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One of my hobbies is building large scale RC tanks completely from scratch, using hobby-grade electronics. Most of these tanks were designed in CAD, and built out of plywood and a bunch of 3D printed components.
Here is a gallery of all the tanks I've made from 2018-2020:
T 55-A: (5/16/18)
RU 251: (11/26/18)
K 91: (2/27/19)
Leopard 2A4: (5/22/20)
Tank hull before it was spray painted (knife for scale)
The final turret is indeed 3D printed, this one is just a foam mock-up
More info on the Leopard 2A4:
Hull length: 0.8m
Hull width: 0.38m
This project marks the biggest and heaviest tank I've made, and with that came new challenges that have not been present in previous designs.
The initial gearbox design used two cheap brushless motors, with 3D printed gears press-fitted into the motor shaft. When the motors were running hot, these gears tended to slip from the shaft, and wore out quickly. A new gearbox was designed, utilizing helical gears and a pair of bevel gears to transfer power from a large, single brushless motor to the output shaft. This worked great, and provided the tank with a lot of mobility.
The first iteration of tank tracks kept falling off when the tank was pivoting, due to the low tolerances and loose linkages used to connect each track. An entire new set of tracks were printed, such that a carbon fiber rod was friction-fit through the pivot linkage, removing all slack. As a result, the tank is now able to pivot on rough terrain, with a low chance of track failure.
Left: new and improved gearbox.
Right: old gearbox with two motors.
Videos:
New tracks
Old tracks keep falling off
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