Kim Olsen’s MTCU.

Be careful with what you wish, because it may come true. Some months ago I came across an interesting forum thread where Herr Rich Johnson was claiming the hobby needed a new tank control board. There was a debate that, once summarized, looks like it concluded in he was half right. It is not that the hobby needed a new tank board, but a Tamiya IR compatible one.

Nowadays there are multiple boards out there for suiting almost everybody’s needs. IMHO, If you want incredible sound quality and quantity and also an uncountable amount of fully configurable lights, you have to get a Beier board. If you want super realistic driving with huge inertias, gear change simulation and so on, you would do good getting an Elmod board. If you want to be scammed and end with your tank ending catching fire, well, then, get a Clark board. But what if you want to participate in infra-red battles? That is an abandoned gap that it seems nobody is willing to cover for pure laziness or programmer’s arrogancy. So far, the most known option seems be getting original Tamiya electronics which are bulky, rare, mega expensive and boring as watching the paint dry… until now.

Along that forum discussion I reminded I knew a guy in Denmark called “Kim Olsen” who told me he was making his own “Module Tank Control Units”, or “MTCU”s, based in the Open Panzer TCB project, but going several steps further adding all the necessary components making an All-in-One package. I threw him that forum thread and to my surprise and happiness, he decided to send me a board from his own for testing and reviewing. I could not say no, but what I can say is: Thanks buddy!

If you know the original Open Panzer TCB (which I reviewed here), besides the TCB you needed to add two single ESCs or a double one and a soundcard which was limited to be pretty much either the horrible Taigen soundboards or the Benedini Mini and Micro. It ended being too complicated for many users and there was quite a lot of wiring involved so I believe that was not a plate for everybody. Luckily, Kim managed to create his own TCB version with all the components needed in only one board, which looks pretty much like this:

So, what does this board do? Basicaly everything that the Open Panzer does once you add all the necessary bits, which is all the normal driving functions, turret and cannon movements, recoil, smoke generator and all the usual lights like main gun flash, two machine guns, headlights, some auxiliar lights and a combined rear and brake light, and more. To my huge surprise the board is also capable of controlling no less than 9 servos! I wondered who may need such a big amount of servo ports until suddenly a guy jumped in saying he had a super rare and massive Russian tank where this board could be well used. There it goes, the first guy needing them! Then I also thought you could use this board in RC dioramas, for moving plenty of turrets, barriers, spotlights or any other moving parts, making me officially the second guy needing so many servo outputs.

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The board itself.
First thing I noticed once I had my hands over it, is the size. This board is not only big, but humongous. Measured, the dimensions are 101.6mm x 76.2mm x 22mm so it takes a lot of room inside every RC tank. I took a look at my armored division and I decided to install it in my Tamiya King Tiger. Tamiya tanks are not the best example of free interior space due to their massive speaker box and when placed inside a Heng Long tank there would be no way to fit it inside unless removing the battery box, which is something that I always do anyway, but you would not have any issue with Taigen/Torro tanks. Unlike most other boards, this one came with a nice 3D printed case that prevents shot circuit when placed in tanks with metal hull. This is a great add on which is more than welcome and I don’t understand why other brands don’t include it or sell it as an accessory at a very least.

As can be seen, most connectors are the old original Heng Long/Taigen plugs making the installation in those old tanks a breeze, but it also has normal Dupont pin connectors for newer Heng Long tanks. The big blue connectors have been installed under my request. Well, more than under my request, Kim himself asked me what kind of connector I’d like to use for motors and battery and that was my personal choice. If you want to stick with the original Heng Long connectors, just say it. No other board offers you a service like that, by the way.

So here it is, placed inside my tank. It may seem that there is not a lot of place for a battery, but in that gap I fitted a 7000mAh Li-ion that makes this tank run for about 6ish hours non-stop.

But still, I do believe the board is way too big, I understand this board as a first try leaving things for future revisions. IMHO some connectors could be removed because are redundant and the board overall design should be compressed a bit. If it was a 30% smaller I would feel much better. At least it helps that you can use tiny 16ch SBUS receivers which won’t take extra room inside your toy. In fact, my receiver is sandwiched inside of the MTCU and cannot be seen.

Update 30.05.2023: The board has been upgraded! Now it comes with better speed controllers, which can be used with normal brushed and also with brushless motors. It is rated 60A, so it should be plentiful for even the hungriest of the tanks out there.

