Electronics Information

This section describes the electronics of my scale M1045 and Tiger. Most of the vehicles participating in R/C tank combat are controlled by standard hobby R/C equipment. This vehicle is controlled by a laptop computer via WiFi (802.11g). It contains a small on-board PC that receives commands from the laptop and sends back telemetry information and video.

I transplanted the controller from the M1045 to the Tiger and made some changes. For example, the drive motor ESCs are no longer mounted inside the control box. The turret motor ESC (a Dimension Engineering SyRen) is in the box, however.

This picture shows the vehicle controller. It's a little out of date, but you can get the idea. The controller was built into a small cash box from an office supply store. The heart of the controller is a VIA EPIA MII 12000 motherboard. It runs at 1.2Ghz and is equipped with 512Mb RAM and a compact flash card for a hard disk. The system runs the Microsoft enhanced write filter to avoid excess writes to the CF card.

12 or 24 volt power comes in from the connector on the right and goes to an M1-ATX DC/DC converter that powers the MB and the rest of the system components. The drive motor attaches to the same connector. The motor speed is varied by an IFI Victor 883 speed controller (composited into the photo) which interfaces the servo controller board. The Velleman USB I/O drives turret rotation relays, controls the paintball marker, and has analog inputs to measure battery voltage and current consumption.

The PC serial port attaches to an 8-channel servo controller. Vehicle steering, marker elevation, and paintball loading are driven by hobby servos.

This diagram shows how to connect a Viewloader Charger controller board to the Velleman I/O board. The Charger board is in the handle of the marker. It was removed and housed separately.

The DI inputs on the circuit connect to the digital outputs on the Velleman board. The outputs are used. The first turns the marker on and off and set it's mode (semi-auto, burst, full auto). The second triggers the marker.

Power to this circuit is provided by the disk drive power output of the M1-ATX power supply. A 9v regulator replaces the marker battery.

I used PS8602 opto isolators because I had them in parts box. I imagine any generic isolator would work, too.

These pictures show the "backtop PC" I use to control the vehicle. I decided I didn't want to take my nice, expensive, fragile laptop into the field and get paintballs shot at it.

The backtop PC is an ITX motherboard in a car enclosure, with a battery, an XBox controller and an 8.5" LCD display mounted to the controller. The pack is a military surplus ALICE frame. Those gray straps keep the strain off the user's wrists when holding the controller/LCD assembly. The yellow tube is narrow CPVC pipe that contains the WiFi antenna.

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