Dan, thanks for the info! Looking at the current R/S catalog,
I can't find the T1 tank. The one they have is called "Sentinel"
and the turret rotates though it's not clear how you do that
based on the picture of the remote... 100 ft/min is too fast for
my use and using PWM control to slow things down gives up a lot
of torque. I wish I could see what's inside. I'll stop by my local
R/S soon and see if they have one I can play with.

   Right now I'm considering starting from scratch... I looked
at Jameco and they have some powerful low-rpm DC motors with
internal gearing for around $15-$20. This eliminates an external
gear box. I also looked at the Robot Store and found a dual motor
gear box assembly for $20 but the shaft length is only 4". For
$39 they have a tracked bulldozer kit for $40 that uses the above.
It's out of stock until at least next month. It's also smaller
than I prefer (7"x5.5"). They have other motor gear box assemblies
for around $20. The motors use 3-4.5V. For more info:

      http://www.RobotStore.com

   - Tom

At 10:08 PM 11/19/00 -0500, Dan Michaels wrote:
>Tom and others,
>
>I went and played with the Radio Shack toys this weekend. The
>T1 tank is nice and slow [100 feet/min] and powerful, but hard
>to control by hand -[these are not your kid's 15YO hands, I guess].
>
>The 2 tread drive motors have separate R/C channels and you have
>to control them individually. To go straight you push both
>controls forward at the same time, etc - you compensate for
>different motor speeds manually. Turning is not pretty. Punch
>one motor and the thing swings around like crazy.
>
>The other one I looked at was the Buzzsaw 4WD, high/low-gearing
>monster truck. Goes 500 feet/min in high gear, lots slower
>[not-specified] in low. Has bang-bang steering, but still lots
>easier to control than the tank. With a variable H-bridge on
>the motor, this one may be doable - if it still has any torque
>left with the motors running at less than full current.
>
>The tank may be easier to control by computer than by hand,
>but I think you would definitely need to measure motor RPMs to
>get it to go straight.
>
>best regards,
>- Dan Michaels
>Oricom Technologies
>http://www.oricomtech.com <--[slowly getting the new site up]


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Handley
New Age Communications
Since '75 before "New Age" and no one around here is waiting for UFOs ;-)

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