Mousetrap Vehicle C

[packer-backer91]

That's awesome. Do any of you guys use sighting devices? I have no idea how they work or if they're useful but I really need to improve my distance score...

while having a rifle scope looks really good for a vehicle, often they are heavy and easily jostled become inaccurate if bumped, its not hard to come up with your own sight, to be honest the scope we used last year was 1/10 the price 1/20 the weight and had some of the most precise results that I had in Science Olympiad. Has anyone gotten under 8 seconds yet? I know that a bunch of people are saying that have 10 so its only a matter of time before sub 8 will be happening more frequently.

[bwy]

while having a rifle scope looks really good for a vehicle, often they are heavy and easily jostled become inaccurate if bumped, its not hard to come up with your own sight, to be honest the scope we used last year was 1/10 the price 1/20 the weight and had some of the most precise results that I had in Science Olympiad. Has anyone gotten under 8 seconds yet? I know that a bunch of people are saying that have 10 so its only a matter of time before sub 8 will be happening more frequently.

about the rifle scope, that's what I was thinking, and I've never seen anyone with something that crazy. would a wooden dowel strapped to the side of the car work instead?
my vehicle can only go down to 8.35s, but on the plus side, it's much more accurate than before (<10 cm)

[illusionist]

while having a rifle scope looks really good for a vehicle, often they are heavy and easily jostled become inaccurate if bumped, its not hard to come up with your own sight, to be honest the scope we used last year was 1/10 the price 1/20 the weight and had some of the most precise results that I had in Science Olympiad. Has anyone gotten under 8 seconds yet? I know that a bunch of people are saying that have 10 so its only a matter of time before sub 8 will be happening more frequently.

about the rifle scope, that's what I was thinking, and I've never seen anyone with something that crazy. would a wooden dowel strapped to the side of the car work instead?
my vehicle can only go down to 8.35s, but on the plus side, it's much more accurate than before (<10 cm)

From my experience, it should work just fine. Just make sure that you account for the off center location of the dowel (compared to the center of the vehicle).

[Paradox21]

That's awesome. Do any of you guys use sighting devices? I have no idea how they work or if they're useful but I really need to improve my distance score...

while having a rifle scope looks really good for a vehicle, often they are heavy and easily jostled become inaccurate if bumped, its not hard to come up with your own sight, to be honest the scope we used last year was 1/10 the price 1/20 the weight and had some of the most precise results that I had in Science Olympiad. Has anyone gotten under 8 seconds yet? I know that a bunch of people are saying that have 10 so its only a matter of time before sub 8 will be happening more frequently.

You would never get a competitive vehicle if you had a vehicletravel WITH a rifle scope. It is just a matter of making a rig to go around your vehicle that has the rifle scope on it. Then the rig comes away without bumping or jostling the vehicle in any way. No added weight, very accurate alignment.

[austinfhs]

I've never used a sighting device, however, I'm thinking about making a rig as previously suggested to correctly position my vehicle. We're allowed to bring whatever we would like as a rig, set up the vehicle, and touch the track during the 10 minutes they give us, correct? There is no impound this year, so I think we're allowed to bring whatever we would like, right?

Anyway I'm getting a bit nervous about my stats on my vehicle already, haha ... To increase torque and acceleration, we make the drive axle thicker right?

[illusionist]

I've never used a sighting device, however, I'm thinking about making a rig as previously suggested to correctly position my vehicle. We're allowed to bring whatever we would like as a rig, set up the vehicle, and touch the track during the 10 minutes they give us, correct? There is no impound this year, so I think we're allowed to bring whatever we would like, right?

Anyway I'm getting a bit nervous about my stats on my vehicle already, haha ... To increase torque and acceleration, we make the drive axle thicker right?

That is correct. Make the axle thicker (you may have to adjust the length of the string, but the number of turns to travel the distance will still be the same). One way, as suggested above, is to wrap the axle with tape. This works exceptionally well... I took 10 seconds off my time using this method!

[austinfhs]

That is correct. Make the axle thicker (you may have to adjust the length of the string, but the number of turns to travel the distance will still be the same). One way, as suggested above, is to wrap the axle with tape. This works exceptionally well... I took 10 seconds off my time using this method!

Yeah, I was planning to wrap my axle with some duct tape, and adjusting won't be a problem, since I'm building a new vehicle. However, will duct tape compress after many uses and then begin to change the number of wraps you'll have to do?

On a side note, what's your time now? I'm really hoping to get down to 8 seconds or less, especially by cutting down the weight (I was at almost 1lb on my first vehicle).

[illusionist]

I doubt the slight compression will have much of an effect on your vehicle.
To be honest, my time is still pretty bad. I'm getting 9.7 seconds now. My vehicle weighs 254 grams. I guess I'll have to try an even thicker axle and see how that works out. Plus this is my first vehicle, so maybe I'll build another one so that I won't have to worry about adjusting the string... (you can reuse the same chassis/body)

[austinfhs]

My vehicle weighed about 380 grams and I was getting around 12 seconds :\ At least it was accurate, so I still got a score of about -5. Hmm, maybe if I can drop the weight to 250 grams like yours then I can get to 9-10 seconds. I would be perfectly happy with that. I have plenty of string to spare, so I think adding a thicker axle would help a lot.

[illusionist]

Yeah, go for it. Try using hollow axles too (except if you're using a threaded rod). My vehicle is pretty accurate, still needs work. I'm right on the line with the cup, but I'm about 2cm away from the (-)4 meter line