The Transporter Saga [or, how I learned to love the Wi-Fi Bomb]

Soooooo, because I think we're well past the Christmas thread now, time to expand on my latest Tomica World purchase, which is only Tomica World by technicality

So, for avoidance of doubt, this is Tomica World T-Series [1990-93 Die-Cast], not Tomica World 'Road and Rail System' we're talking about here, and specifically, this hefty piece of kit, the Tomica World R/C Transporter.







This was variously sold in Japan between 1993 and 2002 as the 'Tomica RC Transporter', the 'Tomica DX RC Transporter' [ironically, this was literally just a re-sticker of the original and not actually some kind of redesign], and the 'New DX Tomica RC Transporter' which, you guessed it, was another re-sticker of the same old design. 

The only difference with the DX versions was they came with 14 Tomica cars, the capacity of the trailer when fully loaded, whereas the 'base model' from 1993 came with none. This 'export version' was evidently based on the original 'base model'. 

To date this version, we can all confidently agree this was prior to 1997/98 as of course that was the year that Tomica World [Road and Rail System] came out, and this is clearly not part of that lineup. 

With that said, the information I have on Tomica World T-Series indicates that the line was discontinued in 1993. However, this may actually be a seperate release, sort of. My guess is that this may have come out in 1994, AFTER T-Series was discontinued, but carried the Tomica World branding to establish that this was technically compatible with, or part of that lineup. 

My evidence is the box, which does not match any of the typical 'Tomica World' T-Series livery with a theme of brick-walls and road signs, but is actually the standard 'Big Fun' livery that most TOMY toys for a wide spectrum of ages carried throughout the early 1990's - A common one to appear secondhand here in the UK is the ubiquitous Big Loader, which carried 'Big Fun' livery in the 1990's before being redesigned. 

I had the Big Loader [construction variant] from the early 2000s, and from what I recall, that had a different box, meaning that the Big Fun name had disappeared by no later than 2000.

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/ykkLWpn5/image.png[/img] 

The Tomica World logo is attached in an alternative red/yellow variant instead of the usual red/white, replacing the 'Big Fun' logo on the Transporter box - No other Tomica World products [that I am aware of] used this box design, lending credence to the idea that this was a 'temporary' design made up quickly after the discontinuation of the Tomica World T-Series system itself, but well into the 'Big Fun' era.

Another notable sign this may have been after the discontinuation of T-Series is that the instruction manual indicates the trailer may be filled with '14 standard die-cast cars', whereas the one other T-Series set I had did make a point of indicating on the box that one could/should purchase Tomica cars for the set, although the set would also be compatible with 'other brands', showing a picture of Hot Wheels and Matchbox contemporaries. My thinking is, they don't mention Tomica cars, because by this point, you wouldn't actually be able to buy them anymore anyway, therefore there was no need to mention their specific brand.

So, with that in mind, I'm gonna say this one's from about 1994ish, which means it was exported very shortly after it's Japanese release as a new product in 1993.


Now, for the bit I imagine you've all been waiting for [especially you @Super - I read your replies in the Christmas thread  ], and that is, does it work?

Blunt answer, NO.

Technical answer, Yes and No  



So, here's what I've got. I put batteries in [The box specifically recommends Duracells, but I only got 2 Hyundai and one Duracell so that'll have to do], and turn it on, and the whole thing goes absolutely beserk, the steering goes nuts, it tries to drive forwards, and the lights on top are flashing like crazy.

When I press the single big red button on the controller, it actually holds [briefly] on the command that it's set to, but then immediately shifts to the next one, and goes beserk again trying to do all the commands.

So, you know what that means, crack out the screwdrivers and get a look inside, and well, it's certainly impressive, although it's not much to look at at this stage.



So, the battery compartment and aerial are soldered to the roof of the lorry cab, while the actual guts of the thing are located in a neat and very easy to remove chassis assembly. On top, we have the 'light column' where the direction indicator bulbs rest, two PCBs, and underneath within the chassis is, and I'm not joking here at all, a fully motorised auto-shift gearbox.

Yep, that's right, TOMY may have just outdone themselves with complex motorised gear systems; Y'all thought Plarail could be fiddly, TOMY were like 'Oh yeah? Hold my beer' and literally have an automatic gearbox on a miniature RC lorry. 

