Battery Buggy B

[Gemma W]

I don't know if you've realized this, but don't forget that you have to put the car at an angle at the starting dot in order to arrive at the ending dot. Otherwise it will just curve off the track. You don't want it to hit any walls.

[Gemma W]

any ideas on how to make the thing turn around the bucket? the buggy we had didnt turn in the regionals and we got 3rd, hoping it will work in states.
do you recommend using CDs as wheels? It's a plausible idea, and it curves a bit. it's not too stable, though.

The problem with CDs is that they might be easily shattered after you impound or while you are bringing the car to competition. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use them, but you might want something more sturdy such as plexiglas, or if that is too expensive, something else. CDs might work well also though. Just a thought. Also, CDs are somewhat wobbly.

[Littleboy]

For Scrambler a few years ago, I used grinding wheels, (or whatever you call them). They looked somewhat like this:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200332103 (When I used them the cheapest ones came from Lowes but any hardware store should have them.
They are strong, not wobbley, doesn't produce friction, ect. They will work great.

[Gemma W]

Our buggy goes too fast, and so it skids at the end. We were thinking about putting a spring at the end of the axle to slow it down. Any problems with that?

[Gemma W]

I would like to try the bolded one, with an adjustable front, so that the axles's parallel differenciation can be changed. I'm just curious as to whether I would be able to create a moveable axis and still be able to keep the axis the same throughout the distance in states?

If you have the right tilt (something like 11 degrees I think), you should be able to keep it the same for all distances, with varying angles at the starting dot. However, it is still a good idea to make it adjustable, especially since it is difficult to get it that precise.

Unless you mean that you want to make sure it doesn't change by accident, in which case you just have to make sure the connection or whatever is tight and won't move by itself.

[scifipi]

Yes, the following is nearly entirely my fault, but I'll share what I learned today at CLC (College of Lake County) regionals, as well as common sense.
1. DO NOT wait to build the battery buggy a day and a half before the competition like I managed to do
2. 3-wheeled cars are hard to put a braking system on
3. When working by yourself the night before, understand that the main goal is to get it to run. Don't worry about the braking first
4. Make sure you have all of the nessacary parts so at night time you're not freaking out to buy parts
5. It's not that hard to strip wire tips with small scissors

Regionals was super fun today at CLC! Too bad half of the time I was spent getting lost in that huge place...

[Gemma W]

There's nothing wrong with braking three wheeled cars - I have a car with three wheels, and it works perfectly. But the other things are good points. Especially 1.

[mnstrviola]

what is the pro's/con's between a 3-wheeled buggy and a 4-wheeled buggy? also, how many seconds should it take for it tor travel, say, 5 meters. I'm afraid ours might be too slow/fast.

[Gemma W]

Well, the good thing about a 3 wheeled buggy is that if you are tilting one axle and it only has one wheel, you dont have to worry about getting them lined up, its easier.

I dont know about five meters, but it should be about 3-6 sec. for eight meters.

[Gemma W]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but is it copyright violation to post the scoring rules on the wiki?