Tamiya Abrams and Flysky FS-i6S

[EvilMP]

I just finished building my Tamiya Abrams tank, I opted to go with the Flysky FS-i6S due to costs and blowing most of the budget on the tank itself. So after setting up the radio, and performing the test run I noticed some problems. The driving and turning function correctly so does the turret rotation and barrel elevation and depression. However, I still can't the tank to fire the main gun or machine gun. I searched the internet but there is nothing really posted on this.

[Rubicon99]

I just finished building my Tamiya Abrams tank, I opted to go with the Flysky FS-i6S due to costs and blowing most of the budget on the tank itself. So after setting up the radio, and performing the test run I noticed some problems. The driving and turning function correctly so does the turret rotation and barrel elevation and depression. However, I still can't the tank to fire the main gun or machine gun. I searched the internet but there is nothing really posted on this.

Read the MFU operations manual provided with the Abrams. If you set up your radio channels/sticks the way Tamiya instructions show then how to fire the main gun is in the manual. I would help you more but my sticks are set up to mimic the HL radios (= all driving on right stick, all turret and gun functions on left stick and my main gun fires off a button).

Tamiya stick layout is not intuitive, but needed to have all the extra functions which almost no one uses. LoL

[EvilMP]

I was able to get the flysky working but to control the Tamiya Abrams its a bit different. I have to use the zone of light pressure of the stick to use the advanced features like shooting, So for example if I push slightly right gently the tank will fire, if I push to the right the tank will turn right only at the extreme right will it though. That is about the only limitation or quirk I found with the flysky radio.

[SoCalBobS]

Speaking of the Flysky FSi6S...

I have two projects in mind for the future which will require programming flexibility and additional functions over stock HL's. One is a 35rc setup, and another is a 3D printed tank. Some questions to start off:

Can the transmitter be configured to HL mode, ie motors on the right, turret on the left?
Can it be configured to activate guns via switches, as opposed to stick movements?
Can turret rotation, gun elevation and other operations be programmed to use servos?
Can it be configured to change volume, turn lights on and off, trim left and right, all the stuff HL radios can do?

I apologize in advance for not paying attention to earlier discussions. Now I need to know! if there are tutorials online you think would help me, point me at them. 🤔

[SoCalBobS]

I'm restarting this thread instead of starting a new one.

As I'd posted three years ago, I'm still pretty ignorant about how a Clark TK-50 board and a Flysky S-Bus transmitter work together. I'm a HL boy! I have a Heng Long Tiger II that I am attempting to set up. By reading the Clark schematics, I have the movement and steering working correctly, and the turret rotating. I haven't yet hooked up my one Tamiya LegoDEI so I can conduct remote programming. I do have that manual, and the remote. What I don't have is whatever documentation there is about what switch on the Flysky does what on the tank. I do know how to turn the tank on and off, run it at idle, fire the main gun and the machine gun, rotate the turret and move and steer it. My Clark board has the gun elevation in either ESC or PWM mode, set up for servo elevation, and I'll be changing that in the future.

So why the long winded post? I managed to turn the headlight on and off once, but for the life of me I don't know how and I can't repeat it! Is there a document that describes switch commands? If I ever had one, I can't find it.

Thanks guys.

[tank_me]

Using the diagram below, it shows the alphanumeric switch designations. To turn the headlights on/off, you must move SWB to it's lowest setting and then move SWC to it's lowest setting. All of the other settings should be listed below the Transmitter diagram if using a V2.1 to V.3x board. The earlier board controls are also listed on the http://www.clark-model.com/eng/index_e.html page.

[SoCalBobS]

Thanks, TM! I eventually would have stumbled across this, but your help is appreciated.

Edit: the switch and channel assignment pages were gone or misplaced. They're back now! Thanks again.

[Durahl]

Thought I might chime in a bit on this issue 😁 The way how Tamiya DMDs seem to work is basically like this:

You have two Sets of Functions - Primary and Secondary... Primary is everything that is being controlled with JUST the Sticks

• Forwards / Backwards Driving
• Left / Right Steering
• Left / Right Turret Rotation
• Up / Down Cannon Movement

This is usually supposed to be happening when moving the STICKS from 0-100% of their Travel Move.

