Sunday 17 March 2013

Mid March Update

Sorry for the lack of progress over the last couple of weekends but been sidetracked!

Progress has been made on the electrics both the main panel and control panel. The control panel will be accessed through the engine hatch on the upper deck. This is linked by an umbillical cable to the main panel. The main panel has been built up (I dont think I've missed anything!!) and is now ready for wiring up, thats not a five minute job!
Howard arrived yesterday with the elevation mechanism more or less completed. That was a surprise! He's now taken the gun barrel to make the recoil mechanism and barrel connection (to be able to remove the gun barrel, have you seen how long it is in 1/4 scale?) He's also got the old base of the turret to carry on with the turret support frame.

This is the layout of the control panel. From top left, an hour meter to show how much running the model has done, a Voltmeter, a security key switch (to knobble the model if left somewhere), the charging socket, and underneath various switches. The second and third from the left are the track adjustment switches with warning LEDs to show full travel in each direction!
 Kind of out of sequence but following on from talking about the track adjustment this picture shows the limit of travel switches on the right hand track adjuster. These will cut the power to the motor to prevent any damage and will light the appropriate LED.
 This is the underneath of the main electrics panel. In the middle the main amplifier, to the right the DC to DC converter (12v from 24v), to the left the +24v -24v and +12v connectors and main relay, bottom left is the strip of relay holders and on the far left edge all the off panel connectors.
 The top of the control panel with the three 4QD speed controllers, aluminium box for the Benedini sound module, smoke generator controller, RC Rx, RC BEC and an RC Battleswitch to turn the tank lights on and off. The red unit is an MP3 player with next to it a 4 pole changeover relay to switch the main tank speakers from the MP3 player to the Alpine amplifier when the model is switched on. To the right of the Ali box is an Electronize speed controller for the turret traverse.
 Here's the top with the steel cover over the speed controllers (not painted yet!)
 The rear of the main panel with four connectors to the control panel, turret traverse and turret power and to the right the speakers and smoke generator connectors.
 To get away from electrics, here's the elevation mechanisn. The mantlet and inner gun tube pivot just to the front of the upright steel panel. This panel will be welded to the turret support frame.
 Looking down the inner gun tube (that which the gun barrel slides in and out for recoil). The motor and gearbox can be seen mounted below the steel panel linked via ball joints and threaded rod (for adjustment).
A side view showing the pivot trunnions and inner gun tube support frame (nice and robust!)

Thats it for now. We're off for a week down in Somerset this next week so there wont be much to report for a couple of weeks but I shall crack on with wiring up the electrics as and when I can.

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