# Slottech Video



## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

This video from Tony at Slottech is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzkaj2MUJ3A&feature=youtu.be


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## 15807brett (Sep 10, 2011)

great video, now every time i see a chassis that i never tried our have, i want one. now im going to have to try slottech.


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

LOL,Tony builds some very good products:thumbsup:

For you newer guys,don't let the High and Low downforce discriptions confuse you.
The overall magnet attraction to the rails doesn't change between the designations of High and Low,all you're doing is moving the magnets field around.
High downforce means the combined magnet field of the motor and traction magnets is oriented towards the rear of the car,and low downforce orients the magnet field towards the front of the car,that's all there is to the differance:thumbsup:


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

have to disagree with you

when I had my track I had to run in high down force or the car would not handle.
when I would run on a max track, the car was too stuck, and I had to run in low down force or put on much bigger tires! 

I think it related to how the magnets worked with the rails (no real proof)

But I did the swapping a lot do to racing on the various tracks a lot.

I can say 1 time high DF was to stuck and arm was to hot, but low DF was too loose! so I did a tyco setup, the the car was just right


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

The mags don't touch the rails in an ideal world,so there's no continuty between them.
Think magnet keeper and flux plate.
Only way you're going to have continuty between the mags and rail,is plant the mags directly on the rails.
Otherwise all your doing is shifting the mag field from front to rear.
And no running an alternating current beside the mag does not turn it into an electro mag,the electric field has to surround the magnets core to do that,and an alternating current like the arm creates is a very poor way to make an electro mag.
Only in slotcar land have i ever heard this mag theory you describe Mike,and slotcar land is full of miss truth's,lol:wave:


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

ok
here is my theory.

in high DF mode, the motor & traction mags attract to each through the rail just like when you hold N & S mags.

While low DF motor & mag normally repel each other (N & N or S & S).
but they are attracted to the rail.

So many time i started to play with a race car and get confused as to why it would not handle on my track! Then I realize I last raced it on a High DF track and did not change it over from the low DF mode


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

if the mags can effected by the proximity of the rails, I do not think they have to touch.

what hold the car to the track is the face down side by swapping to high or low DF the end facing each other are affected, but the down face gauss does not really change.

but yet the handling change is huge!


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

What happens in high downforce,is the available mag field is oriented to the rear.
When that happens you lose motor mag field,while concentrating the available mag field over the back tires,which creates more grip at the rear,and less horsepower to turn the arm,which will cause heat issues,and it also makes the car seem more stuck,but in reality it isn't,as now it'll understeer going into corner,instead of oversteering the rear of the car.
High downforce takes horsepower away,low downforce adds horsepower.
We tested the idea years ago with a pull test using a fish scale,and we could never see any differance in overall grip between the 2 designations,one way the car was ass end heavy,the other way the car is more front end heavy,but same overall amount of pull required to get it to release from the rails.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I have to recheck it, 
I used to try to see it with mag paper, but it did not change that much.

my cars were always setup to have the mags on the rails.
from SS to level 25 poly mod


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

LOL,mine too years ago,wore out 2 tracks that way,from literally dragging the mags on the rails,but have since lifted them off the rails slightly:thumbsup:

Think of it this way Mike,in a slotcar,a magnet is used to create artificial weight.

Now lets think of a 1:1 car using weight.

If we take a 3500 lb car,with a honking big old cast iron V-8 stuffed under the hood making lets say 400hp.
Now lets pull the honking old heavy V-8 out and replace it with a lighter V-6 up front,that weighs 200 lbs less and makes a 100hp less power.
But we still have a 3500 lb weight to contend with,so you have add the 200 lbs subtracted off the front,back onto the car at the rear of it.
So now you basically have more traction,but less horsepower,so the V-6 has to work harder to run the same lap numbers as the V-8,(the by-product of more work is more heat),but the car still weighs 3500 lbs.
This is what we're basically doing with a slotcar when we change downforce modes,we're dropping the available horsepower down with less motor mag field,while we're upping the traction level at the back,but the total static weight,or magnet pull of the car remains the same.
Magnets have to touch the rails or themselves to complete a continuty magnet circuit,and in our world they generally don't touch the rails or themselves:wave:


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## neorules (Oct 20, 2006)

