Tankhobby

I bought one of the Henlong barrel smoke kits to use in one of my 1/6 scale tanks. I used the smoke tank, motor and tubing. Didn't need the pcb that came with the kit as that is meant for connection to the Henlong motherboard. I connected a DC supply to the smoke tank heater and triggered the motor from a regular RC switch (5 VDC). Looks OK but I want more smoke, might try increasing the voltage on the heater, but I have to be careful that I don't burn it out. Going to add the Taigen barrel flash also for added affect. When the barrel recoils from firing it will expose the flash LED and the smoke will shoot out of the tube.

Azhuonyk

And is it possible on a Pz.Kpfw.IV?

maillemaker

Pretty cool. How does it function?

Tankhobby

It's pretty simple, a smoke unit and an air pump. The smoke unit gets a DC supply to generate smoke, when the gun fires it triggers the air pump to pump air into the smoke unit and from there out to the gun barrel. If it ever stops snowing around here I will have a video of it operating in my 1/6 scale Sherman. I don't like running the smoke units indoors, they smell a lot! LOL

maillemaker

I'm curious why half the smoke line is white all the time as if it was full of smoke?

And doesn't the smoke unit burn up with no airflow going through it all the time?

Tankhobby

There is smoke in the line and will slowly leak out if left on for a long time. I'm planning on hooking the heater up to an RC switch so I turn it on when I plan to use it, off when I'm not. The wattage rating of the heating element will determine if it burns out, with the right voltage it may stay on for a long time and not burn out. Depends upon what is used as a heater, wire, resistor? I have an adjustable regulator connected to the heater, you can see the digital readout above right of the motor. I'm looking at a larger smoke unit for more smoke and wattage. Still testing...

maillemaker

So is it generating smoke all the time, and then the blower only turns on when it's time to shoot? Or is the blower going all the time, too, and some kind of valve opens to let the smoke out?

Tankhobby

Yes while it's powered it is generating smoke in the tank, there is no "blower" on the tank, only the air pump that pumps air into the tank and out the exit tube that's in the barrel. This is from the Henlong barrel smoke kit, I disconnected the circuit board and used the smoke tank and air pump, added a regulator and I control the air pump motor with the canon fire signal to turn on for about a second. In the video I'm controlling the pump by hand with a servo controller. No valves, if left on for a long time I guess smoke would slowly leak out the barrel, that's why an RC switch would be good. Turn it off if not using it.

Tankhobby

Need more smoke!

It works well but I would like more smoke. I bought some GITANKSOMERS and will try one of those. The Henlong unit is meant for 1/16 scale tanks so the smoke tank is small. The flash unit is hard to see with daylight and the masking tape I used to secure it to the smoke tube should probably be painted black. Also the smoke tube should sit a little further back in the barrel so when it comes out it's already spread out and should look more realistic.
I also need to change the mount. I 3D printed the base but the tank gets so hot the base has warped!


The toggle switch is to shut off power to the smoke unit if I'm not planning on using it. I wired a cheap digital meter that shows the voltage to the smoke unit, mostly for troubleshooting purposes in case it stops working. The little PCB is an RC switch, I fire the canon from a toggle switch that is channel 5 on the transmitter. Very simple hookup and works great.

Crius

Totally missed this one til now. Getting great ideas already. If you want more smoke you might try a wire wound resistor. This is with a 10 ohm 1 watt. I just might have one layin' around if you want to play with it. But be careful, you try to run this on 12 volts and you'll melt the plastic case on a piston type smoker.


Two things to watch for in the video, the little fan on the smoker, useful for a bunch of stuff, I have a couple keeping my Asp units cool, just in case, they're cheap (3 to 5 clams), and if you have hobby grade electronics they run great on receiver voltage, on ebay (1 inch fan) but shop around, and at the end you get a shot of some old style brass dual ratio gearboxes, still running great and I wish they still made them. If anyone has a set of those gearboxes you want to sell I'm interested. I still have one pair left, but those are earmarked for the Stug.

Tankhobby

The GITANKSMOKERS put out a lot of smoke, not sure if it's a wire wound resistor or something else (haven't taken one apart). They make ones for different voltages and they come with a splitter and extra tubing to run a line to and through the gun barrel. But that is meant for 1/16 tanks. With a 1/6 tank I believe I need a separate smoker for the gun barrel. The run from the back to the barrel and through it is a long distance.