Then there's Secondary which are being triggered by ADDING Trim to the Sticks already set to 100% resulting in a 125% CHANNEL Value.

• Firing Main Cannon
• Firing Machine Gun
• Lights Toggle
• Mode Switch
• Engine Toggle
• Parking Brake
• etc...

This means moving the Cannon movement Stick up to 100% will move it but moving it to like 125% fire the Cannon.

The Problem with this System is that it requires the Channel movement from 0-125% to happen within like 1-2 seconds which back then with old Transmitters using analogue Slider Trimmers wasn't a problem as you could move the Trimmers to their MIN / MAX Position just as fast as you can with the associated Sticks but with modern Transmitters relying on digital Button Trimmers you're usually not possible to reach their MIN / MAX Position Values within the allotted Timeframe hence why you'll fail triggering ANY Secondary Function - Even worse if you have Tank requiring double Stick / Trimmer Combos!

But there's a solution... A WRONG Calibration!

ReCalibrate the Tank's DMD to work without Trimmers by instead of teaching it what 100% Stick movements looks like you instead only move them 80%. Any Stick movement up to 80% will from then on be interpreted as 100% resulting in the Primary Functions to be commanded. And any Stick movement to 100% will be interpreted as 125% triggering the Secondary ones.

All you then have to do ( on a Transmitter being capable of doing so ) is setting it up in a way for a Stick Signal not to go above 80% ( regardless of the Sticks Position ) unless you unlock that functionality via a Switch ( a Momentary Switch would lend itself for that task ). If your Transmitter is too dumb to do that you'll have to rely on Stick Discipline not to move it above 80% 😢

You can ALSO go one step further and instead of UNLOCKING the Signal to go beyond 80% ( 100% ) as a whole you instead use dedicated Switches to SET one ( or if necessary more ) Stick Channels to 100% ( 125% ) immediately triggering its associated Secondary Function.

Here's an old Video I made about it that shows the Channel Value on the screen of my Transmitter: VIDEO

[jpdomein]

Hi Durahl, i'm currently trying to get a Tamiya Sherman and Tamiya Panzer4 running on the Flysky FS-i6s as you use above. I've all basic functions running, including main gun and machine gun. However, i can't convince the transmitter to use both the main gun and machine gun on VRb. Tried all kinds of settings, including teh 80% trick. No go whatsoever. Could you help me with that?

[cleong]

Disclaimer - I do not have a Flysky (I exclusively use JR/Spektrum):

If VRa and VRb are separate channels (as the FS-i6s is a 10 channel radio) and you wish to use one of the knobs to operate the main gun AND the machine gun together, you can't. You can probably have one or the other, but you would need to do a 1:1 mix of the elevator channel and VRb, so that VRb controls your elevator channel that controls your gun barrel axis.

Once you've done that, basically you've created a second input method to control your gun barrel elevation. However, you probably cannot achieve both main gun and machine gun simultaneously, as both are functions on the same channel and therefore the commanded position cannot be both +100% and -100% at the same time.

Apologies in advance if I am wrong...

[jpdomein]

To all,

I've got now the Sherman running on the Flysky FS-i6s to my consent.
The settings that i made:
standard according to Tamiya (forward/reverse, left/right, turret left/right end barrel up/down, nothing special.
Next, On channel2 the barrel up/down and main gun/machine gun is set, so endpoint is set to 120%
Than i created the mix1, master channel5, slave channel2, positive 100%, negative 0%,
the mix2, master channel6, slave channel2, positive 0%, negative 100%,
the mix3, master channel7, slave channel4, positive 100%, negative 0%.

Now assign this to the keys/vrx:
channel5 is pointed to key1
channel6 is pointed to VrB
channel7 is pointed to VrA

Result, when pressing the key1 the tank fires its main gun, if VrB is rolled down the tank fires its machine gun and last if VrA is rolled up than the lights go on/off.

I could not get the main gun and machine gun on either VrA or VrB nor on Key1 and Key2 hence the above solution.

Now see if i can get this setting on the Panzer4.