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Driving and sounds.
Driving is smooooooth! The included dual ESC is a great device. Supporting up to 3S batteries and 60A which makes it able to drive heavy 1/6 scale beasts, it does not only provide a smooth driving but also has ultra-sonic components that makes the board completely and absolutely silent, not producing any electronic whine. There are also a couple of fully configurable driving profiles where you can set the inertia and momentum you want to have, if you want some, a lot, or completely removed.

I am sure some guyswill love this.

And you can also change gears for a super realistic driving feeling.

But man, this is really a silent board. Once switched On, you cannot hear any electronic noise, neither speaker hissing. I have never seen heard anything like that before so far. In all my other toys you can tell if they are switched On because the boards emit some kind of hissing noise, being the Elmod the most noisy board I had. Well, this is not the case because it is absolutely silent.

Talking about sounds, the board comes with a “Teensy” soundcard already built in, which plays CD quality sound and is also able to reproduce several sounds at the same time. Under my request, this board, besides all the typical motor sounds, weapons and tracks squeezes, can play up to 24 user sounds with my usual custom tank commander voices, marches, artillery strikes, radio chatters and more. At this point I guess you know many sounds makes me happy.

As a side note I found a pleasantt surprise that the board I got had some sound sets pre installed that I already did myself! Kim did not know that until I told him, but it shows the world or at least our hobby is a napkin. He told me many people were using those sounds in his tank club and I turned red for a while. Told it to my wife and she is now a little bit more proud of me. 🙂

The volume can be adjusted either with a knob in your radio, with a potentiometer or both ways at the same time. If using a manual potentiometer you have to plug it in that part of the board where is some duct tape. That duct tape hides a small resistor. If you want to control it only with the radio knob, you can leave that resistor there. But as I said you can also use both, the potentiometer and the volume knob for adjusting the volume when a lot of sound output is needed. Why two controls for the sound? Kim used a simple way for explaining it to me, it is pretty much like a computer where you can both adjust the sound with the sound bar in Windows, or rotating the volume knob in your computer speakers for maximum power output. It is a mixture of digital and analogue volume control. Anyway, I found when leaving the resistor there the volume output is more than enough for using while at home, but it can be a bit weak while playing outside or while battling. If that resistor is removed, and the potentiometer is turned to maximum, the volume can be TREMENDOUS, so your choice is there. The system works, and works good, but I’d rather have both systems merged in one.

But stop talking, this is how it moves and sounds!

After uploading the videos I realized not every working light can be seen. I am sure this picture will help:

Combined rear and brake light, and an independent convoy light.

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Infra-red battle.
As many of you already know, I never, ever, battle, neither I will. It is not that I am a hippy, but I am just focused in building and super slow realistic driving, switching lights and playing plenty of sounds… I just don’t have any interest in battling. Neither my colleagues in the area seem to have. Even more, all my other toys are carrying boards that don’t have Tamiya IR capabilities, so even if I wanted to, I cannot test this function, but over the paper it looks promising.

This is just one screenshot with more or less a random config, but basically you can set your tank following Tamiya rules to the letter, or you can modify it suiting your taste playing with a lot of different options.

As can be seen, you can adjust any parameter you might want to adjust. It even has a super realistic ammo system, that when used, will affect the results in the IR battle. I think this is a very interesting approach, for example a King Tiger should be able to hold loads of 50mm hits, but not so many of 120mm. This could be make IR battles more realistic and fun than ever… but remember, if you don’t want fancy experiments, just stick with the standard Tamiya, Heng Long, Taigen V1-3, Forces of valor or Vs Tank protocol. Yes, it accepts all of them!

I proposed Kim to add ammo count and the need of replenishing the ammo when empty and he agreed with it. This function is going to be implemented, so that means he is open to your ideas, guys!

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Software.
The board comes pre-set from factory for the use with a basic radio system, but with so many different radios and so many board functions, a bit of messing with a computer is a must. I know many guys hate and even discard boards that need to be connected to a computer, but that unavoidable means sticking with very primitive and boring electronics.

The software you need to use is a modified version of the OP Config and it is pretty easy to use. If you have any question regarding the functions, you only have to click in the question mark and an explanation window will open.

