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Rolling Roads

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M

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Discussion Starter · #1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Its interesting that Hornby have decided to develope a rolling road for their model trains to permit hobbyists to carry out maintenance and service work and at a not too unreasonable price. The Live Steam range does need it and it was announced months ago that Hornby were to produce one although now it is available it can accomodate most types of model loco.

Surely though this is something that is even more relevant to the slot car hobbyist to help with the tuning and setting up of slot cars. If Hornby produced a rolling road linked to Sportsworld type software would there be a market for it?

To be able to set up wheels and running gear and downforce and/or weight and be able to accurately establish how all this impacts on the running of your car (acceleration/breaking/top end) on computer screen has to be an advantage.

I know that there are already products out there but at a price and therefore their appeal is limited. What sort of price would you be prepared to pay for the right product over and above the cost of the Sportsworld software?


I would judge that it could be produced for between £20 to £30 if linked to Sportsworld. It would probably be a standard track section with rollers and the ability to change the wheelbase dimension to suite. Note with 4WD two sets of rollers would be required.

Moped
 
D

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#2 ·

As for 4wd...just cobble together 2 of the old rev start tracks!

I'm not too sure about how useful a 1/32 "dyno" would be - after all the rollers would only have Scaley's designated coefficient of friction and not that of other types of track. Hence not much use for tuning the car to suit other locales.
In addition, would not the rollers require a certain degree of resistance by which the acceleration and braking could be measured against? Not much point in letting the car spin up freewheeling rollers is there? The car's mass and hence its inertia aren't taken into account. Hmm...mind you they aren't taken into account on a 1:1 rolling road either...


Or...am I getting too deep into this by trying to compare the proposed scaley version with 1:1 dynamometers?



Mark.
 
Scott B

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#3 ·
I was already quietly lusting after a Kevin Light test bench (Why? Well, it exists and it has something to do with slot cars, what other reason do you need!) before I got a look at one in action at SwissRaceBahn.

Now I need one very, very badly. If I don't get one for Christmas I will be inconsolable.

I won't go over how it works - maybe Swiss or others with one can do that - but it has loads of "Toys For Boys" appeal, endless pointless tinkering capacity and will give me something to do indoors during the winter when running on the track in the garage is too uncomfortable even for a hairy Scotsman.

The Kevin Light test bench is, however, a bit expensive (three Fly boxed sets). If Hornby could do something in bigger numbers to make it cheaper it might be a hit, although I can't see many toy shops having the patience or understanding to sell it, whatever the price.
 
M

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#4 ·
FREE TIP ALERT:

It is the easiest thing in the world to create a rolling road which will measure the relative speeds at the wheel of all your cars. This is the only thing that I could see me using a rolling road for.

You will need:
One cheap multimeter
Two slot car crystal boxes
One old chassis with motor fitted
Slot.It back axel system (big hubs)
Some copper tape
A 12v (or similar) power supply
On-Off switch
100 Ohm Potentiometer

Firstly...

Shall I go on or has this been said before?

McLaren
 
M

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Discussion Starter · #12 ·
QUOTE It is the easiest thing in the world to create a rolling road which will measure the relative speeds at the wheel of all your cars. This is the only thing that I could see me using a rolling road for.

I would have thought that with proper output a rolling road would help with a lot of things apart from recording speed relative to throttle control. It would record accurate braking distances. It would help to produce wheels that roll properly. It would record 0-10ft acceleration times. It would record maximum speed (of course). And you could raise or lower the power rail to adjust downforce to simulate different track types to help with set up. And the rollers could have a surface that simulates the different track types to help set the car up for any number of circuits. No doubt there is more.

Moped
 
A

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#14 ·
daleg - i think the magnetic and weight downforce can be easily done. Unless you have a wing-car (and i dont mean a car with a spoiler, but one of those us plastic unrealistic wedges) the air downforce will be negligeable, but you could always point a fan at the front of the car!

I don't think it is VITAL that a rolling road represents any particular track, as long as it is consistent with itself, since you will at least be able to compare your cars against each other.

I want one, but for me it would have to be a good and well-featured one, but for that £50 or £60 would be fine.
 
J

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#15 ·
That's interesting i thought Scalextric make a cheaper Kelvin Light, but sadly not!

Like Scott i really really want a Kelvin Light test Bench and fear my next trip to Barcellona will prove expensive!

Who's the cheapest in the UK?

Gareth
 
T

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#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
There is a small market for such a device, if made to a consistenly high quality, well thought out and at a reasonable price.
What is a 'reasonable price'?
Less than half the Kelvin price, definitely under £100 and preferably no more than £50.

The Kelvin Testing Bench appears to be very well made and IS undoubtedly useful, but it is FAR too expensive and has an elementary fault too. That is that it requires the user to input tyre diameter in order for it to calculate velocity. This should not be necessary.

PC software is available (completely free) only after registering your purchase with Kelvin Light, but that is not absolutely necessary to obtain useful information from the unit and I think the average user would be unlikely to use the software very much.

Re down force: outside of 'wing things', this is a purely artificial magnetic factor and would not be difficult to incorporate adjustably through intelligent design.
 
J

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#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
I`m in aqgreement with Tropi. The KL machine is over priced for what it actually does. I was given one for the filming of "Short Circuits" and once past the "Wow I`ve got a new gadget" phase, it doesn`t do that much for the money. I retained it after the completion of filming ready for series 2. I have since seen/heard of simpler devices that do a sound job. Mclaren`s post will be of interest to a number of people I think.

Cannot finish without relating the now famous slot story of the well known retailer who was knocking them out for £75....but only for a very short period once he realised his currency conversion was a tad off
 
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McLaren
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