[freakygeeky]

Hi guys

I've just pulled my old scalextric track from my parents' loft in order to use it to run a fastest lap competition for my daughter's school Christmas Fair. I think its what you now call classic, we had loads of it, people kept giving it to my 3 brothers and me. We have a newish power supply and controllers too, not the type that click under the track.

I have a layout sorted with a single cross over allowing one timed 'lap' to use both lanes. The timing device I have cobbled together consists of a dead strip connected through a relay to a hacked up stop watch, and it works!

The dead strip is 3 inches long, on a straight made of 4 sections. I've run it for about 2 hours with 100% yield, so far. Lap times are about 15 seconds.

For the event I was thinking of one 'go' consists of one warm up lap and one timed lap, charging 50p. I've made a Top Gear style fastest lap board from galvanised steel and we'll have magnetic strips for people's names. 5 age groups, each winner gets a trophy.

For the event we have two nearly new cars, a Scalextric Caterham 7, and a GT40. People can choose a car to use.

I have loads of spare sliders. The track has no dead spots; I've gone over it all with fine paper to clean off any dirt and surface rust. I have spare batteries for the stop watch. I have a spare power pack and controllers. I'll fix the track to the work top with screws and washer just catching on the edge of the track, so the kiddies can't move it. No one other than marshals may touch the cars or track.

Anything else i need to think of?
Any special prep to the cars?
What should I lube the bushes with, and oil the motor with?

Many thank

Christopher

 

[300SLR]

That's just about everything.

Some say it's wise to tie down just about anything that's easily removed (e.g. controllers) at exhibitions so the public doesn't walk off with the them. That may well be unnecessary with one at a time track at a school Christmas fare.

 

[zendragon]

Have you glued the motors in and the rear axles?, if not then I would do this, goodluck with this and have fun
Zen

 

[freakygeeky]

Thanks for your help... Can I just use super glue type stuff?

The cars are really good comapred to our older ones. Not sure if I should remove the magnets, I'm not running any barriers, maybe it'll be just too hard for the littl'uns to stay on track.

Gone are the days of stuffing the car full of blu-tac just to get some grip.

 

[zendragon]

superglue for the engine use a silicon based glue for the axles so they can be removed if needs be, you will probabley need thin superglue on the day to stick wheels back on the axles, oil with light sewing machine oil on the axle only and only very lightly so you dont contaminate the silicon glue on the axles
I would use as many barriers as you can maybe move the magnet HIGHER in the chassis to reduce the magnetic force then tell the punters that they are only allowed 3 offs, and stick to it even put it on your scoring board and on a LARGE banner in the middle of the track

Zen

 

[Mr Modifier]

Hi FreakyGeeky,

Would you mind sharing how you made the stopwatch based timer?

I know zilch about electronics but am happy to do intricate soldering and fabrication.

I will be building a rally stage this year and wanted a simple stopwatch based timer. Stopwatches are stupidly cheap on the bay and it can't be that hard to take one apart and wire in a relay to the start/stop button. I have no idea what components I would need but I suspect they are easy to come by. I'm not sure how it will trigger from the track - light sensors are the obvious solution I guess but people seem to go on about dead strips and I have no idea what one is or how it works.

Why don't I buy a Ninco timer? There's a certain satisfaction in making something yourself PLUS I can build the stopwatch into a trackside building to help it blend in.

I would love to know how you did it.