Slot.it Spur Gear Placement

I had the three Slot.it cars flipped on their backs and noticed something: one of the Fords had the spur gear set up with the teeth on the inside near the chassis, while one [GT40 #11] was set up with the teeth near the wheel.

I noticed that the spur gear was grinding against the chassis on the yellow Ford and the Alfa. It was suggested to put a space in between and leave the spur gear in that position. As a test I switched the two cars that were set up this way.  [Note: see the two light gray scratch marks on the underside of the chassis directly in front of the wheels? That's paint from my track from when the cars go over the edge in a turn, then correct themselves. Pretty cool. They haven't scraped any of the paint off the corner edges yet.

I don't have spacers yet, but I have a list of spare parts I'm collecting. Once I get the spacers I'll flip the spur gears back to teeth-inside and see if that changes anything. I've asked around and haven't got definitive word yet which way is optimal.

I have run the two cars, and they are indeed quieter now that they aren't rubbing against the chassis. Here's what one looks like now:

Here's the Alfa after switching the spur gear so the teeth are near the wheel. It's pretty much right on the edge of the pinion either way it is set up.

I'm going to leave them this way until I get the spacers. I'd rather they not rub and maybe not be ideally setup until I can get the parts to do it.

New Series [Race 1 of 20]

I worked out a new racing season and have just undergone the first race. Here were the rules:

3 minute solo heat
Manual-control racing
Restricted speed set via SCP-1 controller
5 point scoring system

Track: #1 Reverse

I decided that I didn't want to exclude my Carrera cars, so I've worked out two classes: Class A [no mag], Class B [mag]. Each Carrera car has only one magnet in it as opposed to two, both set in the middle position. This automatically separates brands by class, as there is just too much of a speed difference between Carrera and Slot.it to make it competitive straight across the board.
In order to make restricted speed work, I took the first Class A car and ran a few laps, setting the maximum speed to just allow the car to de-slot if I punched it. Once at that maximum power setting, all cars were required to race there. This would help put a limit on the Carrera cars, keeping them somewhat in line with overall lap times, and in theory competitive.
Manual-control was done by running a few laps with each car prior to starting the heat in order to familiarize myself with differences in car setups and responsiveness. Manual control also added the possibility of de-slotting during racing, which doesn't happen in a ghost-mode race.

Here are the results [3 minute heat]:

Order of finish.

Car             Laps      Offs

Alfa #2         61           1   saved itself on curve / nimble / the most pleasurable to drive

GT40 #11     60           1   traction improved with tire sanding / solid and quiet       

GT40 #8       58           3   smooth and fast / responding great to no mag / possibly fastest          

R18 eTron    56            0  not fast, but smooth / engine strength not enough      

Safety Car    50           1   hard braking created driving inconsistencies, slow lap times

First Race Class A Winner: #2 Alfa Romeo 

The Alfa is going to be hard to beat. It got out of the gate fast, and doesn't feel problematic at all in the way of handling with the magnets out. It's quick as can be, and always seems to have that extra bit of oomph when needed. Not only a fast car, but it hasn't even come close to its full potential yet. 

And just as I had suspected, it was much faster than the ghost mode race. It really has a lot to give and rarely comes off. The center of gravity on the Slot.it cars are so low that the cars will frequently save themselves is a tire comes off the track in the corners. That kind of move would send the Carrera cars spinning out. That's a bonus since I run without borders.

First Race Class A 3rd Place: #8 Shell Team Ford GT40

After the last race, I did extensive tuning and tweaking to the Shell #8 GT40. The axle was binding, causing a squeak. I cut a guide groove into each of the axle blocks to help stop the binding, and it did the trick. 

With the mags out, all of the Slot.it cars front wheels hover just over the track. This can only be fixed by replacing the axle blocks with grub screws, which I plan to do on each car. 

The #8 had sanded tires and body and pod float. I didn't add the pod float to the #11 as a team decision. The #8 was also the only car to have the improved axle blocks. While the #8 came off three times, it still was competitive, and likely would have won had it stayed on the track. It still made a respectable showing. All three offs were driver errors, but I wanted to stay true to the objectivity I'm trying to have with every car and not race favorites. 

First Race Class A 2nd Place: #11 Gulf Ford GT40

The #11 Gulf GT40 only got better with the improvements made to it. It hasn't given me any problems since taking it out of the box, and it responds to every tuning move. It's remarkably smooth, and now that the mags are out has an even better acceleration curve. It came off once, but otherwise handled very well. The #8, by comparison, is a bit wilder and more hyper. All three Slot.it cars are very competitive with each other. I suspect there won't be a clear winner, unless it's for reasons of car failure with one of the teams. 

