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Post by SKR on Sept 19, 2007 14:34:33 GMT -7
Phil, Can you tell me a little about your dynamic braking set up? and where did you get the 1/8" stock for your shut down area. Do you have any pics? Thanks!
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Post by allstarhr on Sept 19, 2007 15:27:09 GMT -7
I'll have to take some pictures as I just realized all the close ups are of the starting line. Kevin Shaw of fulltiltspeedway.com built the track for me and used 1/8"x1/8" bar stock for it. He soldered a wire from one piece to the other to short it out and cause it to stop the cars quicker. If you do it to Psychoslots Dragway it should shorten your stopping distances by 2 or 3 feet. My track is still on his site and labeled "1/8th mile dragstrip". Since it's really a long skinny oval I also get the advantage of the cars turning left at the very end. We put a good sized hunk of foam rubber at the end. Since my track is wired two ways, one as an oval track and by flipping a switch for each lane it turns into a dragstrip with dynamic braking at the end, we do need the foam when "someone" forgets to flip the switch to drag race. We've actually had cars bounce all the way back to the starting line area with no damage (Except to the spectators on the little bleachers). Kevin just told me this week that he's quit making tracks. Too bad as his are great and he's always produced them promptly.
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Post by SKR on Sept 20, 2007 7:49:05 GMT -7
Thanks, we'll give it a try. We plan on making the track a 1/87 scale quarter mile next month with a new surface. This would be a good time to try out the dynamic braking.
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Post by allstarhr on Sept 20, 2007 9:43:53 GMT -7
Great idea on the 1/87th track. Can't remember, would that be a few inches longer or shorter? I had to go 1/8th mile as going even 1/87th would have been too long for the room I had available. I like your idea because if it would work for a twenty foot long track, it would make a great standard for garage drag strips.
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Post by SKR on Sept 20, 2007 14:24:37 GMT -7
We're at 15'3" right now. 87th scale is 15'.17" .
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Post by allstarhr on Sept 20, 2007 15:15:09 GMT -7
I got to playing with a calculator a minute ago and if you take 1320 ft and divide by 87 you get 15.172423 feet. I think I'm correct if I take the .172423' x 12 to get the leftover in inches. Or 2.069 inches for a total of 15'-2.069" or darn close to where you already were. A smidge longer than 15 feet 2-1/16th inch. ...what ever a smidge is. ......now...if you just angle the track down 1.0276 degrees you should get the same et without having to shorten the track 15/16th's of an inch.. Or if we reverse the equasion, it means your current track is a scale 6'-9" too long or a scale 1326.75 foot long drag strip. (Way too much free time huh?)
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Post by SKR on Sept 21, 2007 8:43:40 GMT -7
Thanks for the correction.
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Post by johnbalich on Dec 4, 2007 14:19:17 GMT -7
is this like an 'altitude correction"? lol 1/87 i think is a great choice as it will fit most garages with a reasonable shut down area. When you speak of dynamic braking, are you meaning a reverse voltage section in shut down area? If so, how many volts are you applying, and does the sudden reverse current seem to make the cars unhappy?? lol
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Post by allstarhr on Dec 4, 2007 19:37:03 GMT -7
Dynamic braking is referring to the fact that the two rails in each lane are not powered at all after the finish line and under the track they are wired together. When the car hits that area it rapidly slows the cars down. Seems like the more powerful the car is the quicker it stops. I only run my track at 18 volts due to the reasons I've stated before and at 24 mph they stop in about 3-4 feet with no damage whatsoever.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2009 3:03:04 GMT -7
Alright, question on this. Do you need any resistors or anything as wouldnt shorting out the track create electrical problems? Thanks. Jody
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Post by allstarhr on May 5, 2009 5:33:55 GMT -7
Year and a half later and yes, we have found out you need a capasitor across the rails instead of bar stock. We had very little problems running inline cars but the tjets wouldn't work well at all! Good question and glad this is posted so new tracks don't go through the teething problems we did.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2009 7:57:16 GMT -7
Alright, question on this. Do you need any resistors or anything as wouldnt shorting out the track create electrical problems? Thanks. Jody You're not shorting out the track. Not the powered section anyway. Your shorting out the shutdown area which should be isolated from the powered section of the track. On My SlotCarsInc.com track they supply 1 inch plastic rail isolators to place between the powered run section and the unpowered shutdown section. This keeps the pick-up shoes from shorting the powered and shutdown sections together. |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2009 7:58:44 GMT -7
Year and a half later and yes, we have found out you need a capasitor across the rails instead of bar stock. We had very little problems running inline cars but the tjets wouldn't work well at all! Good question and glad this is posted so new tracks don't go through the teething problems we did. Not sure I understand. Are you saying to use capacitors in the shutdown area also? If so what size? Thanks |
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2009 16:11:52 GMT -7
Alright, thast makes more sense, no power in the shut down area. However, if there is no power there, then I am still confused. What does capasitors do on a dead circuit to help stop the cars? Once the electric engines lose power, the rest of the energy put off would be kinectic energy wouldnt it be? Capacitors would only help in electrical energy? Maybe this is why I never majored in science!! LOL. Jody
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