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I would like to ask if anyone else has been experiencing difficulties with the curving part of the vehicle.
I basically have it so that I can alter and lock the length of the left side of my chassis, making it shorter than the right side to make the vehicle curve to the left.
Although curving to the cup point was relatively easy, when the vehicle reverses, it doesn't trace over its previous path and stops far more to the left.
I just assumed that when the car reverses, it would go over its previous path. Anyone know what's going on?

Bitconnect wrote:I would like to ask if anyone else has been experiencing difficulties with the curving part of the vehicle.
I basically have it so that I can alter and lock the length of the left side of my chassis, making it shorter than the right side to make the vehicle curve to the left.
Although curving to the cup point was relatively easy, when the vehicle reverses, it doesn't trace over its previous path and stops far more to the left.
I just assumed that when the car reverses, it would go over its previous path. Anyone know what's going on?

Your vehicle might be experiencing a sharp stop before it reverses, which could skid the wheels slightly. Even a small offset could cause a significant change in direction.

I double checked by repeatedly rolling my car forwards and backward, and my car doesn't trace the same path it took. Each reversing shifts the path of my car to left so technically if i kept on rolling my car forwards and backward many times, it would make a full rotation back to the initial path. The only thing that could be causing this is my steering, which should be good.

This isn't as big of an issue anymore but my car still doesn't quite retrace its previous path. Its always ending up ~5-10 cm left of its prior path. I think ill just have to live with it, as nothing I've changed or tweaked with decreases this distance.

For us the problem seems to be the floor we’re testing on, since there are small grooves that it gets caught on even for just a little bit.

We have tested and competed on countless surfaces from linoleum to wooden planks, and our car still consistently draws a flatter arc on the way back, so I don't think it is the floor. My original guess was that the string on the axle would bend the chassis and as it decreases throughout the run, would change the arc. So, I built a car meant to minimize this bending, but the curve variance is still there. What else could be causing it?

Lorant wrote:We have tested and competed on countless surfaces from linoleum to wooden planks, and our car still consistently draws a flatter arc on the way back, so I don't think it is the floor. My original guess was that the string on the axle would bend the chassis and as it decreases throughout the run, would change the arc. So, I built a car meant to minimize this bending, but the curve variance is still there. What else could be causing it?

The more rigid your car is the more an imperfection in the floor will mess up its steering since it will disturb the entire vehicle rather than the vehicle just flexing to absorb the shock.

4Head wrote:

Lorant wrote:We have tested and competed on countless surfaces from linoleum to wooden planks, and our car still consistently draws a flatter arc on the way back, so I don't think it is the floor. My original guess was that the string on the axle would bend the chassis and as it decreases throughout the run, would change the arc. So, I built a car meant to minimize this bending, but the curve variance is still there. What else could be causing it?

The more rigid your car is the more an imperfection in the floor will mess up its steering since it will disturb the entire vehicle rather than the vehicle just flexing to absorb the shock.

So how does one fix this issue?

I'm sorry, I phrased my post wrong. The redesigned chassis features a down-the-middle design meant to allow the axles to bend with respect to each other, yet focusing the force of the mousetraps down the center. This was my solution to the problem but my construction must not be flexible enough.

PM2017 wrote:

4Head wrote:

Lorant wrote:We have tested and competed on countless surfaces from linoleum to wooden planks, and our car still consistently draws a flatter arc on the way back, so I don't think it is the floor. My original guess was that the string on the axle would bend the chassis and as it decreases throughout the run, would change the arc. So, I built a car meant to minimize this bending, but the curve variance is still there. What else could be causing it?

The more rigid your car is the more an imperfection in the floor will mess up its steering since it will disturb the entire vehicle rather than the vehicle just flexing to absorb the shock.

So how does one fix this issue?

I believe that the car is shifting slightly when you begin to reverse. You can solve this by slowing the car down when you begin to break.