with the 6.0 control board/MFU) and I would not recommend them to those just starting out and not yet versed on how to use them properly. The better option for 6.0 Heng Long tanks is the 360 sunshade also offered for these new IR receivers. Don't worry the shades pop off / on easily so you can switch them out and change performance needs to match your game play.
Overall I am very impressed with the new 6.0 Heng Long version of this IR receiver. It is as good as their versions made for Tamiya, Clark and IBU and goes a long way toward making the new 6.0 Heng Long tanks much more compatible in game play with the other widely accepted systems. With this new receiver installed the only thing now lacking is setting weight class and damage speed reduction, but then these things can be addressed in other ways as mentioned in the "IR Battle System" thread referred to at the start of this review.
Next up is part two were I will go over installing the new IR receiver. It is not 100% plug and play easy install, but it is also not hard to install either.
Below are some of the photos taken during the testing, sorry most of the best ones could not be uploaded as they are mgbt heavy. I also have more photos and videos of the testing on my Instagram @fsttanks so feel free to check those out as well. If you are interested in finding out more information about these new IR receivers you can PM "LegoDEI" he is the member here and fellow tanker that builds these. Please keep in mind these are prototypes and are not ready for sale as of the writing of this review.
Photo of move and shoot testing phase. Attacking tank is ~50 feet away circled in red.
The prototype IR receivers have red LED hit indicators, the production one is suppose to have super bright blue LEDs to be far more visible in daylight.
The tank has just been hit but it is hard to see the red LEDs. The blue LED are much easier to see in all lighting conditions. This tank was ~40 feet away when hit by another 6.0 Heng Long IR beam.
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