The eTron R18 finished first in the B Class, blowing away the Safety Car by a large margin. I don't think the R18 could have done as well with the magnets out, as it's extremely butt-heavy. It could have used more power, however, since the one magnet held it on the track well enough for it not to be in any danger of de-slotting. Whether or not that still would have been enough to keep up with the Class A cars, I don't know, but I doubt it. The orange end bell motor in Slot.it cars is quite strong and more powerful than the generic Carrera motor. I don't expect the R18 to truly compete against them, but I'm going to try. 

I'm convinced the Safety Car is not running right. It's got such hard braking it almost feels like it's fighting against the motor. Like there's such a hard bind that it's locking up. But there isn't anything that's binding that I'm finding, so it must be the motor. Extraordinarily twitchy. But since I don't want the eTron to run away with the class championship, I'm going to try to get the Safety Car running better.

So, here are the team standings after one race:

Car               Pts           Total

Alfa               5                 5 [leader Class A]

Gulf #11        4                 4 

Shell #8         3                 3 

eTron             2                 2 [leader Class B]

Audi              1                 1

Each car will be checked, tuned and tested between races. Team orders will stand for each car to keep them separate. Team orders for each car are as follows:

Alfa            any setup
Shell #8      grooved axle blocks, pod and body float
Gulf #11     no axle block modification, no pod float, body float only
eTron          any setup
Audi           any setup

I think this racing plan is going to work. By splitting them into two classes, it makes the Carreras matter more, as they are a bigger threat with mags in against a no-mag car. It also makes me want to see if I can tune the Carreras to beat the Class A cars. Gives me something to push for with these cars as opposed to putting them in a drawer somewhere never to race again.
Team orders will work out well, and while there aren't many to start with, it's most there to keep a little separation in the two Fords. Just because I have two similar cars, it doesn't mean I have to tune them that way. In fact, it could be argued that I'd never get them truly even anyway.

Slot.it Tuning Discoveries

I had a day with no track time and decided to tune the cars. I started with truing the rear tires and removing the magnets. I'm going to try leaving them out and tuning to a no-magnet setup.

My first worry came after taking the magnets out and looking at the way the cars sat on the track. Each one had the front wheels slightly off the ground. Not sure I like that. The construction of the front axle suspension out of the box makes it difficult, if not impossible to lower the front wheels to the ground unless you replace the two plastic blocks supporting the axle with small grub screws.

The Slot.it EVO6 front end. The two grub screws on either side of the car will control the front-end height somewhat, but the two plastic blocks that support the axle limit the amount of control. Too much tightening of the screws and the axle binds, stopping the wheel rotation. It possible to replace the blocks with grub screws as well, which come up from underneath the chassis. Until then I've filed small guide grooves into the plastic blocks to help against binding and lower the wheels slightly.

I also loosened the pods, adding pod float to each car. This is different than body float, which was also added by loosening the two body screws. From how I understand it, body float will help the car through the corners by allowing for a little shift in weight, while pod float will give the motor and rear-end some independence from the chassis. It doesn't take much to make the car feel pretty loose while holding it in my hand, so I can imagine it's a bit more fragile on the track, but I might be wrong about that. We'll find out tomorrow.
The idea with racing without magnets is that the speeds are slower, the cars tend to act more realistically in the curves as they're relying primarily on tire traction, and if there's a crash, it's mostly a low-trajectory spinout and not so much a flying bullet disaster. When magnet cars go around the track, they can go at a faster speed, but have a breaking point: once you no longer have magnetic traction [if you're too fast through a curve, for example], the magnet will eventually lose contact with the rails, and the car's momentum can cause violent, damaging crashes.
So, in theory, taking the magnets out of the car might just make it last longer.

Ultimately I want to run all my cars without magnets, so I'll be trying to do that. I couldn't do it with the Carreras and keep them competitive with each other, but I don't think I'll have that problem here. I'll be experimenting with ballast to see how that changes things. The Fords feel a little light in the nose. The Alfa seems to be very well balanced already. I don't think it needs any weight added.

Slot.it Classics Out-of-Box Time Trials

Here are the results of the first of many time trials with the new Slot.it cars. I'm going to call them by their car numbers from now on, as those won't be changing.
The time trial was set up by using the ghost mode on the Slot.it SCP1 controller, and setting the first car up running at a speed that would be about half-throttle. Since the three cars are all similar in motor size, I was curious to see what car ran faster out of the box. I've done minimal tuning, adjusting the front axles a bit where needed and adding a very small amount of oil I had left, then raced them each for about an hour or so. I didn't cover everything I wanted to regarding the initial tuneup, but I was impatient and the timing was good, so I ran them.

