Brickthus Posted June 16, 2015 Posted June 16, 2015 My new monorail, which began with Masao Hidaka's idea on LEGO Ideas, now has faster trains and a larger layout. - The trains now use PF Train motors, 2 per train, with belt drives. This is a much simpler transmission than the previous trains that used gears. - The train bogies are of Technic construction. - Powered by PF LiPo battery with PF IR Receiver control, S-Brick compatible. - Flashing lights in proportion to speed. - Junction with PF Servo Motor and rack system. - Speed is now up to 0.95m/s averaged over 10 laps of the 12-metre circuit. Full details and discussion here (and scroll down) Mark Quote
PeterF Posted June 16, 2015 Posted June 16, 2015 Hi Mark, Great stuff! What would really sell it is a movie I think. Any plans? Quote
BusterHaus Posted June 17, 2015 Posted June 17, 2015 The curve of the track is beautiful. I'm glad you had pictures of how it is made. Any trouble with vibration breaking up the track? And do the trains ever get stuck? Quote
Brickthus Posted June 18, 2015 Author Posted June 18, 2015 Hi Mark, Great stuff! What would really sell it is a movie I think. Any plans? Yes, I was thinking about a movie. Hopefully better than my previous ones. I still have some more endurance testing to do first, just to make sure. The previous test of over 3km on one charge took over an hour to do, with no failures of track or train. I'm looking for a comparative figure for the realistic train; anything over 2km (50 minutes) would be good, and I'm hoping it will be over 30 minutes by a good margin. The curve of the track is beautiful. I'm glad you had pictures of how it is made. Any trouble with vibration breaking up the track? And do the trains ever get stuck? On the layout, where there are 4 concentric curves with supports equivalent to 1 per curved piece of railway track, the track is solid. On the helical tracks, with half as many supports, there is a bit of sagging between them but no failures in 3km (244 laps) of running. These could upgrade to be like the 4-curve corner. The straights are solid even up to 64M long. I haven't had a stuck train yet, except when going too fast on the right-angle crossing. On the 4-track junction the movement from one track to the next is really smooth, no more vibration than normal running on curves, even at full speed. Perhaps a bit more vibration when it is set straight, depending on alignment. With the junction there is an operational risk of running off the end of the siding if it is set wrong with the train at full speed! I used brick 1x2 with 2 holes, and 2 pegs to join the rails together, to improve long-term reliability. It gets rid of the potential track twist between pieces that can happen with a single-hole joining brick. The belt drives take up any vibration in the transmission so the motors have no problems. On the curves the passenger modules can rock from side to side. This is a function of their attachment by Technic pins to the bogies. If axles were used, or a 2x2 swivel area rather than 1x1, then this could be reduced. It has not caused any reliability problems though. The straight hills (not in the current layout) may need a bit more development. I made these more robust than Masao Hidaka's original design, but with that comes more depth where the slope changes. They still use clip plates at the moment, with limited grip, so I could improve that by using Technic pins. I found so far that the hills are more likely to break with handling than with train movements! Mark Quote
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