Discussion
I'm assuming this is for live, in-person racing? Otherwise why would you want separate releases? I'll also recommend looking through the Starting Gate collection of topics in the forum and other tracks in the directory. Your design looks fine but that seems like a lot of wood and screws...I think there's ways to simplify that a bit and save you some time/money.
I'm curious how the pins drop in that configuration. How are you translating the rotation of the servo to the linear pin motion? I can't see the connections in the image.
In my previous gates with pins, I've operated up to 4 lanes wide with one servo using a dogleg connector between the servo and pins, and a connector between each gate to drive all the pins at once. In the image above, it looks like the servo is directly connected to the pin?
- This is something I would need to work out — Drag_Racing_In_The_Desert
- exactly... a servo cannot do what you have shown there in that position. It would need to be laid over on its side or some additional mechanical movement would need to be added... — Stoopid_Fish_Racing
I like the concept of the spread apart lanes. More like a real drag strip. I had that with my last track setup. Had to change when I bought the Spool Heads start gate.
I think keep the lanes further apart would also elimate the "bad air from the car next to you" problem. I have proven to myself this is a real phenomenon. Run 2 cars in the same lanes and record the time. Swap out one of the cars with a different on and the time of the car you did not swap out is almost always different.
- Interesting...never really considered air/drag/wake from being side-by-side. Figured it would be so minimal to matter. Fascinating. — redlinederby
- You can see it with one car at the start gate and one car mid track in the flat, the stationary car will sometimes shake as the other one speeds by. — Travelers_Racing_League
I hope to have a working system working this weekend, but it will be far from finished. The gate will have two servos that work independantly of each other in the programming. The servo horn will have a rod connected to it that will hold the cars back and start the race, similar to a drop gate. From a concerned racer, "Diecast drag racing in general is very consistent. Cars don't break or misfire and they don't red light so a lot of the human error is automatically taken out — RT_Race_Technology" This is true. There are ways in the programming to vary reaction times, so there is that. As far as consistancy, in most of my races, I hardly see cars run the same number, while once in a while they will. Human error or breakage are not easily replaced, but reaction times can be "adjusted" per race to recreate some of that human error.
Assuming you input a car's average ET as its dial-in and the gate release is perfect for both cars, where or how can an advantage be created for either racer? In real life bracket racing, a driver's reaction time is one of the main deciding factors for whoever ends up winning so how can that be replaced here? Nonetheless this is an interesting concept!