MAGracing Forum

Hi All

Long time lurker.

Firstly well done Wes - I can see real potential in what has obviously been a labour of love for you.

A couple of quick questions I don't know if they have been asked before or are just plain silly but here goes:

With the lane change plates is it possible to create a 3 way change point - left + straight + right

I get the concept that the magnet/car follows the wire - would it be possible to change lanes outside of the lane change area - so have 2 wires running parallel to each other and changing at will between the 2 lanes by turning the car enough so that it breaks the magnetic attraction of the current lane then travels towards the other lane until the magnet picks up the other wire (I hope that makes sense) or is it a case that to break the magnetic attraction requires either turning at too steep an angle and/or excess speed?

Anyways thats enough from me - now back to my cupboard.

Cheers
Neil

kendar wrote: With the lane change plates is it possible to create a 3 way change point - left + straight + right

Iirc I saw one of the examples which had a steer right to take the optimal line, a straight to take the corner normally and a left to enter the pitlane.

kendar wrote: I get the concept that the magnet/car follows the wire - would it be possible to change lanes outside of the lane change area - so have 2 wires running parallel to each other and changing at will between the 2 lanes by turning the car enough so that it breaks the magnetic attraction of the current lane then travels towards the other lane until the magnet picks up the other wire (I hope that makes sense) or is it a case that to break the magnetic attraction requires either turning at too steep an angle and/or excess speed?

This was exactly my question and I mentioned it here also (viewtopic.php?f=14&p=2921#p2921). The cars have only left and right so they should need to be extended with a straight option (which currently is caused by the pull of the to the magnet wire.)

kendar wrote:Hi All

I get the concept that the magnet/car follows the wire - would it be possible to change lanes outside of the lane change area - so have 2 wires running parallel to each other and changing at will between the 2 lanes by turning the car enough so that it breaks the magnetic attraction of the current lane then travels towards the other lane until the magnet picks up the other wire (I hope that makes sense) or is it a case that to break the magnetic attraction requires either turning at too steep an angle and/or excess speed?

Cheers
Neil

Yes it is possible, but if you want that to happen you need to have less magnettracktion, when the wire is on the correct position it is NOT possible.
But if you lower the wire you have less magnettraction and therefore it will be possible, but if you lower it too much the car will leave the wire itself, and that is a NO GO

But if you leave the wire and magnettraction you will have a steering problem, maybe the car has to much angel to catch the next line, maybe the speed is to high, maybe the car turn back to the previus wire. you can steer here.





about 3 way lanechange yes it can be done, never tried it with a lanechange plate, but did it only with wires, and it works well for me.
In my opinion you can place the lanechange as close as you wish, and you can even jump over the middle lane if you take the blue one.

I did this only using wires, NO PLATES, just place 2 or 3 wires next to each other for at least 5 cm. the straight line HAS TO BE UNBROKEN, the car/magnet only changing if you turn the steering wheel.

This is the way to make many lane changes on the track.

Hi Neil, Apologies for delay, been on holiday. You can indeed have 3 way lane changes and the pic shows the l/c on our Linford 2 circuit which enables the racing line, default run wide and the outer wire is the pit entry. The larger pic., next up hopefully, shows the pit entrance. The plate would be slightly wider, say 6mm instead of 4. Works fine but the 3 wires need to be perfectly level at the l/c exit.
Re. lane changing anywhere, the basis of the system is that the steering actuator is not powerful enough for the cars to leave the guide wire unless the magnetic effect is reduced which is the reason for the thinner plate. I have tried all the ideas suggested but find that the plate works best.

Second pic.

Thanks all for the replies.

No need to apologise Wes - hope you had a good break.