# Custom Police Car



## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

I built this car as a tribute to my Father, He died in 2008, but he made a big impression on me. He was a CN Police officer, and as a tribute, I made this slot car for my son to enjoy. Now I just need to make a huge layout with cars & trains!


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## BEACH (Oct 13, 2002)

Looks great, what does CN stand for..location?


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## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

*cn stands for*

Canadian national railway. I hope to add some led's to make the lights work.


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## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

Looking good P71 :thumbsup::thumbsup: I'm sure your Dad would be proud to see it!!! RM


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

:thumbsup:

Wes


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I have yet to make 2 flashing LEDs work on a slot. For some reason one always malfunctions and the other malfunctions shortly after. I do know that flasher LEDs have a much tighter threshold as far as miliamps are concerned. Due to the wild voltage swings running a slot car, it's hard to keep the voltage under control for the LED with a simple resistor. I am looking for small (very small) voltage regulators to smooth out the voltage curve some, but my electrical knowledge is very limited. Soooo....

If that car was originally a light up (for an AFX flasher chassis, I would recommend using that type of chassis for the strobes. It'll be way simpler to snap in a chassis and go. There are also problems using LEDs with snap on bodies in regard to the fragile nature of the LEDs when attached with a wire umbilical cord to the chassis. I have only lit 2 AFX type bodies, and both worry me with the kids running them. I don't see a long LED life span with them.


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## copperhead71 (Aug 2, 2007)

Great custum police car.:thumbsup:Also great info scm.


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## XracerHO (Feb 6, 2008)

Great looking CN police car, P71. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Nice tribute! ..RL


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

from one canuck to another,good job!:thumbsup:


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Looks great. I kinda miss seeing those Impalas keeping the peace.


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## 440s-4ever (Feb 23, 2010)

slotcarman12078 said:


> I am looking for small (very small) voltage regulators to smooth out the voltage curve some, but my electrical knowledge is very limited. Soooo....


I believe you can put a resistor in to smooth things out, but not sure if parallel or series would be best. Good luck!


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

plymouth71 said:


> I built this car as a tribute to my Father, He died in 2008, but he made a big impression on me. He was a CN Police officer, and as a tribute, I made this slot car for my son to enjoy. Now I just need to make a huge layout with cars & trains!


plymouth71,

What a Fantastic looking police car!

Your son is going to have many fond memories of driving his Grandfathers ho scale slotcar around that huge track you are going to build. 

Bob...this place is kid friendly...zilla


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

:thumbsup::thumbsup: rr


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

hey u joe.check out westcoastslotcars.he has a tute on flashing led's in a tomy copcar


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Interesting tute newbie. I haven't tried going lower on the resistors... I'll give it a shot. :thumbsup:


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

just thought you'd like it:thumbsup:


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## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

slotcarman12078 said:


> I have yet to make 2 flashing LEDs work on a slot. For some reason one always malfunctions and the other malfunctions shortly after. There are also problems using LEDs with snap on bodies in regard to the fragile nature of the LEDs when attached with a wire umbilical cord to the chassis. .



I have a friend who is an electronics junky, currently he is working on my Dodge rescue van, using a very small micro chip and some resistors, we have it flashing 3 different sequences on the four red LED's. He just got in some micro LED's were going to drill out a small hole to fit them in from the bottom. That light bar was cast using 5 minute epoxy and painted with Tamiya clear paints.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Sweet!!! I wish I had the smarts to work with the serious stuff!! I hope you can post up some pics when you get it done, and maybe a few in progress shots too. :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## knightkrawler (Feb 14, 2010)

slotcarman12078 said:


> I have yet to make 2 flashing LEDs work on a slot. For some reason one always malfunctions and the other malfunctions shortly after. I do know that flasher LEDs have a much tighter threshold as far as miliamps are concerned. Due to the wild voltage swings running a slot car, it's hard to keep the voltage under control for the LED with a simple resistor. I am looking for small (very small) voltage regulators to smooth out the voltage curve some, but my electrical knowledge is very limited. Soooo....
> 
> If that car was originally a light up (for an AFX flasher chassis, I would recommend using that type of chassis for the strobes. It'll be way simpler to snap in a chassis and go. There are also problems using LEDs with snap on bodies in regard to the fragile nature of the LEDs when attached with a wire umbilical cord to the chassis. I have only lit 2 AFX type bodies, and both worry me with the kids running them. I don't see a long LED life span with them.


Try looking into voltage regulators. You have to watch the polarity and the max input voltage. The ones I'm going to start out with are LM340MP-5.0. These will take an input voltage of ~7.5 - 20 volts and regulate it to 5 volts. The LEDs that you use will probably still need a resistor to lower the current. 

Using the resistor only for LEDs isn't a great idea because the voltage source is variable, making your current source variable as well.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Exactly my point. Flasher LEDs require 10 miliamps to function correctly. Too much and the flasher fries. What I don't understand is I've had success with a single flasher in my cars. It's the 2nd flasher that starts causing trouble...


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## kiwidave (Jul 20, 2009)

Excellent P71, great tribute car!


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## knightkrawler (Feb 14, 2010)

slotcarman12078 said:


> Exactly my point. Flasher LEDs require 10 miliamps to function correctly. Too much and the flasher fries. What I don't understand is I've had success with a single flasher in my cars. It's the 2nd flasher that starts causing trouble...


are you running the diodes in parallel or series?


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

LOL.. I've tried:
1. running parallel.
2. running individual with a shared resistor.
3. running individual through individual resistors.
4. running parallel through a shared full wave bridge rectifier with both a shared or individual resistors with a shared small capacitor.
5. running individual full wave bridge rectifiers and individual resistors with individual capacitors. 

There are probably more variations I've attempted that I can't recall...

Number 5 has shown the most promise. It might not be the fault of the circuit, as much as the failure of the LED itself. When I get frustrated, I put stuff down for a spell until I get over it and try again. Keep in mind, I have no electronics experience what so ever. I'm self taught (usually the hard way) and trial and error is the norm here. :lol:

To add to the frustration, be it coincidence or there's merit to it, I have noticed different types of chassis behave differently. I'm not sure if it's just chance, or if it's due to the different ohms in the arms causing the fluctuations. What works on a NOS Aurora doesn't always work as well on a JL/AW chassis, and really doesn't work on a SRT chassis... All I know is when it does work, it's cool as heck!! :thumbsup:


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