CS 6.1 CANSHUO Tank Control Board Info

[tank_me]

So the board arrived yesterday from Toucan and I've started to bench test it. I can definitely confirm it will bind to a v6 HL transmitter. It can start the tank, control the volume, change the engine sounds (has the standard four HL sounds), fire the gun, and fire the machine gun. I haven't had much time to test out anything else. As you can see, the instructions are geared toward the other transmitter type (same kind Haya is using). I'm going to assume that if I follow the v6 functions from the manual, that they will work. Alas verifying that is testing for another day.

[keilau]

So the board arrived yesterday from Toucan and I've started to bench test it. I can definitely confirm it will bind to a v6 HL transmitter. It can start the tank, control the volume, change the engine sounds (has the standard four HL sounds), fire the gun, and fire the machine gun. I haven't had much time to test out anything else. As you can see, the instructions are geared toward the other transmitter type (same kind Haya is using). I'm going to assume that if I follow the v6 functions from the manual, that they will work. Alas verifying that is testing for another day.

I saw that it has a separate ECS with cooling fins and fan. Does it support brushless motors which needs 3 wires? I guess not. Does it has longer range when used with the CS 6.1 CANSHUO transmitter which has the dual antenna?

[Zippersnapper]

Awesome Tank me....what about servo support? can you link to where you bought yours?

[tank_me]

I saw that it has a separate ECS with cooling fins and fan. Does it support brushless motors which needs 3 wires? I guess not. Does it has longer range when used with the CS 6.1 CANSHUO transmitter which has the dual antenna?

The ESC is separate and I would like to find out what it's rated for. I'll be looking for that info. It does have a fan output, but no where to mount the fan. I guess that is up to the user. I have some small fans around I can test it.

It is brushed only. Not brushless. I do have the dual antenna radio so I can test it when I have some time. I've got to go dig it out of my Chieftain transport box.

Awesome Tank me....what about servo support? can you link to where you bought yours?

Haven't tested the servo support yet. I was playing with it for about 20 minutes last night before I went to bed. I bought it directly from Toucan.

https://www.toucanhobby.com/products/cs-rc61-mainboard-dzn1?_pos=1&_sid=086df40be&_ss=r

I thought it would be interesting to put in a modern tank where the main portion is mounted in the turret and the ESC mounted in the hull using a slip ring. It would eliminate any IR interference from the slip ring, but in a quick search I couldn't find any slip rings with a little larger wires for the motors and battery current. I do still want to see if the IR is compatible with HL or Tamiya. The Chieftain is compatible with Tamiya so I'm hoping that is the case with this one.

[tank_me]

Updates below...

First observation:

It does take and receive hits using Tamiya battle system protocol. The "Battle Interface" connector port (CH15) is where the IR emitter (first two pins) and the IR receiver (last 3 pins) are connected. The IR emitter does an extended pulse just like the Tamiya protocol does on any other board. You might ask then how do the IR receiver LEDs get wired? I connected them to the rear lights (LED3) or headlight (LED 4) slot. The rear lights is the preferred location for me as there is also a "brake light" port to connect rear brake lights. Those lights will only come on when the tank has been moving and the throttle is cut. They only stay on momentarily to indicate brakes, but shut off regardless of whether the tank moves again or not. Now the only caveat to this is the headlights/rear lights come on by default using the HL transmitter when the tank goes through a start up procedure either from manually hitting the lock button or after recovering from 6 hits. To get the apple (in this case I used a HL version of the LegoDEI apple) to light up, you have to turn the headlights/rear lights off by holding "G" and actuating the first stick "up". Then the LED3 or LED4 port will register hits from enemy tanks. If you do not shut the lights off using the G/up stick method you will not see the tank register hits. The system will register 5 hits like any other system does. On the 6th hit, the tank shuts down, pauses, then resets. At that point you would need to G/up stick to turn the lights back off to register hits again. It will register hits regardless of whether the lights are on or off.

Second observation:

Servo recoil and servo elevation work with no user intervention right out of the box. It does recoil in the wrong direction if using a Clark recoil unit with no way to reverse it from commands in the v6 HL transmitter. A servo reversing circuit can fix that issue though.

