MagLev C

[chalker]

The winning car was 7.1 kg at .85 seconds for a ~8350 at 64 cm (or at least that's the car score of the winning team). I'm not sure how good solon was, but I believe their score was slightly worse, or maybe we just beat them on the test. It would be interesting if they released the full score sheet in the test packet like they did last year.

7.1kg?? That's insane! I'm not nearly as good at this event as most people on this thread, but I can't even imagine the magnets on a track supporting that kind of weight, let alone having it travel the distance in under a second... How on Earth does one accomplish this?

Rare earth magnets on the track.

Guess what the rules are going to forbid next year......

[plaid suit guy2]

I can't even imagine how you got the 7kg into the space. Our vehicle was made of solid lead, and it was only about 2.5kg. Though, our mass was limited by the fact that it wouldn't be levitating above the track if it got any heavier.

[Jdogg]

I can't even imagine how you got the 7kg into the space. Our vehicle was made of solid lead, and it was only about 2.5kg. Though, our mass was limited by the fact that it wouldn't be levitating above the track if it got any heavier.

Yeah, we made our own 1 inch block of lead on our car, you can kind of see it in the video. Before states we had a 2.5kg car too, and we we're only getting 3000-5500 or so with that one.

[GoldenKnight1]

Rare earth magnets on the track.

Guess what the rules are going to forbid next year......

That would be a shame. Spending money on something like that might seem like a good idea if it was a two year investment but to only get one year out of it seem to remind me of Sumobots. There are many ways to eliminate the bonus that some teams have gotten out of such a track without making rare-earth magnet tracks not allowed. Some of these ideas have already been mentioned in this thread and coming from a school with a neodymium track that we thought we might be able to use for two years it is not only rough to know that we might not be able to but on top of that might need to spend money on track that does not use rare-earth magnets.

[chalker7]

The rules are still be written, so nothing is final yet, but that's pretty certain. Most of the changes will be coming from an attempt to increase safety (refer to the hockey apparel used by Harriton above.) We recognize a serious safety hazard from such heavy vehicles moving so quickly (and specifically how much energy is going through the exposed propellers.) While I don't want to divulge too much on early drafts, I would expect significant adjustments, all with the intention of reducing the risk encountered by the students, coaches and supervisors.

[plaid suit guy2]

@jdog:
where did you get those propellers? like no one sells them

[Jdogg]

@jdog:
where did you get those propellers? like no one sells them

gws propellers glued together, so it's a 6 bladed prop.

The rules are still be written, so nothing is final yet, but that's pretty certain. Most of the changes will be coming from an attempt to increase safety (refer to the hockey apparel used by Harriton above.) We recognize a serious safety hazard from such heavy vehicles moving so quickly (and specifically how much energy is going through the exposed propellers.) While I don't want to divulge too much on early drafts, I would expect significant adjustments, all with the intention of reducing the risk encountered by the students, coaches and supervisors.

I mean, we seriously didn't NEED to wear the hockey equipment. We just thought better safe than sorry, especially cause we had a incident where a propeller broke off when it hit the end of the track once (only incident all year ). Personally I think not allowing teams to use neodymium tracks would be a shame, plus making the cars lighter would only make it more dangerous (maybe even turn it into a airplane event ). Though taking away competitive advantages of the neodymium track would make sense (basically all the top 10 teams at nats had them), it would be a shame to make teams throw away the tracks they put so much time and effort into.
I have a few ideas on how to make the event safe and a few other things..

[plaid suit guy2]

we had a track made from the magnets ripped out of a chalkboard. cost us nothing

[sr243]

Just wondering what is the normal stopping mechanism at the competitions? I know when this was done last year as a trial event in WI, there was nothing to stop it from going past the track. The best stopping mechanism was using a magnetic plate that curved up to catch the car. It caught our mag-lev which was like 2 pounds going at 2+ m/s.

[Jdogg]

Just wondering what is the normal stopping mechanism at the competitions? I know when this was done last year as a trial event in WI, there was nothing to stop it from going past the track. The best stopping mechanism was using a magnetic plate that curved up to catch the car. It caught our mag-lev which was like 2 pounds going at 2+ m/s.

We used a foam pad attached to a block of wood. Then the entire track was prevented from moving forward with a hockey blocker. Otherwise the track would continue to move with the maglev.