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Hello.

After watching

video there was some discussion in my LUG that led me to try to achieve the same with Power Functions train motor and train tracks instead of 9V and a SBrick instead of the train speed controller. It worked but was ugly so someone suggested using strong magnets to conceal the train under the road.

So after some tries I made got proof of concept:

On the Speed Champions Porsche I'me using 4 neodymium 5mm magnets ("nanodots" brand) that fit very nicely in the technic plates holes.

On the Power Functions train I'm using two 6x3 average magnets

With just 2 neodymium magnets I also achieved a nice effect with a small 3-in1 Creator car;

Before buying the neodymium I tried with small magnetic dishes (2x2, 1 plate high):

It's enough for the Creator car but not enough for the Speed Champions.

And the ugly concept that triggered this idea:

(using an old 9V battery box as it is smaller than the Power Functions LiPo)

Edited by MajorAlvega

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This is a really cool idea! Maybe you could build something like houses and a road and the train underneath. :classic:

I´m quite new to this forum so i really wonder how did you put those videos inside your post. If anyone could tell me how to do it that would be great!

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Just write the link from your youtube video but with http:// instead of httpS:// and then surround it with [ media ] and [ /media ] tags (without blank spaces between the brackets and the media or /media words)

My LUG would love to use this idea with a modular racing road they are discussing right now (MPL) , someone called it "Animatronics MPL". But would need lots of bricks.

I might try just a small kartodrome with few surrowdings and one or two of the small karts one our members posted there. But need to double everything under the floor, that's also quite expensive.

Edited by MajorAlvega

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Thanks a lot for the help. Now I could finally embedd my video in the topic ´´Lego tourbillon clock´´ ,feel free to go ahead and read it.

There is probaly a much easier way to make this magnetic steering. Just go and buy some copper wire and tape i under the the baseplate. Then attach the motors to the car itself. JK brickworks has a really good video about this.

(follow the link)

This way you can have many cars racing at the same time and the sound of the train would be eliminated. :classic:

Edited by Olof

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Yes, we're aware of that method. But you need the motor + the battery + at least a power switch in the car. Fine for a bus or medium-size car but impossible for small cars, even with an old 9V micro-motor - the smallest battery alone (the old 9V) has at least the same size of the Creator car I used on the second video.

I can use a small 90 mAh LiPo battery and a micro-motor but will offend half LEGO world :)

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You could always use the wind-up motors, the are very space economic but maybe they aren´t really up to the task. if you really have to have small cars the solution with a train and rails seems to work the best.

Maybe you could have electricity running thru a copper wire underneath the road and a magnet in the car. This would be something like the Maglev-trains except for that that it wouldn´t levitate. Maybe this is way too complicated because it would reciure the wire to be hooked up to some kind of battery.

In Legoland (Billund, Denmark) they have fairly small guided cars, maybe you could search the web to see how they have done it. :classic:

Edited by Olof

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I saw a similar concept using lego treads to move a vehicle under a street, I wonder if it is possible to use old lego train magnets to perform the same action.

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I thought of that too... probably yes but only for small cars and/or small speeds. I needed strong magnets to keep the Speed Champions Porsche «linked» to the underground train at full speed.

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I have seen something like that here on eurobricks on a smaller scale for a merry-go-round

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Yes, I know magnetism isn't new at eurobricks.

But I think my proof of concept has something new: it is remote controlled - you can control the speed of the car, like with Scalextric cars. So if you build two train tracks under the baseplates and use two train motors you can make a real car race, like in the original Ppung Daddy idea. You don't even need a closed circuit: you can make a relay race, with several players in each team and just a long road.

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I've tried this som years ago. First i used lego train to make a smart car go arround in an Car washing system at LEGOWORLD 2011. (

)

I renewed the system and integrated an NXT in every car. Itgave me the possibility of connecting multiple cars. I made a system where 2 cars drives a "8" (circle with a cross) and stops and wait at each other at the cross.

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is could run the truck as fast as my tracklayout allowed. Biggest problem was the truck would drift in fast turns. :grin:

Yes, same drifting problem here. Had to put magnets in two different positions of the car to prevent it spinning around itself or «baseplateplanning» at turns. I was planning doing a kartodrome pretty much the same way you did in the video you posted but I'm lacking road baseplates.

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The drifting wasn't a problem for me, unless it drives at ridiculous speed. if you scale up the truck, it ran faster than a truck speed limit.

in prototype i'm working at different tracksystems. i'm still using the "momorail"-guideline, but im trying to make a solution for a shifting track. Making it possible to drive different courses.

one of my goals is making a bus which stops pickning up passangers, while a regular car overtakes it. :)

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11 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Totally cool! :wub_drool:

Seriously? Surely you've been here long enough to know not to necro ancient threads.

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That is a pretty neat product! I do have a hard time believing that the tracks on the snow groomer would be rotating with that level of friction under them, though!

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