Single Lane Coin Track, Now Updated 2017

[Ben_M]

Hi all,

After spending a few years quietly looking at many other tracks here that have been built I have allways thought how cool it would be to have a small routed track that could sit up against the shed wall, this thought was allways followed by, yeah that will never happen. Not anymore. On the weekend I started my first ever routed track.

 

Now I know nothing about routed tracks, in fact I have never seen a 1/32 car on a routed track in real life. I had a few 1/24th cars that I use to drive on holidays in Newcastle, but other than that I have very little knowledge. Fortunatly this forum has all the info a guy could need.

 

Saturday, I started with a bit of 12mm MDF 2400 x 1200. I trimmed a bit off to create some track boarders and also make it a little bit smaller and the final size is about 2000 x 1050.

 

Next I sketched the track. I had a bit of an idea on what I wanted to do including a few corners and the layout of the first quarter of the track, the rest I just made up on the spot.

 

 

I found my drafting snake came in very handy for this. It allows you to connect one corner into another and also makes it very easy to make a single corner with different radius'. I had to modify a few things as I went but nothing major. I used a scaletrix 90deg corner (the tightest one) to get the minimum radius for the corners. Some of the corners are a little tighter but only for a small part of the corner.

 

Sunday I started out by darkening up the outline which I am very glad that I did. Then it was time to route. I have never routed before and I was using my partners fathers router so I had to do a bit of a practice of the back of one of the boarders. It went much better than expected so full of confidence I got stuck into the track.

 

A third into it and only a few small misshaps everything was going well.

 

 

As you can see, there are a few corners. Everything continued to go well and the biggest join since the Sydney harbour bridge was joined the end of the track met the start and all was complete. A bit of a sand and a vacuum and it was all looking prety good.

 

 

View from the chopper

 

 

As you can see there are lots of corners, too much? Time will tell. I think it should flow pretty well, the only part where I there may be an issue is the part where there are 2 180 deg corners after another going in different directions. There may be an issue with change of direction here but theres only one way to find out. The direction that I designed it is running along the bottom of the above photo from left to right.

 

Next stage is painting which will happen later this week. The previous owners left some tins of paint behind so I will use those to paint. I will use exterior paint as a base and then there is a small tin of paving paint which I know there are a few tracks with that so it could be good. I have also orderd the copper tape and it should be here this week.

 

Now being the noob that I am, I have a few questions. Only one question at the moment and its to do with the only thing I am worried about, the electrical connection.

 

When I was in Sydney last week I dropped into the Slot Shop and brought a small and simple power supply as shown below.

 

 

And it has the following end on it

 

 

My question is, now what the hell do I do with it? Im thinking that you cut the end off and that connects to the track. Where does the controler come in? I have a Ninco controler with the stereo plug. I was hoping to be able to use it with out cutting any of the wires. Any help or links to basic wiring guides would be greatly appreciated.

 

I really excited with this build and I annot wait to get it up and running. Please feel free to comment on anything as I would love some feedback.

 

Thanks for listening,

Ben

[neophytte]

Well done mate!! I wrote a quick guide when I was building my HO scale track:

 

http://routedtrack.hobby-site.com/?file=electronics.html

 

Hope it makes sense!

 

Cheers

 

Richard

[Badbilly]

Hi Ben

Here is a link to the most commonly used track wiring standard for 1/32 in Oz.

 

Positive track wiring

 

This is the basic schematic as you can also incorerate a direction reversing switch and veriable brakes. Also highly recommend a fuse too.

 

No need to cut the wires on your ninco controller. You just need to get a 3.5mm stereo socket and wire that in where it shows the controller on the diagram. Altho buying a parma 45 ohm ECONOMY controller.. well worth the $50.

 

I just last week finished rewiring my scalextric track so if you want some pics let me know

 

Cheers

[Ben_M]

Neophytte & Badbilly, thanks heaps for the help. That all makes sense so ill see how I go. Will have to take a trip down to the electrical stores and see what they have.

[Chadly]

whatch the wiring. neopytte's and badbilly's wiring is different in the plugs (even though the plugs may look the same).

