Hi All,

I have today laid the second colour on the body of the "Funny Car".

Got a few small paint bleed points that will need sorting, but I think the bottom White colour needs a second coat anyway so should be able to kill two birds with one stone.

Pic attached below:


Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Great Idea Derek a bit of a sparky now mate its going to be so cool loving the colour aswell


Regards Phil

Nice work Derek.

Might not be a sparky, but the word on the street is that East Midlands electricity grid is showing spikes at certain times of the day.

Mark

Looking good mate.

Thanks Ken / Tony for looking in and your comments.

@Tony

In the immortal words of Hercule Poirot "The little grey cells" have been working overtime and not always correctly. This is a "developing as it goes along build". The timers being a case in point, as I had the choice of a bank of switches to get everything working when needed, or have one switch to turn the power on and let the timers do the rest. The pic below shows how even on paper sometimes things don`t work and a new line of thought is needed. (Hence all the crossing out )

I`m now working on an idea to get the other vehicle to do something during the time it takes the smoke generators to start on the first car. So, I`m now waiting for more deliveries and when they arrive I`ll get another test bed set up.

Until next time....


Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

This is just such a fun project. It's going to be great.

Hi All,

Well as promised, when the parts arrive then so will an update.

First, for those that don`t know how drag racing works, a short explanation of the starting process as this update is all about the section of the dio that deals with start preparation of one of the cars.

Ok, there is a set of lights on what is called a "Christmas Tree", you`ll see why.

The line up of the two cars at the start is as near millimetre perfect from one to the other, all set by sensors.

As a car approaches the start line (working from top to bottom of the tree)this happens:

1:Close to start line Yellow pre-stage lights come on

2:On the start line Yellow stage lights come on as well

3:With both cars in stage, three larger yellow lights very quickly light up in descending sequence. This is all the time the drivers get to react too....

4: Each driver gets a Green light and then its pedal to the metal and GO.

5: If a driver pre-empts the green light and goes a split second early they get the Red light and are disqualified.

Reaction times to the Green light are what wins races and are timed down the three decimal places of a second.

Anyway for the purposes of this dio I am covering the first two steps. Pre-stage and Stage.


The longer pro-fuel car when the power comes on (the only time I will touch this dio) will be in the Pre-stage position with the relevant lights on. After a short delay it will move forward (via electro-magnet) into the Stage position and the Stage lights will come on.

It is this last bit of info that this update is about and it revolves around some accurate measurements and building.

Description of the pic attached below:

The electro magnet when powered will drag the car forward about 3-4 millimetres,
where a micro magnet fixed to the bottom of the car will operate a reed switch fitted into the road surface. When the reed switch operates it will switch on the stage lights. The micro magnet is initially to far from the reed switch to operate it, but as the car moves forward it comes into range and switches on the stage lights.


Apologies if that`s a bit drawn out, but without some explanation the picture will make zero sense.


After the above and a short delay, when the smoke generators start up the electric motor on the second car will start up and spin the rear wheels. After a short burnout time on the second car the whole dio will shut down automatically and reset itself. That will stop the smoke generators running out of smoke oil and the electro-magnet overheating.

Now I hope that makes sense.

I`m now off for a lay-down.

Lots of measuring and base building to do and a small bank of electrics to put in some order.

Take care all.


Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Apologies Tony,

Thanks for looking in.

Not my intention to make it sound complicated. Its all a case of knowing what I want the dio to do and timing it to happen in the right order. The timer circuits are there to delay things from happening to early.

Using a timer means I don`t have to manually switch something on. Without the timers I would have a bank of 6 - 8 switches to operate. The way I have set this up all I have to do is plug in the transformer (12volt) and switch on the power.
After that the circuitry does the rest.


Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

You've really got those grey cells working Derek. I can really see you are getting totally immersed in this project.

Mark

Ok Folks,

Here is the next circuit test.

I`ve shown it in three pics as a video would be about 3 - 5 seconds long. It will be a bit longer on the full dio thanks to a delay circuit.

In a drag race Pre-Stage lights come first, then the Stage lights.


So:

Pic 1: No power connected. All lights off.

Pic 2: Power On. Car shows as in Pre-Stage (lights on).

Pic 3: After a short delay, car moves forward a bit and the Stage lights come on. Simulated for this Pic.



Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)