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Howdy from Manchaca, Texas

Posted: Fri 7. Jun 2019 07:39
by viejoronnie
After much reading on magracing, I decided to join in the fun.

I have been slot racing and collecting slot stuff on and off since 1960 starting with Aurora Model Motoring, through the slot car boom and bust in the mid to late 1960s, picking it up again briefly with wing cars decades later, then 1/43, and 1/32 only a couple years ago; missing out completely on the scale RTR resurgence of the 1990s.

I currently have a 50' 1/32 portable plastic 6 lane oval slot car track and rental mini 2.4Ghz RC cars for kids birthday parties.

I am able to provide entertainment in the form of team racing on the 6 lane oval with 6 teams of 2 drivers each using 12 wirelessly controlled slot cars created from the 2.4 Ghz mini car power components, as well as provide the OEM mini RCs to allow 12 kids to race on a canvas tarpaulin surface covered with dirt for a track. Fyi, the OEM RC cars only weigh 55 grams with a stock 120 mah lipo and come with medium hard foam tires.

I wish to create a personal 3 lane home magracing oval track which seems easily doable and to convert the inexpensive ($8 US) Chinese 2.4 Ghz cars that have proportional ESCs but binary steering. Add a 3.7 v 1,000 LiPo and a running time of an hour or more can be achieved in RC mode on my slot track or in free range RC racing with an exceptable hit on performance due to the extra weight.

While the RC speeds appear to be excessively high (18 fps) for magracing, I have been able to slow the speed to realistic scale speeds via a simple mechanical modification to the stock 2.4 GHz transmitter controller. The car does have brakes in the form of a quick blip for reverse w/o actually going into reverse.

I have been experimenting with magnet placement in the OEM RC car chassis/steering using a small test piano wire track, but I have not been able to successfully complete a working magracer using these 2.4Ghz cars that will follow the wire, much less change lanes.

I'm not sure if it's the magnets I'm using or their exact placement. I have tried Neo button magnets and slot car bar magnets of various strengths on a diy plastic bracket I made that is connected to/suspended directly beneath the binary steering rack, but the magnetic force is either way too strong or much too weak.

Any assistance would be appreciated.o

Re: Howdy from Manchaca, Texas

Posted: Sun 9. Jun 2019 04:48
by Keld
Hi and welcome

Do you have pictures of the cars steering mechanism?

A standard rc car can not follow a wire since the steering is fixed, so it need to be converted