First Tank Inbound- Torro Sherman (76mm)

[ACE111]

Hi everyone,

After doing some research into my first tank purchase, I’ve decided on the Torro/Taigen M4A3 Sherman (76mm) and can’t wait to get it in-hand! I knew I wanted a Sherman and the Torro seemed like a nice improvement over the HL version- plus the 76mm gun was a must-have IMO. I was curious though if anyone knew what motherboard is included in them? I purchased mine through MotionRC and they don’t explicitly mention what it comes with while the Taigen site mentions it has a V3 board. I’m really just wanting the ability to disable track recoil which from what I understand, is only available on the V3 board.

Other than that, anything else I should keep in mind when setting up/running? I’ve already purchased a couple 5000mah Nimh packs but still trying to figure out what upgrades may be necessary or if I should just leave it as-is. Thanks in advance for any input!

[Rubicon99]

Hi everyone,

After doing some research into my first tank purchase, I’ve decided on the Torro/Taigen M4A3 Sherman (76mm) and can’t wait to get it in-hand! I knew I wanted a Sherman and the Torro seemed like a nice improvement over the HL version- plus the 76mm gun was a must-have IMO. I was curious though if anyone knew what motherboard is included in them? I purchased mine through MotionRC and they don’t explicitly mention what it comes with while the Taigen site mentions it has a V3 board. I’m really just wanting the ability to disable track recoil which from what I understand, is only available on the V3 board.

Other than that, anything else I should keep in mind when setting up/running? I’ve already purchased a couple 5000mah Nimh packs but still trying to figure out what upgrades may be necessary or if I should just leave it as-is. Thanks in advance for any input!

The Torro/Taigen tanks use an outdated controlled board. It’s OK if you are just driving the tank for fun, but it needs to be replaced if you want to IR battle the tank with new Heng Long, Tamiya or other aftermarket control system equipped tanks.

Most people dump the stock Torro system and replace it with a Heng Long 6.1S or Clark control board (MFU) regardless of if they want to battle their tank because these MFUs just drive the tanks so much better.

[ACE111]

The Torro/Taigen tanks use an outdated controlled board. It’s OK if you are just driving the tank for fun, but it needs to be replaced if you want to IR battle the tank with new Heng Long, Tamiya or other aftermarket control system equipped tanks.

Most people dump the stock Torro system and replace it with a Heng Long 6.1S or Clark control board (MFU) regardless of if they want to battle their tank because these MFUs just drive the tanks so much better.

I’ve been noticing that the Taigen control board isn’t very well received but I’m figuring I’ll give it a shot before deciding if I want to upgrade or not. There aren’t any tank clubs in the NYC/Long Island area that I’m aware of so I’ll likely be running it on my own. If anything, I may go for a Clark MFU just to improve the driving characteristics. Are they really a substantial improvement over the Taigen or HL units as far as feel and performance or is the programmability the main appeal for most?

[RichJohnson]

The stock taigen Torro systems drive crappy like the really old henglong tanks. Gutless and feel like they won’t get out of their own way.
tje cheapest effective route is a henglong 6.1s if your not going to get fancy, just have to change motor wires and figure out how to plug everything in to the HL mfu.

[Rubicon99]

I’ve been noticing that the Taigen control board isn’t very well received but I’m figuring I’ll give it a shot before deciding if I want to upgrade or not. There aren’t any tank clubs in the NYC/Long Island area that I’m aware of so I’ll likely be running it on my own. If anything, I may go for a Clark MFU just to improve the driving characteristics. Are they really a substantial improvement over the Taigen or HL units as far as feel and performance or is the programmability the main appeal for most?

Clark tend to be for those that want a good driving tank with custom sound options that is also Tamiya battle protocol compatible. IMO if you are not going to battle the tank then the Heng Long 6.1S is an easier install and generally a better all around handling MFU. Its major drawback is that you have to use a Heng Long transmitter which is toyish vs a hobby grade transmitter/receiver with the Clark MFU (TX/RX not included).

[ACE111]

The stock taigen Torro systems drive crappy like the really old henglong tanks. Gutless and feel like they won’t get out of their own way.
tje cheapest effective route is a henglong 6.1s if your not going to get fancy, just have to change motor wires and figure out how to plug everything in to the HL mfu.

I’ll definitely look into the HL 6.1s. Although as Rubicon pointed out, Im not sure I love the idea of being stuck with a stock transmitter after upgrading. But the Clark units are substantially more so seems like more homework is in order. Are the current V3 Taigen boards any better than older Taigen or do they all drive the same?

[ACE111]

Clark tend to be for those that want a good driving tank with custom sound options that is also Tamiya battle protocol compatible. IMO if you are not going to battle the tank then the Heng Long 6.1S is an easier install and generally a better all around handling MFU. Its major drawback is that you have to use a Heng Long transmitter which is toyish vs a hobby grade transmitter/receiver with the Clark MFU (TX/RX not included).