Side notes:

The laser aiming port will "fire" when the main gun fires, but it is not an extended pulse necessary to trigger a hit with the HL system. The canon LED port operates the same as the laser aiming port. If the system doesn't do an extended IR pulse, it will not register hits on enemies. I found this fact out when I was troubleshooting my Open Panzer TCB with Luke on another build. It wasn't pulsing long enough so he tweaked the code to pulse longer and it solved the problem. Overall it seems that the "G" button on the HL radio operates like the "set" button on the Haya.

Further testing:

I will have to actually install this into a tank to test out the control functions so that update may take some time for me to do as I am balancing a full time job and full time college. I would also like to test if there is any range difference between the two transmitters.

Overall I was looking at it as an alternative to the HL 6.1 or 7.1 for those that want servo outputs. It is much cheaper than the HL servo enabled controllers if paired with a v6 transmitter or a Haya transmitter you already own. The battle functions are less advanced than the Tamiya version, but some folks don't care much about battling.

[Zippersnapper]

Excellent sir and MOST appreciated. Paring with a 6.0 transmitter and servo support is all I needed to hear plus a bonus that port CH17 is there. I'll be scooping a couple up, Can you elaborate on the sound packages? is it the same 4 as a standard 6.0/6.1s ?

[tank_me]

Yes it is the standard package like the 6.0/6.1. Abrams, T-90, Leo, and Tiger, I believe.

[Zippersnapper]

I purchased

[Zippersnapper]

Just recieved the canshuo board, everything checks out. It binds with the 6.0 transmitter, SERVO barrel recoil & elevation work flawless, 4 same sound packs as the 6.0/6.1 HL units, etc, etc. A coulple of added bonus-Port CH17 (radiator fan) turns on only when tank is turned on from transmitter, not just powering up the MFU AND it has 2 speaker ports (this should be fun). This MFU is also made of metal just like the 6.1s & 7.1. All in all, a great pruchase at this price.

.

[BcuriousR]

Just installed one of these in my M26. Installed servo recoil. Checked all functions, rotation, elevation, IR, machine gun. Worked great! Hooked up the motors to drive and it died. Shut down, smelled funky, and won't start again. All wiring, except the servo recoil, were simple swaps. No sense in it burning out.

Recently I bought a collection of HL TK6.1s. 5 worked flawlessly, 1 died on its first drive. So maybe this was a fluke. I'm not looking forward to the "back and forth" with Toucan over why it fried.

Seems like a cool alternative to the more expensive 7.1 or retired 6.1, but the two part unit is not space savvy.

[SoCalBobS]

I'd be suspicious of your motor - perhaps a short circuit or a jam inside that stalls the armature?

[BcuriousR]

I'd be suspicious of your motor - perhaps a short circuit or a jam inside that stalls the armature?

Not a chance. It was a simple swap. Put the old board back in, and it works fine. Went ahead and used my last 6.1s. It works great.

[tank_me]

Been a long time coming, but I have an update to this thread. Last night I sat down and replaced the Open Panzer TCB I had installed in my Hooben ZTZ-99A with the Canshuo unit. It was a quite a lot of rewiring and soldering as the TCB uses different connectors than the CS and the TCB had been mounted in the turret. I had done some further bench testing and found I had the IR LED in the wrong slot so the MFU was taking and sending hits just fine with other Tamiya/HL tanks. Since the Hooben tank is a little fragile and I don't plan on running it much I figured this MFU which I paid $35 for on sale at Toucan was the way to go. I think I also picked up the tank really cheap so not really much lost in the experimentation I figure.



The TCB was replaced since it just didn't run right in this tank. I had tried two units in it and they both acted the same. The motors wouldn't start up consistently which caused the tank to jerk around when changing directions. After installing the CS unit, I think I figured out why. The Hooben 380 motors seem to have a high internal resistance. When I apply power to the motors there is a very slight, but very noticeable clunk on each one as they engage the gears. Long story short, the unit has performed well so far and the tank now drives smoothly despite the slight clunk during the initial movement of the motors from a stop. I still need to wire the LegoDEI LEDs into the rear lighting assembly.



Now that the tank is fully functional it may be time to finally tackle the digital desert camo paint scheme. That should be a load of fun.

That's all for now...

Derek