# Slot car chassis: what would you like to see?



## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

Slot car chassis: what would you like to see?

Hi,

After a long gap I'm resurecting my Scorpio chassis ( http://www.howorld.net/archives/innovate/walpole/scorpio/walpole.html ) , starting from scratch and putting in lots of new ideas.

The plan is to also make a supercar body for it with adapters so it fits other chassis.

But if you had your way what idea/concept would you include???

Cheers - DEANE


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Wow, a direct drive slot car....I'd never seen something like that before.....I wonder how fast one of those can run?


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

*You can buy one!*

(I won't be including it in my new design)

http://www.horacepro.com/rattler.html

please note the main idea on his in-line car, he got from me!!!


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

It is probably just me, but I have the feeling that magnet type slot cars are nose light.
I can't prove it but I have the suspicion that a magnet car de slots often the nose comes out first.
Front traction magnets may help this. But what good is a slot car that will not de slot at all?
And a thought or two on your car Deane.
1) It looks massive. Massive as in heavy. I am guessing that this is just a prototype, but what can I say. My second impression is "big and heavy"...
(My first impression is "COOL!")
2) The pick up/guide looks vulnerable hanging out the front.
3) Will a can type motor provide enough power to run against Storms and Thundercats? Or will a revision include a traditional in line with bulkheads and adjustable brushes?
Ok, now that I have said that, how does it run?


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

The front magnets came about for exactly the reasons you say, adding bigger rear magnets would just make the car slower or stop altogether, unless more power was used, but the 4-magnet idea might make the car a better balanced one.
You are correct about the car being bulky. It was machined from plastic, made deliberately wide to accomodate lexan bodies & the pickup assembly was somewhat half-assed. But as a first attempt it was not too bad, the one and only time I ran it at a national (in the lunchbreak) it was 0.4s quicker than anything else (the 'proper' cars of course had polycarbonate bodies).
But the pickup assembly worked poorly with H:O rail, the COG was too high as the floor was nearly 1mm thick and there were one or too other issues which the new design will address.
With regard to the motor, I think that it would be too much to design a Tyco-type system when can motors can be dropped in and be plenty fast enough for the UK scene. Of course I would love to sell cars outside my own club mates but I think that the can motor will be the only option for the forseeable.
It is a shame that armatures get ever better but that nobody makes upgraded can motor magnets. I did wonder if the 'T' lifelike motor might be an option as it does have very strong magnets, maybe these could be moved in closer to the arm and the arm itself upgraded.
So maybe I'll make a means to clip these motors in, but there is no way I'd make the car to only accept these unless I found a plentiful cheap supply and my ideas actually worked.
At the moment the pursuit is to see what can be built & how well it runs, selling on is in the background for now. If I do go that route it will probably be just bare chassis into which the customer can drop his own parts, maybe a club could initiate a new class etc.
Maybe enough interest will be generated that some of the ideas end up on the SRT2/Patriot P5/T-cat2 etc.......


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

regarding front traction magnets:
are there rules regulation the use of these? Do certain classes mandate that the traction magnets are in the rear? Or doesn't it matter?

Dan


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

Being from the UK, I have no idea what the various US bodies do.

It does seem to me that you have far to many governing bodies each with a vested interest in a particular chassis so I expect if anyone made one of my cars a real flyer it would quickly be sat on.

I'm more inclined to aim the car at my UK buddies, and/or guys anywhere who like to support cottage-industry endevours and/or clubs anywhere looking for a cheap class to add to thier fun.

I have a lot of respect for Gary Beedle, Tony Porcelli & Bob Lincoln and I'd be flattered if any one them wanted to incorporate my chassis main idea in their superb cars but I don't want any of the excess tonnage of politiking that these chaps and their cronnies generate so my car is aimed somewhat below them.

If I can build a car that, by virtue of it's detailing, can beat an equivelant Tyco or Tomy product I'd be thrilled. And on that I do have a good track record - My Neo magnet bar produces better lap times on a typical UK club track when fitted in a Turbo than the SRT one does.

At the moment the plan is to do a unique body in resin that will fit on by an ingenous new method to the chassis & copy Porcelli in that Tyco F1 bodies will also fit.

I'll post more news as I have it........


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## SCJ (Jul 15, 1999)

I would LOVE to see an electronic chassis......as in no motor to speak of, it's all powered off the circuit board and little micro chips.....just think of how this would open up the body possibilities!

In theory, it would even be cheaper then a conventional chassis, as the motor, brushes etc. would not be needed.

Living in a dream...................

--------------------------
www.SlotcarJohnnies.com


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

If we're pushing the edge of the envelope then a design build around a brushless DC motor would be the way to go. For those not familiar with these things, a brushless motor places the fixed magnets on the rotor (the part that spins) and has the magnetic windings on the stator (the part that doesn't spin). The stator windings are switched on and off (commutated) using electronic control circuitry. The tricky part from a technical standpoint is knowing the position (angle) of the rotor at any given point in time so the commutation process can be timed correctly. (This is what your segmented comm plate does today so simply and marvelously.) Some schemes employ angle sensors and some just look at the phasing of the generated back emf, or both. In any case, the control circuitry and processing needed to handle all of this has been around for a long time but the physical challenge has been getting it small enough to fit in a slot car. RC planes use this technology today. With surface mount technology the physical limitations could be overcome even for HO slot cars. Whether anyone builds such devices yet is the big question. But if the brushless motor control circuitry were mounted directly onto a "circuit board" that also serves as the chassis the overall form factor could be quite small, allowing for much more accurate body models. The benefits would be much higher RPM potential, variable (even dynamic) timing, variable braking, much finer motor control, and much longer motor life because there are no brushes to wear out and generate heat. 

The other candidate technology, possibly along the lines of what SCJ was alluding to, would be something built around piezoelectric devices. These are stacks of crystals that vibrate when a charge is applied across them. Convert the vibrating action to rotational motion (just like internal combustion motors have done for 100+ years) and you could theoretically power a slot car with it. Here's a link that goes into some current applications of this technology (it's real):
http://widget.ecn.purdue.edu/~CTRC/...iezoelectric/Miniature_Piezoelectric_Fans.htm
http://www.sensorsmag.com/articles/1201/33/main.shtml

Think about it... with the right minds and technology brought to bear on solving this problem we could bring the Aurora Vibrator into the 21st century and actually make it work better than anyone could have ever imagined!


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