Good to know! The Clark units are a good chunk pricier for sure but being able to use a better transmitter is definitely appealing. Are there other boards priced between the Clark and 6.1s that would allow me to use my own TX/RX?

[Rubicon99]

Good to know! The Clark units are a good chunk pricier for sure but being able to use a better transmitter is definitely appealing. Are there other boards priced between the Clark and 6.1s that would allow me to use my own TX/RX?

Long Short answer is NO

[sclui56]

ACE, I have both Taigen/Torro & HL and I tend to run the former much more. I must concede the HL 6.x> MFU's are more advance than Taigen's v3 and offer features not available from the Taigen. Having said that, driveability in the Taigen with stock MFU can be improved quite a bit if you were to use a hobby-grade Tx. Your Taigen comes with a set of bridge-wires to hook up the MFU to a 6+channel Rx, which you can use a hobby-grade Tx where you can modify the driveability.

In doing so, there are 2 things you need to note, you will lose the activation of the MG, both sound and visual because Taigen uses some undisclosed mix in channel 5. Lastly, you will need to put an inline on/off for your smoker, otherwise, the smoker will always be active when using non-OEM transmitter.

I am partial to the Taigen's because I feel the lower hulls and suspensions are built stronger than HL's, plus I don't have to undo many screws to separate the halves. However, there are weight penalties with Taigen's use of metal turrets, most models are not an issue, but the Tiger II tends to exhibit quite a bit of flex with the upper hull, not only the turret is rather heavy, the upper hull also seems to sport thinner plastic, something I am trying to remedy.

Having said all this, I just run my toys, no IR battling outside so compatibility is not an issue for me. Now if HL offers a bridged solution for me to use hobby grade Tx, I would replace every single Taigen MFU in a heartbeat, I just can't handle carrying/storing multiple individual Tx's.

[tanks for us]

Motion RC tanks (Taigen/Torro) are currently available as IR units not BB unless something has changed recently. The track recoil switch are on these newer tanks. The switch is tiny & hard to see. A small hobby screwdriver is good for sliding it off. Track recoil sucks. I have a HL T90 with 6.0S board which is better than the V3. The 6.0S recoil can be adjusted off + 3 other settings if I remember correctly. I turn it off. I like the Torro tanks better but the HL runs better (has adjustable speed range). I think there are some differences between the 6.0S & 6.1S. These 2 are probably better than the 7.0S

[ACE111]

ACE, I have both Taigen/Torro & HL and I tend to run the former much more. I must concede the HL 6.x> MFU's are more advance than Taigen's v3 and offer features not available from the Taigen. Having said that, driveability in the Taigen with stock MFU can be improved quite a bit if you were to use a hobby-grade Tx. Your Taigen comes with a set of bridge-wires to hook up the MFU to a 6+channel Rx, which you can use a hobby-grade Tx where you can modify the driveability.

In doing so, there are 2 things you need to note, you will lose the activation of the MG, both sound and visual because Taigen uses some undisclosed mix in channel 5. Lastly, you will need to put an inline on/off for your smoker, otherwise, the smoker will always be active when using non-OEM transmitter.

I am partial to the Taigen's because I feel the lower hulls and suspensions are built stronger than HL's, plus I don't have to undo many screws to separate the halves. However, there are weight penalties with Taigen's use of metal turrets, most models are not an issue, but the Tiger II tends to exhibit quite a bit of flex with the upper hull, not only the turret is rather heavy, the upper hull also seems to sport thinner plastic, something I am trying to remedy.

Having said all this, I just run my toys, no IR battling outside so compatibility is not an issue for me. Now if HL offers a bridged solution for me to use hobby grade Tx, I would replace every single Taigen MFU in a heartbeat, I just can't handle carrying/storing multiple individual Tx's.

Thanks for the thorough response! I definitely may try just using a better TX/RX with the V3 to start out and see how much I can improve it. I was thinking of upgrading the smoker eventually anyway so adding an inline switch or removing it (stock smoker) for the time being won’t be a big deal. The machine gun function on the Sherman looks a bit sub par- at least in videos- so I won’t be too upset about losing that especially if driving performance is improved.

The build quality and gearboxes on the Torro/Taigens seems well worth the compromise on the MFU. At least they’re relatively easy to change out.

Looking forward to getting mine in person! Thanks again

[ACE111]

Motion RC tanks (Taigen/Torro) are currently available as IR units not BB unless something has changed recently. The track recoil switch are on these newer tanks. The switch is tiny & hard to see. A small hobby screwdriver is good for sliding it off. Track recoil sucks. I have a HL T90 with 6.0S board which is better than the V3. The 6.0S recoil can be adjusted off + 3 other settings if I remember correctly. I turn it off. I like the Torro tanks better but the HL runs better (has adjustable speed range). I think there are some differences between the 6.0S & 6.1S. These 2 are probably better than the 7.0S

Excellent- exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! I purchased the IR version but I believe there is a BB version available. No barrel recoil or flash on it though and that was more appealing to me than the airsoft function.
I totally agree on the track recoil- just doesn’t make sense especially on a Sherman so I wanted to make sure I could disable it somehow

[sclui56]

Thanks for the thorough response! I definitely may try just using a better TX/RX with the V3 to start out and see how much I can improve it. I was thinking of upgrading the smoker eventually anyway so adding an inline switch or removing it (stock smoker) for the time being won’t be a big deal. The machine gun function on the Sherman looks a bit sub par- at least in videos- so I won’t be too upset about losing that especially if driving performance is improved.