Here is how they placed:

I was surprised by this result, as it felt different when running the cars manually. The #2 felt much faster at the time.

The #11 is practically perfect, straight out of the box. It's firmly planted, quiet and fast, and needed very little in the way of adjustment. It proved it here:

1. #11 - 52 laps [3 minutes]
2. #8 - 49 laps
3. #2 - 47 laps

The #2 was clearly dragging during his heat and was down about a tenth of a second a lap, as was the #8 slower, which developed a squeak as it was going around turns. I'll pick up oil tomorrow. All of the cars need it. Otherwise, I thought the #8 was stronger than it was portraying. I'm sure the #2 is as well. Once these cars are further tuned up, they'll be screaming. Looking forward to see how the #11 improves. 

All this test really tells me is not a lot. For a period of time in the beginning I'm going to have to expect growing pains as I go, just like I did with the Carrera cars.

I was thinking I was going to treat each car as separate race teams, and apply different adjustments to each one, as opposed to getting them to be perfect to each other. The GT40s are identical in most every way except slight body differences, so I should be able to determine what works better in less time. The Alfa will be tuned as best as it can be, which will be plenty different due to it's size and lack of front adjustment compared to the Fords. Then once that is running fast, it'll be up to the Fords to beat it. 

For this race I moved the #8's magnet to the middle position, and kept the #11's in the back position. I didn't notice any difference during the time trials, but the cars weren't pushing anyway, so they rarely broke traction. Once they've been worked in a bit, I'll push them more. Until I do I'll keep the magnets in their current positions. 

I have yet to true the tires on any of the cars.

For kicks, I'll go ahead and give them a running championship score, covering a series of 20 races. Three points for 1st, two for 2nd and one for 3rd. 

Standings After Race One:

1. #11  - 3 pts
2. #8    - 2 pts
3. #2    - 1 pt

The New Cars

I have just opened and run these cars for the first time, and they are fantastic.

Slot.it Ford GT40 #8 Le Mans 1968

Slot.it CA18b. Ford GT40 on an EVO6 chassis with adjustable front suspension. Sidewinder Orange End Bell Motor. 

This is what hooked me on getting a Slot.it car. Once I saw this, I knew that I had to have it. Finding it at a cheaper price than a Carrera car made it a no-brainer.

Out of the box it needed oil and grease and it was practically ready to go. It was chattering a little in the turns, and I thought there might be a tire rub, but it turned out that the front suspension was binding the axle, causing the car to occasionally pinch in the corners. Once I did the adjustment and loosened the body shell a little it ran like a dream.

The differences to a Carrera car are night and day. It's not that Carrera makes bad cars; on the contrary. For a full-kit manufacturer, they probably have the best cars out there. But Slot.it focuses on cars and digital systems, not race tracks. Their cars are of higher quality and workmanship, and are light and fast. They're nowhere near as indestructible as Carrera cars, but they do hold their own okay.

The Ford has a low center of gravity, which is helpful in that it doesn't fly off the track as much as spinout without flipping. It grips like the nobody's business, breaking all track records right out of the box.
If you're like me and are expanding from the original kit, you'll find Slot.it cars to be a great addition to your track. Of course, I couldn't just get one....

Slot.it GT40 Jacky Ickx Daytona 1967

Slot.it CA18d. 11/32 Pinion/Gear, Sidewinder.

The perfect racing partner for the #8. Cars like this are the reason I painted my track. It's a dark enough blue that under low light it looks almost black. On light gray track it all shows up quite nicely. It will also rip your face off with its speed.

These cars are handling....scratch that...loving Carrera track. First runs with magnets were preposterously fast, with grip beyond the likes my track has never seen. I considered tires right off the bat, but I really don't think it'll be necessary. There's not a thing out of place about these cars on Carrera track. I've read loads of vague accounts of Slot.it and Carrera and whether I would need to do modifications to run on my track, but I'll say that they work together very well straight out of the box.

GT40's have been one of my favorite race cars since I was a kid. The body shape is undeniably stylish, even now. And I know that there are hundreds of other cars out there, but why not start with a couple cars I know I'm going to love right away? So that's what I did. And then this came too:

Slot.it Alfa Romeo 33/3 #2 Targa Florio 1971

Slot.it CA11a. Another of the Classic Collection from Slot.it. Standard front end.

If I was going to pick a favorite period in racing, it would be the late 1960's/early 70's. A thrilling time for cars, speed, racing and style. The Alfa Romeo is as sweet and stylish as you get, and it hauls ass too. I had seen it showing up near the top of some proxy races, and started to research the slot car. It is a favorite for proxy racers due to its light weight and small construction and short overall length [116mm to the GT40 car's 133mm]. It grips like crazy and never lets go. I plan to do some time trials in a few days, and I expect this car to be the one to beat as it just refuses to whip its tail out.