[Ben_M]

Thanks for the heads up. I guess they both work so ill just pick one and stick with it.

 

Spent a few hours on the track last night but dont have much to show for it. Tonight should be different (hopefully).

[Chadly]

as you can see by the diagrams, brakes are pretty easy to wire up! If you have a wiring diagram for your track and people want to come and use there own controller, they should be able to make an adapter.

[Ben_M]

Have spent the last 2 nights out in the shed (just ask the neighbours) so I have made some progress.

 

Borders have gone on (my poor jigsaw cutting made this a lot more difficult than it should have been.

 

 

 

Last night I fixed up a few areas where the car was catching and was going to cause problems. I felt like a sad individual when I was pushing my car around the track to see how it went, I was enjoying it .

 

Next I gave it its first coat. I used paint that was left by the old owners of the house. Paint was called Rich Red and boy, is it Rich. I was suprised to see how bright it was, especially since this was the colour of some of the rooms before we saw the house. Not the best paint job but it will do for now.

 

 

Might not be the biggest track, but it will be one of the brightest!! I will be putting black paving paint where the car will be running so it will darken up a little.

[manic35]

Starting to really take shape Ben, the Audi will be motoring round in no time.

[dangermouse]

Hey Ben, after I finished routing mine I wired a battery to the car and let it rip to see how it went around the track. I had a battery holder that held two AA batteries so it was 3v of power - it was good let me see if there were any areas that needed fixing - I then wired a 9v to see how fast it would go

 

cheers

DM

[Ember]

Last night I fixed up a few areas where the car was catching and was going to cause problems. I felt like a sad individual when I was pushing my car around the track to see how it went, I was enjoying it .

Did you make the requisite brrrrrm brrrrrrm noises while you were doing it?

[Ben_M]

Thanks manic, im hopeing so too!!

 

Thought about adding a battery to my car but my time is very limited so I want to put all the time into the track. The Audi arrived with a split pinion gear so it wouldnt have run properly. I dont have any spares or any other cars (until my old ones arrive from my parents house) so it wasnt an option.

 

Did you make the requisite brrrrrm brrrrrrm noises while you were doing it?

 

Of course

 

Unfortunatly I arrived home from work tonight and the track was still a bit wet. We had rain all day today and the shed is not fully enclosed so it wasnt able to dry very well. That means no work. No biggie, theres 2 big games of footy to watch (Oh, and beer)

 

I did manage to measure it and it is just over 16m long. Pretty happy with that.

[Ben_M]

I did manage to measure it and it is just over 16m long. Pretty happy with that.

 

Just remembered that the copper tape I brought is 33m long, its going to be very close as I measured about 16.2 mts of track.

 

Brought some of the electronics on the weekend and I have worked out how it all fits together. Also got the final bit of painting done. Paving paint feels nice and smooth so should be great.

 

 

 

Its getting close now. Teaching tonight and have some work to do tomorrow night so maybe Thursday night I can sneak out to the shed to start taping.

 

Cant wait.

[Ben_M]

Its alive, ALIVE!!!!

 

Got it going on the weekend. The taping went well. Its not the smoothest job but it works.

 

 

 

The wiring was frustrating to say the least. I tired neopytte's diagram but it would just not work for me (im sure it was my fault ) Badbilly's diagram worked for me. After wiring the hand controler in backwards I put it right and it was all go. The first lap was done at about midnight Saturday and it was great to finally cut some laps. My first thoughts were that maybe there were too many corners and it was too technical (thats been in my mind since I started the build) as it was hard to get the car to flow. So I slept on it and next day it just worked. The corners flow on from one to another with ease. My faveroute part is the long right hander that tightens up on itself before a hairpin to the left. The grip level is very low so theres wheel spinning and most importantly drifting all over the place which is what I was after.

 

So far my 12yr old SCX 4x4 WRX car is by far the fastest. My new Fly Audi had teething problems such as the guide getting caught when it went sideways. The tyres on the SCX are softer so I think that has a lot to do with the pace. For timing I am using a stop watch over 5 laps. One lap takes about 16secs for the WRX so its a slow lap (about 1m/sec). I might change the timing to a count down from 2 mins and just see how many laps I can do in that time.

