Armortek

Hi Roy, lead acid batteries unfortunately have no fix correlation between voltage and remaining capacity, because the voltage is also dependent from load current. Maybe a battery shows 24 volts and ist nearly empty, when measured without current, and another battery has 20 volts and half its capacit...

Well, also a warning given by a normal relay may be too late even when using simple lead acid batteries. When using LiFe cells this would be absolutely no practicable possibility. A BMS however would cause a final stop of the tank. IMHO a reliable monitoring of the battery state is the best solution...

Hi Roy, I bought these components years ago from a military surplus dealer; mine come from cannibalized tanks (full scale). :mrgreen: But also other dealers (e.g. EBAY) offer such components in new state. Here 2 pics of a switching fuse and a bistable relay. The dual fuse has only 2 x 7 amps nominal...

In my 5 tanks I use an automatic circuit breaker as a main switch; from 30 to 60 amps nominal current, depending on tank model. These circuit breakers trip out at 150 % of the nominal current within about 10 seconds. This allows to consume up to 90 amps peak for this 10 seconds. IMHO most wiring of ...

Beier in Germany (the sound module manufacturer) offers a 4 channel RC switch with 15 modes. Could this be an option ? Here the description: https://www.beier-electronic.de/modellbau/produkte/rc-sm-4/rc-sm-4.php?sprache=gb If you like to control the loads with the sound module outputs there is anoth...

Hello Christoffer, fortunately a 300 W sound system doesn't consume 300 W at any times; this is the peak current (e.g. gunfire). But yes, my 250 W sound system needs up to 3 amps, when the tank stays with motor idle. This is an average value because the volume is variable, controlled by transmitters...

Hi Stephen, of course a BMS is a good thing to protect a LiFe battery, but I refuse to say it is the only one. Like you I think that your BMS switched off due to an 'excessive' current peak, but that limitation results exclusively in the electric data of the BMS and not in any damage which may happe...

Hi Allan, I use each 8 LiFe cells (26 V) of 36 Ah in my Jagdtiger, 40 Ah in my King Tiger with Porsche turret, 20 Ah in my King Tiger with Henschel turret and other 20 Ah in my Pz. IV. Please note that these batteries are the only power sources in my tanks, for driving, sound (up to 250 watts), RC a...

Hi Brian,

I'm not a friend of LiPos for tank models, because these types of batteries may burn, if they are not treated well. LiFes are much more safe in daily use.

Hello Peter, glad to read that at the end you also have decided to use LiFes! In my opinion this is the only one power source that fits a modern vehicle; small, lightweight, powerful. :mrgreen: Due to the fact that a LiFe battery can be used at 100 % DoD without a significant lack of duty and a lead...

Nice design, indeed! For my tanks I use customary hydraulic car jacks with a simple plywood plate for working and for storage with released drive train springs. These jacks are a little too high to drive over; therefore I move the tank upon 2 wooden beams with the jack between. Then I jack the tank ...

Hi John,

thanks for reply. In better times the nameplates were some more informative...........

Hi John,

well, I hoped to see a simple nameplate like it is on the older motors:

Btw just a question: may anyone please tell me the nominal current consumption of the latest Spiradrive motors (nameplate)? Are there different Spiradrive motors (means electrical data, like power consumption) in use between heavy and light Armortek models or only different transmissions?

Does anyone have any measurement data wrt current draw of the motors on any model? Hi Richard, all my models have -among other shown values on my transmitter- a real time current measurement via telemetry (the other transmitted data are e.g. voltages of each LiFe cell, temps of motors and ESC and -...