MagLev C [Trial]

[Pi_Lord]

This may sound dumb, but a 7.4 V hobby aircraft battery works right? We are buying it online and this type of battery is considered commercial, right? I only saw it mentioned once.

yes it should be legal. Just be sure that it is light and small enough RC batteries can get heavy. I recomend you to use LiPo.

[Pi_Lord]

What are the polarities of the Pitsco track? We have a Kelvin track but states uses a pitsco. please help!!

[baker]

Why not just announce which direction the vechicles will travel? (i.e. 'right side north') This would minimize set up time. From what I see there are approx 9 teams per hour to compete. If each team uses 10 minutes, that's 90 minutes, if two tracks are used..that is still 45 minutes and then there is still 20 to 30 minutes for the test. That all fits in an hour? Hope nobody has to run up to Horan-O'Donnell afterwards.

Just to clarify....We will start the test immediately upon entering the time slot. We will then call up two teams at a time for their allotted time and they will then continue to take the test once the car is done. The entire event should take around 45 minutes start to finish.

In regard to track width and direction, I do not feel that it is fair to release information ahead of time.
If built correctly, teams should be able to adjust both the width and direction of their car with plenty of time to spare.
We did not run into any complications at regionals and I would expect cars to be the same or better at states.

Event was very well ran. If that was you, Coach Marz, you did a fine job keeping the event moving smoothly and you worked very well with the students. All that I saw walked away happy. Just one question, What was that "Turbo9000" thing towards the end of the day. That thing pull the sled and everybodies attention in, I don't know maybe .2 seconds.... Was that Ward Mellville?

[pjgscioisamazing]

Baker, that wasn't Ward Melville's car... while we got 1st, I don't think we were the fastest time. Can you clarify that Coach Marz? Thanks!

And yeah, amazing job with the event Coach Marz, it was ran so smoothly and efficiently! Thank you!

[JTMess]

If you don't mind sharing, what time did Ward's car get? Ours (Plattsburgh) performed decently, although we ended up in fourteenth, likely due to a large error in our time prediction.

[JTMess]

Haha sorry for asking without looking, I just found the times online. If anyone else is interested, here they are:
http://www.newyorkscioly.org/SOPages/cstate2012.html

[Flavorflav]

Mostly for the Chalkers, if this does indeed become a full event: IMO the "no intentional contact" rule is potentially a headache. Everybody is likely to brush the sides, and the fastest cars are also likely to contact the bottom of the track - try too hard to avoid it and the vehicle becomes airborne. The New York clarification of 1/5 addresses this pretty well by defining "intentional contact" as stationary contact. You might add the "no wheels" clause discussed earlier, but I don't see any way to reliably enforce a "no intentional contact" rule. Perhaps this?

3.l. The vehicle must be fully levitated at rest, and must not include any wheels, rollers or movable belts along either side or on the bottom of the vehicle.

The last clause could be replaced with "which could reasonably be expected to contact the sides or bottom of the track."

[chalker]

Mostly for the Chalkers, if this does indeed become a full event: IMO the "no intentional contact" rule is potentially a headache. Everybody is likely to brush the sides, and the fastest cars are also likely to contact the bottom of the track - try too hard to avoid it and the vehicle becomes airborne. The New York clarification of 1/5 addresses this pretty well by defining "intentional contact" as stationary contact. You might add the "no wheels" clause discussed earlier, but I don't see any way to reliably enforce a "no intentional contact" rule. Perhaps this?

3.l. The vehicle must be fully levitated at rest, and must not include any wheels, rollers or movable belts along either side or on the bottom of the vehicle.

The last clause could be replaced with "which could reasonably be expected to contact the sides or bottom of the track."

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll pass them along.

[Coach Marz]

Justed wanted to congratulate everyone who competed at states. It is nice to hear that you had a good time and feel that the event was run well. The website lists the top run time and top test score.

Congratulations to Fayetteville and Ward Melville for making it to Nationals. I am impressed more and more each year with your results and it pushes the rest of us to work even harder.

[slyguy26]

Hey guys, I just wanted to know if anyone knew anything about how the test will be for MagLev at nationals. Do you think that integrals would be a must know?