Track work at FRC
Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2021 9:09 pm
Today O'Brie joined me for some much needed track work at FRC. Our focus was to fix three areas where lane changers were malfunctioning and/or creating problems and the issue where out-of-line (fishtailing) cars would hit the leading edge of the wall alongside Caiman Pond after exiting the hairpin, often resulting in de-slotting. We previously had further direct discussion regarding re-doing the track outer border fencing with an alternate idea to using plexiglass, but our plan for today was to address the first problems mentioned and deal with the border next time around.
The first area we worked on was the inside-to-outside lane change on the left hander at the end of the straight following Fosters corner. We'd recently disabled this lane changer by taping the flipper closed because it was not working properly and sometimes causing cars to hit the flipper with a big impact or do unwanted lane changes. O'Brie brought along some new technology with a microscope connected to his Mac laptop which allowed us to see things invisible to the naked eye. It was amazing what we were able to see in the lanes and on the optical sensors on the lane change sensors in the track. Grime, dust, fibers and more were clearly visible on the laptop screen, magnified hundreds of times.
The microscope placed over the tip of the flipper with the laptop displaying the image on screen:
On this close examination were were able to add a small wedge "bubble" on the outside sidewall of the slot just ahead of the flipper tip using solder and this fixed this problem. We did this one without having to detach any track pieces.
Wedge-shaped solder "bubble":
The next one we tackled was the pit lane entrance. In summary, we determined that both the pit entrance lane change track piece currently attached to the track as well as a used spare I had were not working despite some cleaning and surgery.
We then tried the inner pit lane changer and it worked perfectly, so we exchanged it with the malfunctioning one and finally got it working. This required some unsoldering and re-soldering new lane change external power wires, but in the end we got it working, so we can now do pit stops once again. Remember, all track pieces are soldered to one another with five exceptions which are connected beneath the track table via junction boxes, so this was not a particularly easy task.
Here are some insights into the details of what was involved:
All the lane-change tests were done with one of my cars, so we know that the repairs worked.
Finally, here are some shots of the modified wall alongside Caiman Pond. Remember, the wall had no curvature at this point - it was right alongside the track's edge:
Hopefully this wall modification will work, otherwise more extensive modifications will have to be made in the future.
The next maintenance day will be aimed at the perimeter fence and we have a plan!
The first area we worked on was the inside-to-outside lane change on the left hander at the end of the straight following Fosters corner. We'd recently disabled this lane changer by taping the flipper closed because it was not working properly and sometimes causing cars to hit the flipper with a big impact or do unwanted lane changes. O'Brie brought along some new technology with a microscope connected to his Mac laptop which allowed us to see things invisible to the naked eye. It was amazing what we were able to see in the lanes and on the optical sensors on the lane change sensors in the track. Grime, dust, fibers and more were clearly visible on the laptop screen, magnified hundreds of times.
The microscope placed over the tip of the flipper with the laptop displaying the image on screen:
On this close examination were were able to add a small wedge "bubble" on the outside sidewall of the slot just ahead of the flipper tip using solder and this fixed this problem. We did this one without having to detach any track pieces.
Wedge-shaped solder "bubble":
The next one we tackled was the pit lane entrance. In summary, we determined that both the pit entrance lane change track piece currently attached to the track as well as a used spare I had were not working despite some cleaning and surgery.
We then tried the inner pit lane changer and it worked perfectly, so we exchanged it with the malfunctioning one and finally got it working. This required some unsoldering and re-soldering new lane change external power wires, but in the end we got it working, so we can now do pit stops once again. Remember, all track pieces are soldered to one another with five exceptions which are connected beneath the track table via junction boxes, so this was not a particularly easy task.
Here are some insights into the details of what was involved:
All the lane-change tests were done with one of my cars, so we know that the repairs worked.
Finally, here are some shots of the modified wall alongside Caiman Pond. Remember, the wall had no curvature at this point - it was right alongside the track's edge:
Hopefully this wall modification will work, otherwise more extensive modifications will have to be made in the future.
The next maintenance day will be aimed at the perimeter fence and we have a plan!