Unlike most boards, we don’t need an expensive or strange programmer wire. Just get a normal data capable USB mini wire and it will work. And also, the sound sets are free, already included inside your card. But you are invited to create and share your own!

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Manual.
As I am writing these lines, the manual is being constantly updated. Along my test time I got a couple of versions with more and more useful data, and there is still info to add.

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Support.
Is amazing. The best example I could say is I wanted to have some extra sounds in the original TCB and this guy wrote the code just for me, implementing them, so imagine what he did in his own board. Any question I had was immediately solved. As far as I know he is one man army with family and a job behind, so if he manages to sell a big bunch of boards it might take him some more time to be able to answer, but I think this is pretty understandable. Anyway, most questions will come already solved in the manual or are self explanatory in the software. As mentioned, the software and board come pre set so it should work with no config issues.

Update 08.07.2022: Once you get the board you will get an E-mail with a link to a shared Google Drive folder where you can download the latest manual, computer software version, board firmware and the latest sound sets. Downloading files from there is as easy as clicking in the file. Now is easier than ever to be updated. 🙂

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Final thoughts.

I like it, I really do. Super smooth and precise driving, plenty of user sounds, all the lights needed and IR capability for those who want it. I guess I cannot ask for anything else. There are some things that indeed need to be ironed which I already mentioned, like the huge board size, but hey, this board is his first attempt of creating electronics. He told me future revisions of the board will ditch the modularity and will have the speed controller and soundcard already integrated in the main board, saving a nice bunch of space. I think that is a good move because I don’t find any reason of replacing the speed controllers and soundcard for the average or even the very advanced/mega pro user. Using less, non-redundant and smaller connectors will help reducing the size as well. Kim told me that he might release several versions depending of the brand of the tank, Tamiya, Heng Long, Taigen… but I think with a one-fits-all board and different adaptors we would have more flexibility. If I were creating a board, that is what I would do without a shade of doubt. This is my opinion and I might be mistaken so if you have any ideas commend in my website or send him an email.

Anyway, this board is an experimental one, for testing the waters. Don’t get it wrong, everything works perfectly fine, as it should, but it is clear this is his first step in the process of getting smaller and even better boards. I know now some of you would say that it would be better to wait until new and improved boards see the light, but I believe there is no need, because this board as it is, is great, and because if you don’t support him now, there will probably not be newer and better models in the future. I think it makes sense, right?

I just realized I did not talk about the price which I believe is a little bit more than 200 Euros. I find it very reasonable. In my Dasmikro review I was talking about world’s prices skyrocketing and how the world went crazy. Well, two months later situation remains pretty much the same. I have experienced myself the prices of every electronic component I get, suddenly doubled or tripled the price, so 200ish Euros for this board seems to be very reasonable today. Only the soundcard that carries costs near 25 Euros plus shipping, if no more. Add the rest of the components, the materials, the printed case and considering the boards are made by himself and not in a sweatshop in China, I believe that the profit he might have is marginal and I don’t think a price drop is possible unless entire world goes normal again or he starts producing them in the third world with forced children labor. Compared with other competitor boards, this board’s price remains under most of them, and I consider this one vastly superior to any IBU or Clark board I have seen, while being cheaper.

“Why this board and not other from more known sellers?” That is a question some people already asked me and that many of you might have. Well, this board offers a couple of things that are absent in most other boards: The Tamiya IR battle compatibility, being able to drive without inertia and the most important, the will to listen and to improve. I think those are critic reasons. Also this rebel that you are reading has some sort of good feeling when getting “indie” products. It is a small victory against the system and this is cool. But there is more, this board is Open Source so it invites you to modify the code at your will, or, even replace and upgrade components like the soundcard and ESCs, if you feel you need it. I love Open Source ideas because it also opens your mind. Thanks to projects like this, I am even beginning to try to make my own small electronics and accessories, which is cool as hell.

That makes me remember that I am in eternal gratitude with Luke, the creator of Open Panzer’s TCB which inspired this MTCU project and opened an entire new world to many of us.

And of course, thanks Kim, for sending me one of your units for this review. This board of yours is now inside my King Tiger and rest assured, that will be his new home for looong time. I also enjoyed the testing process quite a lot and I have learnt new things in the process. Thank you!

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If you want to get a board just drop an Email to knudski@gmail.com or look for him in Facebook under the name of Kim Daniel Olsen.