Due to the soldered boards, I haven't been able to open the gearbox to fully determine how the auto-shift works, or what it's purpose even is, but I discovered it when I switched it on while disassembled to try and establish if it still worked, and noticed that there was a mechanical 'fork' sliding a gear across a shaft in front of the rear [driving] axle, and said gear engaged with both a drive gear from the motor, and the gear on the rear axle to provide motion.

More to the point, the motor itself is, and again, I'm very very surprised here, nothing more than a standard Plarail motor. Yeah, really. It's the same type I've actually seen in Plarail models from the same era, I've even removed a burnt out example from [IIRC] my Furano Express model. Somehow, this one small motor is connected to an intricate gearbox that controls [all in one from what I can tell, I might add], propulsion, steering, and the aforementioned automatic gearshift. 

So, basically what we have here is the product of some engineer at TOMY deciding to create what is basically a miniaturized equivalent to a real vehicle transmission, where one engine is connected to or powers all the key functions of the vehicle; Here we have motorised gearshift, propulsion [as expected] and technically power-steering connected to the engine. 

Pretty neat stuff if you ask me, considering that realistically, most cheaper 'RC' toy models tend to just seperate functions like that out, using servo motors for steering, and direct-drive or sometimes gearbox based motor drives on the rear wheels, compared to this complex all-in-one system  

Buuuuut, I hear you all ask, 'How are you going to fix it?'

Well, here's the kicker. I've actually diagnosed the problem already, because it's in the instruction book  No kidding, they knew this was a potential issue, so it's in the manual.



Any of you who know RC equipment right now is probably saying 'Well duh', but for me, I've never had any issues using RC cars in my house - But I think I may have figured out why, and it all comes down to that magic date of 1994 again 

Anyone around back then [heck, I was born in '98 and I remember a time before these existed] will know WiFi routers were definitely not a thing back then. It's also totally concievable that because those airwaves were at the time [by and large] mostly 'clear' that TOMY set the control frequency of the Tomica RC Transporter
to one which is now occupied by the typical signal bands of domestic WiFi routers. In a case like that, it would make perfect sense that as soon as I switch it on, it immediately picks up on the local WiFi signals, and misinterprets it as a control signal, causing it to go haywire as it has been. The same effect would be applicable to mobile phones, which again were not nearly as common in 1994 [so I am reliably told].

This means one of two things; These units are basically now entirely unusable because it's extremely unlikely to find a location these days that doesn't carry Wi-Fi or mobile phone signals [and thus, will render it unusable], or, I will need to figure out a way to retune both the handset and lorry cab to transmit/recieve on another band that is not prone to interference.

This is where I'm going to have to [in the coming weeks] go full-blown radio geek. At present, I have very little idea on which band these export models transmit on. The Japanese ones proudly display '45 Mhz' on the front of the box, but that's meaningless potentially as radio band allocations vary from country to country, and it's entirely plausible it was changed for the export release. 

Since this came out at a time when here in the UK it wasn't common practice to list the transmit/recieve frequency of RC models on the front of toy boxes [IIRC it's now mandatory], it's literally a mystery what frequency this puts out on, and for all I know, every time I turn this thing on, I could be interfering with someone's TV, radio, or possibly more concerning, local military or emergency frequencies. I live near a hospital [10 mins drive] and within 30 mins of an airbase and a major London airport, so it's not totally outrageous to think that's possible.

The good news is, I did get some snaps of the circuit board, which is actually a proprietary TOMY board with it's own serial number, and appears to use a crystal radio or possibly a potentiometer to adjust the frequency. I don't know for sure what this weird green 'box' that's soldered to the antenna is, but my money is on it being either a crystal radio or an adjustable signal pot. If that's so, then adjusting the signal should be easy. 





I'd still need to find a way to detect and/or work out what signal band I'm changing it to, so that A] I don't interfere with any important signals, or break into illegal bands that would require me to have an OFCOM ham radio licence [imagine being arrested for illegal use of Tomica World LOL  ] and B] so I can change both the controller and the truck cab to the same frequency. 

Either way, this one's gonna be possibly my most intriguing Tomica World repair to date; Let's be real here, when has a Plarail model ever needed radio retuning, or had a fully automatic gear shifter built in? To say this model's a fascinating one is almost to not give it due credit, and I'll sure be pleased if and when I can get it working


Edit - See image below; that's not good news for me if this thing actually runs on 45mHz, as that's (at least in the US, but I imagine similar in the UK), an ATC and emergency frequency....



OK so I decided to give it a go anyway, and fire it up, and you know what, it's really good fun. It doesn't reverse steer but that actually does add to the challenge of driving as it means you have to line up in a forward direction to approach the trailer rear on to couple.

