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Post by dave632 on Mar 23, 2018 18:34:20 GMT -7
Nice consistency on the lanes, it is important. I still find some cars will run better on one lane than the other, never know which and cannot figure out why.
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Post by GTS on Mar 24, 2018 3:26:31 GMT -7
Nice consistency on the lanes, it is important. I still find some cars will run better on one lane than the other, never know which and cannot figure out why. That's reassuring info to know! I wasn't trying to be misleading with that previous statement, .003 is the closest I got with the same car. It turned out the same with my testing, it varied between lanes and cars, with no rhyme or reason . Anxious to get the side boards on now, especially in the slow down area. Had a car leave the track yesterday (no damage or scratches) . Then I can get a foam containment fabricated similar to what you and others have. Thinking about a box of sorts, lined with varying shapes and thicknesses of foam, with a hinged lid. With a small folded towel in front of that. I'm amazed at how well a towel works now.
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Post by dave632 on Mar 24, 2018 7:36:49 GMT -7
Several of the guys use towels for slow down but you have to prevent the car from going under the towel. I use tapered foam that gets tighter as the car goes deeper into the stop box. I also put a couple of movable foam barriers in the tapered area to further absorb the energy. There are 3' of dynamic braking and 3' of steel stop strips beside the stop box. I have stopped cars as fast as 67 mph with this setup. The foam gets torn up and has to be replaced occasionally. Behind that there are several layers of foam if the car gets thru that with the wall being the final stopper. Only one car has made it that far and it survived OK. I have had a few bodies knocked off however.
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Post by gnome on Mar 24, 2018 8:11:06 GMT -7
Sure is looking good at gts.I'm working on box engineering also.one thing to keep in mind is that any rearward movement of car while in box will tear up you're braids. Sense I've retired tho towel and installed proper shut down my test and tune has become more productive. The plate with dynamic braking tends to catch most cars before the box .the box i have now is working real good.I'll post a picture for you today.looking forward to seeing your design.
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Post by dave632 on Mar 24, 2018 8:55:27 GMT -7
Here is a shot of the steel stop strips and the catch box. The padding in the front moves when the car hits it to absorb the impact. There is a second one behind the first and a couple of others after that for the super fast cars. Note how the padding gets chewed up near the bottom of the foam. steel stop strips
catch box
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Post by gnome on Mar 24, 2018 10:04:31 GMT -7
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Post by GTS on Mar 24, 2018 11:57:38 GMT -7
Thanks you guy's! Appreciate the photos, gives me lot's to think about. Played around a little bit this morning trying to see what was what. The quart can is just a temporary weight thing. Still playin' with it. Thanks again !!!!!
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Post by jjwallace on Mar 25, 2018 3:05:36 GMT -7
Let me add this to the catch box discussion. You want to be careful not to stop the cars too quick. There is a lot of inertia built up in these cars...especially the pancakes. When they are stopped too fast, the gears tend to take a beating because of the inertia in the motor and gears. They keep spinning when the wheels have stopped. My catch box utilizes foam, but it is the last thing the cars will touch. As I have said before, I also use a series of three towels set up ahead of the catch box. Contrary to what Dave said, I want the cars to go under the towels to progressively slow them down. I have no steel strips, no dynamic braking, etc. to assist with this. I guess you could call my method the "hillbilly dynamic braking system"....lol. It works and that is all that matters to me. I have a short shut down area which forces me to use my method. In the 5 or so years my track has been operational, I have only had one car damaged by making it all the way through.
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Post by GTS on Mar 25, 2018 7:22:15 GMT -7
Thanks for your input Jeff! Just in the little bit of testing with the foam that I did, I noticed how abruptly they stop, which is concerning. I have a box of pancakes I haven't dug into yet but planning to in the near future. Going to keep playin' around with it to see if I can come up with a happy medium. I have a few ideas that I need to check out yet but any and all ideas and suggestions are certainly welcome and appreciated! Thanks again!
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Post by GTS on Mar 28, 2018 8:11:32 GMT -7
...........i myself would like 2 speed traps.one for mid track and one at the end.keep the info coming it's made a difference in my world thank u Just passin' on info: had a "forum post" conversation with the developer of Drag Race Coordinator software. Some things I wasn't aware of; beings it is totally user customizable, one can put in as many track timing segments as you want, i.e. 60', 330', 660', whatever. Only two of the segments will show on the race screen, however. One can change the content of the race screen if you know XAML, I don't, but am going to learn. As for the speed traps; he felt that was totally doable but wasn't sure if one could display both E.T. & mph, he thought one might need to pick one or the other. If I get that far, that would be fine with me. Oh,and, one would need sensors, of course at the different segments and I believe, separate sensors at beginning and end of a time trap. Gale
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Post by GTS on Apr 22, 2018 19:58:44 GMT -7
Haven't done much to the track lately other than use it. While using it to get cars ready for the Smokey Mtn. Nats., I tired of fiddlin' around lining cars up under the lights for the sensors. So today I lowered the 4' shop light about 16", enough to trigger the sensors and removed the lights I had for the start and 60' mark. I'm going to try it like this for a while, so far I like it a lot better. I taped foam on the corners of the light fixture just in case I get careless . Hope to make more progress this coming week.
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Post by jjwallace on Apr 23, 2018 6:58:30 GMT -7
The open unobstructed track is nice for sure. I have thought about doing away with my infra red gantry's and going with the overhead puck lighting only, but I the gantry's have kinda grown on me. I have some extra puck lights if I decide to do that in the future. Track looks really good! Wish I could stop by and make a few runs.
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Post by jjwallace on Apr 23, 2018 7:04:29 GMT -7
I just saw the Thunderbird on top of your catch box in one of the pics above. Looks like an AJR body. That's the first Tbird I've seen painted up. I haven't had a chance to do that one myself yet. Nice job!! I am a huge Glidden fan!
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Post by GTS on Apr 23, 2018 7:14:30 GMT -7
I just saw the Thunderbird on top of your catch box in one of the pics above. Looks like an AJR body. That's the first Tbird I've seen painted up. I haven't had a chance to do that one myself yet. Nice job!! I am a huge Glidden fan! That is gnome's catch box and yes, that does look really well done. Your AJR T-Bird body is really a cool fit and is on my list to do, also.
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Post by dave632 on Apr 23, 2018 7:51:27 GMT -7
The T bird is sitting in the staging area waiting for the races to start. It is well done. I used individual track lights on my track so that I could aim them at the photocells. It worked fairly well but would occasionally cause a timing miss. The IR emitters seem to do a better job and I rarely get a miss with them except in the speed trap, don't know why. Here is a close up of the t bird. Glidden T bird
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