 

Well thats where I am up to at the moment. There are things I need to do to the track but im having too much fun driving. I will post some video in the next couple of days as it gives you a great idea on how the track flows.

 

 

 

Ben (who is suppose to be doing some work )

[Badbilly]

Hi ben track looks great! ... lots of sideways fun:D let me know when you holding an open day!!

 

IF you have or can score an old computer we here can help you build a computer controlled timing system for less than $20 Interested?

[Ben_M]

Thanks for the offer Badbilly. Price is not really the issue with timing, its more about space. The track will live up against the wall most of the time and there is no where in the shed to store a computer and I know I wont wont to drag my old computer (yes I do have one) out to the shed all the time. But I will keep it in mind.

 

I now have video od my SCX Celica drifting its way around the track. Unfortunatly my video editing program would not edit this file type so please excuse the first 10 seconds or so.

 

 

 

Feel free to comment

 

Ben

[death jester]

that is so cool wish i knew this is how its done before i splashed out for a plastic track.

[Ben_M]

Well the Rally Proxy has started so i've had a chance to do a few things to my little track. I decided to make it look more like some sort of track and put some rally features in.

 

Small jump taped in place just to see how it goes.

 

 

 

Large hump/jump and some ripple strips.

 

 

 

Some markers lining the track.

 

 

 

 

Will have to see how the large hump goes, should have made it as part of the original track. Have learnt quite a bit from this, especially what not to do. :clap:

[Ben_M]

Sooooo, the question that has burnt the minds of slot enthusiasts all over the world. Why did I name my first track (this one) Coin Track!

 

That question will be answered soon, but first a quick update on thus track. Those who follow the Oz Rally should recognise it as it has been part of the series for the last 3 years. A simple flat Autotest style track which has some nice flow for those cars that suit this type of track. Obviously those jumps and stuff in the above post were rubbish and were never used, but it does look a bit different now. I also have timing set up for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bit of video

 

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Small hint for the answer to the name. How many sides does a coin have Will post some updates soon.

 

P.S. How can I add "Updated 2017" into the title?

[gazza]

Usually open edit then open "Use Full Editor" but that'll only work on the original thread

 

Looks like you'll have to open the last one in a separate thread with the updated name

[shadow_rusty]

Very politely ask a mod to update it for you is the only option...

[Sports Racer]

Good to see a track being used for years.

 

Be you still get excited when you buy a new car and can't wait to try it out.

[Ben_M]

Thanks for fixing up the title Mr (or Mrs) MOD

 

So, the idea of the name Coin Track is that the track, just like a coin will have two sides. I was always planing to do a two lane track on the other side, and now that I have two kids (5 & 7) it was the perfect time to do it. All I have to do is flip it over and I can go from one to the other. Obviously I have to change the power over but its not a big job.

 

Video that shows one side to the other.

 

 

 

I was originally was going to do an oval but I decided I wanted a little bit more. But knowing its a track for the kids it had to be reasonably simple. Another factor was the existing power connections for the first track. I had to design it so that the cars were clear of the cut off power cables. You can see them in the post routing pic.

 

 

 

Seeing it is the kids track, they are doing most of the painting and are also deciding on what colours things should be (besides the track itself).

 

 

 

 

The black blob is going to be a drone pad (instead of helli pad).

 

 

 

This is where we are up to. First coat of track surface which is paving paint.

 

 

I'm sure it going to get very colourful.

[shadow_rusty]

As I've seen the other side in person, I knew what was coming, and it was still cool...

Well done, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the kids do with the scenery...

 

ps. Cheap toys at the dollar shop can make great kids scenery

[Ben_M]

And its alive!!

 

 

Had a few battles with my 6yr old son last night. As I was fining out, the outside lane is a little too close to the wall so you have to be careful. Kids had a ball this afternoon racing each other, they didn't even go too stupid! The cars can hit each other on different parts of the track if both cars are sliding, not ideal but I had a feeling that it might happy as it is pretty tight. Speeds are pretty slow so it shouldn't cause to many issues.