Rick-- I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. We just had a discussion on SCI about the same HDF, LDF and the reasons why. In HDF the 2 different (N&S) create a magnetic circuit through the rail which increases the downforce to the track. LDF does not have as much measureable force. I just did a few front and rear lift tests using a digital trigger pull gauge. The release figures were as follows:

Storm SS-- HDF Rear 88 grams, front 38Gr in LDF Rear 80 gr, front 28gr
Bsrt g 13 mags -- Hdf rear 190gr,fr 90gr. in LDF rear 172gr, front 70gr
Storm 13 mags-- HDF Rear 160, front 100 in LDF rear 132gr, front 74gr
Storm gr 6 mags--- HDF Rear 100, front 44 in LDF rear 82gr , front 32gr

Rick-- I've done quite a bit of magnetic field interaction testing and this alternate field magnetic set-up creates more force to the rail in all cases when set-up in our normal ride height range. I respect your thoughts on the subject, but this is what I have found.


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Bob,if you can,try the same test with the magnets out of the car on a steel plate,with a piece of newspaper between them and the plate,to replicate the average air-gap under a slotcar

Tape should work to hold the magnets together end to end.

I'm curious to know if that test shows any differance

We never used a digital scale just an old fish scale,but we never found any differance in the total overall pull it took to lift the complete car off the rails,but our test was done quiet a few years back,with a pretty rudimentary scale.

Bob:I told Dan at Dash to get ahold of you on brushes,as you might have some info to pass on to him:thumbsup:
Rick


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Hmm,gonna have to swing by Bass Pro Shops and see what they carry for digital fish scales.
Been playing with this idea some this afternoon,and on my old spring loaded fish scale i can't discern any appreciable differance in the total pull weight of the car off a 1/8" steal plate,in either configuration,but the old spring scale leaves a bit to be desired for close measurements.
Looks like it's time for a trip to Bass Pro to update tools,lol:thumbsup:
Rick


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

Bob

Good to see what I thought was happening was confirmed by you.

rick
I knew that the weight shift was not what is happening.

I could also see in the old HOPRA level 25 mod class, that the poly tractions just overwhelm the ceramic motors. 

I could run high or low DF and get pretty much the same times


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Came to the conculision my old spring scale isn't accurate enough,and is probably misleading me somewhat.
I trust Bob's info,and i think he's right,but i still want to step up the scale quality and re-do some of my own tests from years ago:thumbsup:
Nothing is wrote in stone,and i'm always open to differant theories,lol:wave:
Rick


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## neorules (Oct 20, 2006)

Rick--- what I used was a digital trigger pull gauge. It has readouts in grams grains oz. etc. The cool thing about the trigger pull gauge is that when the car releases from the set-up track it locks in on the reading of force that was being used when the car released. My gauge cost about 65 dollars. I bought it from a company that sells shooting supplies. I'll give you more specifics if you'd like.


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Thanks Bob.
Sure any info you can pass on is appreciated.
I go right by a Bass Pro Shops today.
I was hung up on a fish scale,never even thought of looking in the rifle end of things,:thumbsup:

My old spring scale leaves a fair bit to be desired,as it's pretty open to interpretation depending on how you look at it.
Rick


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I do not trust any scale

they all lie

Mine keeps saying I am no longer 185 pounds!!

stupid scale: :lol:


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

You're just using the wrong reading ,buy or change it to a kilogram scale then it'll be closer ,lol
Us Canucks figured it out along time ago,switching over to the metric system wasn't to match with the majority of the world,it was to offset weight gain as we get older,lol:thumbsup::wave:


Stopped at Bass Pro Shops,and they didn't have anything i thought would work.
The trigger pull guage they have is a sliding scale,not quiet what Bob's sounds like,and not really what i was looking for.
Hit up the fishing department too,but all the digital fish scales are a little to robust for my tastes,and they don't have the ability to lock the release reading,like a trigger guage does/has.

Bob anything you can pass on about the one you're using,i'm sure listening,lol
Thanks
Rick


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

rick

found what you need for your cars!

scale for rick


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## neorules (Oct 20, 2006)

Here's a link to the exact one I have. You'll even get it for a better price than I did. Also I Modified the arm that reaches out of the device. I Put a bolt in place of the arm-- it screws right in, then glued a exacto end piece(not the sharp end) that slides under the chassis and creates the lift.


http://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Electronic-Digital-Trigger-Gauge/dp/B00162QGLS


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

LOL: it looks a little light for the job Mike:thumbsup:

Thanks Bob.


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