How to govern slot car power

[wheelbender6]

My nephew got one of those slot car race tracks for Christmas. The cars are about the size of a hotwheels. The power comes from the wall, to the transformer, to the speed controllers and on to the track. He has trouble going slow enough to keep the cars on the track. If I put some resisters between the speed controllers and the track, would it reduce the power output of the slot cars, reducing their maximum speed? If so,what size resisters should I use?

 

[nicobie]

He needs a talk about being a 'lead foot'.

 

[Thud]

you can dial the speed down with one of these....& then dial it up as his skills increase.
http://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html

 

[johnrobholmes]

That is what the hand held controller is, a big resistor. You could put a block under the throttle to prevent him from grabbing too much, as an easier option.

Hard to say what resistor you should use. Maybe you could measure the resistance of the hand throttle thingy at half throttle, then add another of the same in series. Maybe a 10 watt resistor would be enough?

 

[nicobie]

Or sneak another hidden battery in series inside the controller to up the V on only your track.

I was 13 when I lucked into this. We were unbeatable with our rewound motors.

Hahahhhahahaa...

 

[liveforphysics]

Mechanically limit the travel of the trigger.

Or, the best approach would be teaching him throttle control.

 

[AussieJester]

"throttle control" hrmz...i thought
That was stop and flat out Luke

KiM

 

[wheelbender6]

My nephew (actually great nephew) is a four year old. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[REdiculous]

1) Make a new body for it in the shape of a small RV (home-home on a van).
2) Add working (RC on/off for bonus) led lights.
3) Add fishing weights until it stops flying off the track.

Maybe? :lol:

 

[torqueon]

Slot cars were so much fun, hours on details to make them go and stick.

 

[kriskros]

i used to be an importer and distributor of slot cars and comp;onents in the late 60s when it really peaked... as a promo, i sponsored a 48 hour non stop, stock car enduro on 295',8 lane california C style a track in Oshawa[in those days track power was DC from large truck batteries]...4 man teams..after a series of qualifying racesin the US[buffalo, rochester, detroit and chicago] and canada]...4 american teams and 4 canadian teams made the final... a local Oshawa team won... GM proveded the trophies... the winners trophy was over 3 feet tall, a real beauty the best motor in those days was sealed, stainless steel cylinder that weighed about 2 1/2 ounces.. bearings both shaft ends, heat sinked com, 48k rpm... my supplier said they were outdated missile servo motors ??.. government cost $137.00... my cost $6.00

 

[Gödel]

I used incand. bulbs for this in series with the transformer primary. 100W was pretty much the same as no limiter at all and 25W gave significant slowing. But there was no electronics in the controller.

The actual power dissipated in the bulbs in these instances is not easy to calculate. I have bulbs out front that burn out frequently so rather than look for the cause I put two 40W bulbs in series, for a measured power dissipated of 30W per assembly. Half the voltage across a conventional resistor would give 1/4th the power and so would be 20W per assembly.