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Has anyone experimented with neodymium track magnets? Not sure if they would be too strong or really hard to mount.

Lots of people have tried it, they're really expensive, and I don't believe it's shown much benefit. If you need more force from the track the first thing to do is switch from strip magnets to the recetangular ceramic magnets.

Nevin2e wrote:

iwonder wrote:And the vehicle is just about as wide(less than 1/4" gap) as the track?

yup.

1/4" gap is WAY too wide. With good, parallel side rails, you should be able to run side clearance on the order of the thickness of a sheet of paper- a few thousandths of an inch

Another thing to look at when tipping is a problem is how much separation there is betwen the magnets on the car and the magnets on the track. The more separation you have, the more likely you will have problems with tipping. You can reduce this by adding weight but be careful you don't lower your vehicle score. Once you have your motor/prop selected and your car completed, you should optimize the weight to maximize your vehicle score.

BTW, at 1/4 inch separation between the car and the side-walls, I'd be surprised if you were seeing anything more than a few inches of movement before the car tipped.

FawnOnyx wrote:Has anyone experimented with neodymium track magnets? Not sure if they would be too strong or really hard to mount.

We haven't but we have competed against several teams that did. Some did well and others didn't. There was a 3kg behemoth last week at states that utilized neodymium magnets on its track.
I priced them but, alas, my pockets weren't near deep enough.

iwonder wrote:Lots of people have tried it, they're really expensive, and I don't believe it's shown much benefit. If you need more force from the track the first thing to do is switch from strip magnets to the recetangular ceramic magnets.

Well we're already using the 100 pack of small rectangular ceramics from Pitsco but those could only support a 700g vehicle. If I were to stick with ceramic, the natural next step would be to increase thickness or cover the whole bottom of the track, but I wasn't sure if that would support a future vehicle in the >2kg range.

I don't know if you're making plans for this year of for next, but if it is for next year, don't go preemtively buying expensive materials for your track; the rules might change such that whatever you bought is useless (And frankly, I hope they do...right now, in my opinion, MagLev, at least for NY, has become very money-based; the best cars and tracks are prooving to be quite expensive.)

Also, unless I am mistaken, Neodymium is a rare earth magnet, which makes it illegal (I think. Haven't read my rules in a while).

Well if you can only support a 700g vehicle then something's wrong... I can support a 850 gram vehicle(probably more) with strip magnets...

Edit: oh, wait... You should have the whole bottom of the track covered in magnets, that's probably the main problem.

iwonder wrote:Well if you can only support a 700g vehicle then something's wrong... I can support a 850 gram vehicle(probably more) with strip magnets...

Edit: oh, wait... You should have the whole bottom of the track covered in magnets, that's probably the main problem.

I can support well over a kg with strip magnets on the track and ceramic on the car with magnets only running the usual 2 strips on the track

Is there a reason that most tracks sold commercially have different poles facing up on each strip? It seems pointless to have the vehicle be non-reversible. Does it have to do with some kind of interference going on?