While the Alfa had a similar suspension to the GT40 cars, it didn't come with the small grub screws needed for the top to make the fine tuning adjustment of the front axle. It's racy right out of the box, so I don't think I need it at the moment. We'll see down the road, though. There isn't a lot of tire clearance on this, or any of the models. So having that ability to adjust the front is pretty nice.

The Alfa is built with the same essential setup as the GT40 [Orange End Bell Sidewinder Motor, 11/32, 0.5 offset]. That makes these three cars competitive with each other with virtually no modifications. They'll naturally blow the Carreras out of the water, so those probably won't see much race time from here on out. Maybe when the nephews come over. They aren't touching my Slot.its!

Here are some outdoor shots:

New Time Trial System First Run

I set up the track this morning and ran a time trial with the new SCP-1 controller. I used the Ghost setting and dialed each car to take the track as fast as it could without going off, then I timed each car running alone. Here is the track I used for the time trial:

This is what I call "Test Track 1". It's essentially the track that came out of the box with a few extra straight pieces. I didn't use the four 1/30 curves I have, so I don't consider this a "technical" track. This would be considered more of a fast track for my purposes.

RESULTS:
5 Minute Overall Time

CAR                LAPS
Audi R18                85
Audi Safety Car      95

The R18 suffered a spinout at around lap 40, and it didn't seem to have the grip the Safety Car had, so it couldn't run as high of a speed. This was a surprising result, and the first win for the Safety Car since I started keeping track. I have a feeling that was due to not using the 1/30 curves. Those are almost always switchbacks of some sort, and the Safety Car doesn't handle those well.
I didn't do any tuning to the cars prior to running the time trails. Just a quick dusting off of the track and away we went. The R18 suffered for it, and should have at least gotten a quick scrub with the sandpaper. The tires are hard and I believe going to crack soon. Nothing like the other car's tires.

Track Designs: Curve Radius

I've been working on some future track designs, and through research and discovery of what others have done to their tracks, I started putting some of those ideas to use. One in particular would be designing curves...in particular the "Big Curve".

For software I use SoftyBahnplaner because it is free and has Carrera sizes. http://www.softyroyal.de/?t=22c24290

Since I know I want a big curve on my track, I naturally started off with the largest radius of the curves and built one of all 4/15 pieces:

The gray backdrop is my proposed depth of 166 centimeters, or 5.44 feet. That's a bit deeper than a ping pong table. The 4/15 track pieces put together won't fit on that layout, and that's without consideration of borders. 

4/15 is a big big curve. In order to make it work satisfactorily, I'd have to go smaller. Here was my next option:

The 3/30 curve. This just fits in the layout, but likely wouldn't handle borders. It's still a big turn, and can probably still be fun, but there's something about it that just isn't right.

So, I have a conundrum: the layout is smaller than will allow for the size curve I want to make. Plus, having such a strict radius on the curve is a little boring, and a bit unrealistic. In real life, probably the only racetrack that featured such a curve was the AVUS racetrack in Germany, and that was banked. In order to avoid the uniformity of a single-radius curve, here is where the use of varying radius track pieces will help, as well as add more interest for the driver:

Here is a curve using 4/15s [blue], 3/30s [green] and 2/30's [yellow]. The lone straight track is where the previous curve ended up. The width is significantly less, and can now safely hold borders all the way around. The turn is still perceived large, but the ever-shrinking radius going in will allow the cars to pitch out and handle the turns more naturally.  Of the three, this one I feel would be the most interesting to drive.

Now we're getting somewhere. It doesn't necessarily have to be big, but it does have to be interesting. By adding a little variety to the curve radii I think I have achieved that. Of course, this can be used for smaller curves as well:

With a 1/60 curve at the apex, this one will sneak up on you if you're not careful. Gradual going in and coming out with a quick snap at the peak. Lots of room for scenery or other options.

So it's really going to come down to making curves interesting enough to keep me entertained as well as small/large enough to fit practically on the layout. Variation can lead to all sorts of ideas. If I don't want the in and out to be so flat, I can always tighten it and run the straights a bit closer together. Like this:

Talk about a curve with great flow and a bit of excitement. It comes back on itself, which allows more tightness and technical skill. Plus, it really gets away from the generic 90ª curves that people tend to settle on. 

Loads to think about. My track will definitely feature variable-radius curves. This will make the difference between a track that flows and a track that doesn't.