Hey All!
I have a few questions about track design and a couple Ideas. I am hoping to build a fairly large 14 x 20 ft (420cm x 600cm) layout with more then one track on it or a track where I can leave out sectors, example: a city sector, or a rally sector.
Questions:
Has anyone done any testing on minimum crossing angle for lanes?
Are the magnets adjustable enough to let younger children (7 to 9 years) play with improved traction?, I have nephews who are going to drive me nuts if they can't and I would like to get them off their computers anyway.
Thirdly watching the Monaco GP, and thinking about how close they are coming to berriers on the racing line, could you put a put a berriar close enough to a line that if the car is drifting the front corner would catch the berrier but if it had good traction it can get past the berriar? It would make a turn very technical. I cant quite see where the magnet is on the chassis to work this out for sure, and not having driven the cars is this realistic? I am thinking about emulating the first chicane after the tunnel in Monaco.
Thanks for the thoughts
Brad
Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
Re: Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
Brad...
I would estimate 25-30 degrees to be the range of minimum crossing angle I would attempt.
Having just completed a day of letting the public, which were primarily children "test drive" our cars I would say 5-7 is reasonable as an age to begin learning as long as you can exercise a degree of discipline over them where you can restrict them if they don't exercise some restraint. I was somewhat surprised my grandaughter of 8 picked up the throttle control very quickly. The magnetism is sufficient they can motor around at moderate speed without using the steering and pick up the steering as they get the hang of driving the cars. In fact this is what adults will be doing as well.
The whole idea of track design is to then reward drivers who can steer with a shorter racing line and better radius/faster corner speed throughout the lap. Children of this age I feel can learn this is the "object of the game" rather than just pulling the trigger down and hoping the car will hold the line. If not then you would need to restrict them until they they're ready to learn. Children do find it exciting that the can somehow magically control this toy remotely and have big motivation to try.
We found the cars to be able to put up with quite a bit of thrashing as they are much lighter than slot cars and don't hit the walls with near the impact. However it definitely helped that the track we were using only had a straight of 6 feet so the cars were not nearly reaching their top speeds. A straight of 12-15 feet will definitely result much harder hits.
Not sure exactly what your last question was. The steering magnet on the bottom of the car is located about 1/4 inch in front of the front axel line, so the cars drift much as a real car would oversteer but without any front wheel slip angle. They would not normally hit the wall with the front fender unless they had already lost attraction to the wire. I suppose they could then slide along a guardrail and then pick up the wire at a latter point down the track if that was the way you designed it.
Hope this answers some of your questions at least.
I would estimate 25-30 degrees to be the range of minimum crossing angle I would attempt.
Having just completed a day of letting the public, which were primarily children "test drive" our cars I would say 5-7 is reasonable as an age to begin learning as long as you can exercise a degree of discipline over them where you can restrict them if they don't exercise some restraint. I was somewhat surprised my grandaughter of 8 picked up the throttle control very quickly. The magnetism is sufficient they can motor around at moderate speed without using the steering and pick up the steering as they get the hang of driving the cars. In fact this is what adults will be doing as well.
The whole idea of track design is to then reward drivers who can steer with a shorter racing line and better radius/faster corner speed throughout the lap. Children of this age I feel can learn this is the "object of the game" rather than just pulling the trigger down and hoping the car will hold the line. If not then you would need to restrict them until they they're ready to learn. Children do find it exciting that the can somehow magically control this toy remotely and have big motivation to try.
We found the cars to be able to put up with quite a bit of thrashing as they are much lighter than slot cars and don't hit the walls with near the impact. However it definitely helped that the track we were using only had a straight of 6 feet so the cars were not nearly reaching their top speeds. A straight of 12-15 feet will definitely result much harder hits.
Not sure exactly what your last question was. The steering magnet on the bottom of the car is located about 1/4 inch in front of the front axel line, so the cars drift much as a real car would oversteer but without any front wheel slip angle. They would not normally hit the wall with the front fender unless they had already lost attraction to the wire. I suppose they could then slide along a guardrail and then pick up the wire at a latter point down the track if that was the way you designed it.
Hope this answers some of your questions at least.
Re: Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
I have the same experience with kids, a boy age 6 need no speciel car or improved magnet, he racing very good, ofcourse they need to learn how to steer, but they do learn without help from us.
/Keld
Re: Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
Very good qustions!
If you make a kross of the treads (wire) and se if its around 3mm in parallell on both sides of the imaginen line,
then the car will pass throu.
Its not a problem to put out around 10 - 12 mm of no wire as you traveling strait forward.
If you make a kross of the treads (wire) and se if its around 3mm in parallell on both sides of the imaginen line,
then the car will pass throu.
Its not a problem to put out around 10 - 12 mm of no wire as you traveling strait forward.
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shoshonite
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat 25. May 2013 17:25
Re: Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
I have a few diagrams here for my last Question, the idea of it came to me while watching Monaco and how the F1 cars there the are almost touching the barrier in some places, as the saying goes Monaco favors the bold.
I was thinking of ways to have that represented on a track section, from watching the videos and reading what was being discussed on the forum. I didn't think placing the barrier close on the exits would have much effect, as it would just bounce you back on the wire as you suggested. My second thought let to my question which i will try and re-word with the aid of poor quality sketches.
After reading somewhere that these Mag cars can be drifted to some degree in corners, I was wondering if the clearance distance was different enough drifting vs non-drifting to make this a useable feature. It dosen't sound like it if the magnet is in front of the front axel.
I was thinking of ways to have that represented on a track section, from watching the videos and reading what was being discussed on the forum. I didn't think placing the barrier close on the exits would have much effect, as it would just bounce you back on the wire as you suggested. My second thought let to my question which i will try and re-word with the aid of poor quality sketches.
- A car not drifting at all needs only clearance equal to have the car width (green line)
- Mag racing tight corner no drift.png (5.05 KiB) Viewed 13390 times
- A car drifting needs clearance proportional to the drift angle to a maximum which is equal to distance from the magnet to the front corner. (green line)
- Mag racing tight corner drift.png (4.97 KiB) Viewed 13390 times
Re: Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
the magnet is under the front axles.
the distance from the the front to the magnet in mm. compared to the wide of the car is the issue, if the magnet is closer to the front than it is to the side of the car there will be no problem.
If the distance from the side to the magnet is shorter than then distance from the front you will have a problem unless if the cars front is round. (I still need to such a ugly car)
But no cars are round, so you will always have the front corner longer inside when drifting. but you will also have the opposite problem, the back (left wheel) end will hit the wall when you are driving to slow.
So some of the cars will make the turn without problems even when the are drifting (short nose cars)
long nose will not.
but all cars will hit with the back going to slow, bouncing the back end out.
the distance from the the front to the magnet in mm. compared to the wide of the car is the issue, if the magnet is closer to the front than it is to the side of the car there will be no problem.
If the distance from the side to the magnet is shorter than then distance from the front you will have a problem unless if the cars front is round. (I still need to such a ugly car)
But no cars are round, so you will always have the front corner longer inside when drifting. but you will also have the opposite problem, the back (left wheel) end will hit the wall when you are driving to slow.
So some of the cars will make the turn without problems even when the are drifting (short nose cars)
long nose will not.
but all cars will hit with the back going to slow, bouncing the back end out.
/Keld
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Nor Cal Mike
- Posts: 183
- Joined: Fri 21. Dec 2012 22:22
Re: Crossing Angles and a few other questions.
May I suggest that whatever scenic fixture that you decide to place close to the track be free standing. That way you can adjust the distance until it is correct.