The build quality and gearboxes on the Torro/Taigens seems well worth the compromise on the MFU. At least they’re relatively easy to change out.

Looking forward to getting mine in person! Thanks again

I actually swapped out the smoker on all the Taigen's since they still use the older style "piston" type. I have 1 tank using the GI Smoker and it produces a lot of smoke, but I thought it was too costly for every tank so I have gone with a HL pump style like these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001...65265815%22%7D

On the M4A3 76, I opened up the diffuser per Rich's suggestion and you can see it here https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...diffuser-fixed

BTW, my copy of the M4A3 runs quite well, the gearbox is relatively quiet, narrower tracks make it less noisy overall.

[DavidN]

I have just received mine on Friday. I am not sure about the glossy black stripes that Taigen painted on this tank. Does anyone have a color picture of this tank that he can share? I would like to repaint it. Thank you!

[ACE111]

I actually swapped out the smoker on all the Taigen's since they still use the older style "piston" type. I have 1 tank using the GI Smoker and it produces a lot of smoke, but I thought it was too costly for every tank so I have gone with a HL pump style like these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001...65265815%22%7D

On the M4A3 76, I opened up the diffuser per Rich's suggestion and you can see it here https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...diffuser-fixed

BTW, my copy of the M4A3 runs quite well, the gearbox is relatively quiet, narrower tracks make it less noisy overall.

Thanks for all the great info! I’ll definitely be doing that diffuser mod. Strange that they didn’t mold them with openings. I’ve been looking at the Baroness 2 smoker but I want to get everything working smoothly with my own transmitter before I change anything else out. Planning to use a Radiolink AT9S which seems like it should work well. Any advice on getting that set up or will following the Taigen V3 schematic be sufficient?

[sclui56]

Yep, I gave into the Baroness on a Tiger II, plenty of smoke, actually more than I care for, that's why those I showed earlier using 370 pumps are plenty acceptable, besides, I like the smoke output from the 370 pumps because the streams are not continuous as in the fan-driven type. The Rx wiring is fairly straight forward. I started with an old DEVO 10 running Deviation using OrangeRx R615X with DSM2/DSMX protocol, then switched to a RadioMaster TX16s running OpenTX with some inexpensive RadioMaster Frsky compatible D8 and D16 Rx's and that's what I am sticking to. You could also setup momentum/inertia with mixes, works fairly well.

[sclui56]

[SIZE=14px]I have just received mine on Friday. I am not sure about the glossy black stripes that Taigen painted on this tank. Does anyone have a color picture of this tank that he can share? I would like to repaint it. Thank you!

David, I am so glad you found the shimmering black questionable. I can't understand the reasoning behind that!

[ACE111]

I have just received mine on Friday. I am not sure about the glossy black stripes that Taigen painted on this tank. Does anyone have a color picture of this tank that he can share? I would like to repaint it. Thank you!

I can’t help with a good reference image but the gloss black is an odd choice for sure! I’ll probably coat mine with Mr.Hobby Clear Flat top coat after I do some weathering and that should dull it down and even everything out

[ACE111]

Yep, I gave into the Baroness on a Tiger II, plenty of smoke, actually more than I care for, that's why those I showed earlier using 370 pumps are plenty acceptable, besides, I like the smoke output from the 370 pumps because the streams are not continuous as in the fan-driven type. The Rx wiring is fairly straight forward. I started with an old DEVO 10 running Deviation using OrangeRx R615X with DSM2/DSMX protocol, then switched to a RadioMaster TX16s running OpenTX with some inexpensive RadioMaster Frsky compatible D8 and D16 Rx's and that's what I am sticking to. You could also setup momentum/inertia with mixes, works fairly well.

Good to know- I’ll probably follow your advice then on an improved piston-style smoker since I don’t want it to look like an engine fire all the time.

Glad to hear that using an aftermarket TX isn’t difficult to set up. Once I have it sorted, I’ll take a look at mixing momentum/inertia features- sounds like a cool function that would add some realism. Thanks again for all of your help!

[sclui56]

ACE, take a look at this post, he essentially wrote the step-by-step programming with clear explanation at that http://rctanksaustralia.com/forum1/v....php?f=32&t=57

When you reach that stage, be mindful to setup a fail safe cause your tank will not stop on the dime depending on the mix, so you need an abrupt means to stop movement, if necessary.