With the trailer on, it's a real challenge, but a fun challenge to drive, and surprisingly responsive all considered. That said, I will definitely have to tinker with the radio settings on it, as the interference does cause it to make uncommanded movements that make driving a lot harder that it should be.

[Super]

Awesome detective work P-Man and your diagnostic skills are very impressive. I must say I am impressed with the two sets that include 14 Tomica vehicles. I had assumed (by just looking at the box front) that they only included 6 vehicles which I thought was nice set just for that. Please keep us informed as to your progress as its very interesting. If we don't hear from you we will know that you have been arrested for military interference 😁

Thanks for sharing

Well, I may have an update, of a sort. 

I haven't yet identified if the green 'pots' on the board are actual adjustable signal potentiometers, or the crystal units, so I can't touch those until i'm sure what they are.

I got a lot more results while researching other stuff though   

Here in the UK, I found that Ofcom [for those of you in the US, Ofcom is the British version of the FCC, responsible for Radio, TV and other broadcasted signal regulation as well as regulating our Postal system Royal Mail] has a table of all the used radio frequencies here in the UK. 

I have had to do some guesswork here, but my best guess is that this uses a VHF signal. 

My reason for coming to this conclusion [at present] is that a lot of cheaper RC toy cars [read, the type sold in toy stores for children, rather than hobbyists] use either a 27mHz or 49mHz fixed frequency VHF transmitter, as these are bands not normally used for anything in particular, and indeed, the Ofcom charts show that these two bands are exempt from licensing requirements in 'low power' scenarios, effectively this boils down to model hobbyists and other lower powered applications. 

45mHz is the number to focus on here, which I have determined was actually a relatively common R/C toy band, on toys that generally originated in Japan - Notably, the Tomy 'Bit Char-G' and Takara RC Beyblades also use 45mHz, although the Beyblades do have a frequency selector due to the nessecity of having two RC controllers in close proximity - Yep, I know as I have one, because playing Beyblade competitively is my other big hobby outside Plarail and other model railways LOL .

Having done some more research with the Japanese government ministry that is their equivalent to Ofcom, unlike many countries, 45mHz sits directly in the middle of a band of public radio allocation for radio and mobile communications, meaning out there, 45mHz isn't some kind of forbidden band, and probably going a long way to explaining why it seems to be a specifically popular band for Japanese RC toys.

However, here in the UK, the band that includes 45mHz VHF, which I am having to assume this unit runs on for now, since the Japanese version was on that band, is, and this is quoted straight from Ofcom;

• UK2.1 - Responsibility for granting permissions to use frequencies in this Allocation rests with Defence. All frequency permissions are reserved exclusively for Defence use except where assignments for Civil use are agreed with Ofcom.
  

So, to convert that to plain English, this set of bands is controlled by, and the responsibility of the UK Ministry of Defence [MoD] for the specific use of the British military forces, the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. 



Now, here's where things get a little sketchy. TOMY haven't specified the power rating of this unit, meaning I have literally no idea whether this is just a low-power unit that's basically not even of any concern, or is potentially putting out significant levels of radio interference onto military VHF bands. It's definitely a much higher-power unit than most typical toystore RC cars, as it's using a 9V battery in the controller, and 2 C's in the truck itself, and the manual claims an apparent 3-meter transmission range, quite a bit further than any other basic RC cars i've had.

I'm concerned it may be the latter, as it's clearly picking up significant levels of background interference [for what it's worth, I shut off all WiFi in the house and the TV signal booster to rule those out], and therefore there's a very real possibility that every time I push the control button, I'm basically inadvertently launching interference into possibly critical radio bands operated by the MoD.


MAJOR UPDATE


OK, so I got it working. Yeah, really.

After all the digging I did, I decided to try one rather random solution from an RC forum, and that is to shield the recieving apparatus with tinfoil [a very rudimentary Faraday Cage] in order to block unessecary EMF interference.

While that didn't work especially well, I found that if I repositioned the aerial slightly, all of a sudden it began to function normally, with no interference! It cycled as expected through all the directional positions, without trying to drive forwards or backwards on it's own [the sign of interference], only moving when the button was pressed on the remote. 

Without any equipment to do a frequency check I think this may well rule out that this uses an unauthorised frequency then, and that all the unusual glitches may have been caused by little more than a poor aerial connection, which I intend to clean and re-seat now to hopefully restore expected function.

This more or less conclusively proves what I hoped was the best-case scenario, that TOMY UK re-programmed this 'export version' with a 'safe' frequency for export rather than using the Japanese 45mHz, and the errors were probably caused by little more than a bad wire joint, which is certainly a relief.

While I have this open, I plan to get some photos of the inside of the gearbox [if I can] so maybe I can work out how that works, and hopefully explain it here.

HEALTH WARNING

The following mechanical nerd-out contains homemade diagrams, incredible amounts of probably nessecary detail, an absolute truckload of technical terminology, and graphic images of possibly the most over-engineered RC gearbox system ever devised.

Side effects may include a compulsion to dismantle everything in sight, seeing blueprints and electronic components in your sleep, constantly smelling of sweat, tears and WD-40, a massive hole in your bank account from purchasing truckloads of obscure Japanese tech, and a need for excessive amounts of coffee [black, no sugar].

Viewer discretion is not advised [go on, read it, you know you want to   ]




TOMY have outdone themselves here. Literally.

So, I took the plunge, and carefully opened the chassis to have a peek at the gearbox, and frankly, it made my jaw drop. This thing is like a Plarail gearbox on steroids, gears everywhere, sprung components, a small motor, and of course, being fiddly as heck to re-assemble, and incredibly risky to work on due to the serious risk of dislodging tiny components and wrecking the whole mechanism - This one is even riskier though, as you will soon discover.

So, here's the basic list of features we're tackling here:

• 2-speed automatic propulsion gearbox, like Plarail it has Hi and Low settings, which in this case are actually used for very specific purposes rather than just for fast/slow running. This shifts automatically via a mechanical linkage system connected to the steering gearbox. This automatic propulsion gearbox has it's own transmission to connect it to the motor, and other than the gear shifter, is not mechanically connected to the steering.
  
• Power-steering gearbox. The steering on this unit, as opposed to being servo-controlled, is actually linked mechanically to the single drive motor, which also powers the seperate propulsion gearbox. The power-steering system, via mechanical linkages, automatically shifts the propulsion gearbox between Hi and Low gears as nessecary, based on the position of the wheels [steering or neutral]
  
• Rheostatic steering control - The steering is electronically controlled using a basic rheostat connected to a key part of the steering mechanism. This works in conjunction with the mechanical timing/synchronisation system.
  
• Mechanical timing - Although the rheostat informs the controller of the timing position based on steering position, the actual timing is NOT on the circuit board or capacitor based, but rather centred on a mechanical cam which also controls steering and gearshift.
  
• Single-motor disconnected drive - Instead of using a clutch, a planetary gear linkage attached to the motor is used to shift power from between the steering gearbox, and the propulsion gearbox. This means the motor physically disconnects from the gearboxes during it's normal action.
  

Now, if that text wall was too complex, lucky for all of you, I took photos, because there is NO WAY i am ever reopening this thing unless it's absolutely nessecary. As implied earlier, there are literally vast numbers of components that can work loose, and need to be kept still, and thus trying to dismantle this thing is like open heart surgery - Not for the faint of heart [lol irony] and needs a rock-steady hand. 

Therefore, for the benefit of BPT [and the wider internet since there literally doesn't exist any teardowns of one of these things], I present the picture guide to the RC Transporter gearbox.

I have added my own annotations and notes to these pictures to explain all the components and their functions; Hopefully this helps it to make some level of sense, as what we are actually dealing with here is an incredibly complicated electro-mechanical system that really needs to be seen to be believed.


Propulsion gearbox and auto-shift system


Steering & Timing cam & gearbox


Planetary drive


Steering rheostat



But, the best part of all this? For some bizzare reason, after having dismantled & explored this thing, and re-seating the aerial, it's now got no disturbance issues whatsoever. How that happened, I don't know, but it works as the makers intended, and you know what, I'll take that gladly.

I'm due to leave town for a couple days tomorrow evening, so I won't be able to shoot any footage of the beast in action for a while, but just as soon as I'm back, that's the next, and final step

[Super]

Probably the most appropriate response to this whole saga LOL 

---

https://youtu.be/D3KQFypoqS8?si=TuJ7XI7X5YkzMWGR

And there we go, the beast in full working order.

Works only on hard surfaces (not a massive surprise), and a challenge to steer especially in reverse to hook up to the trailer, but all the same, very good (if noisy) fun.

[Super]

A wonderful fix P-Man great work and did so well driving it too.  Bravo!