Australian Slot Car Racers Association

With the revival of Thunderbirds King I was wondering what set up people are using on King tracks these days.

Got a bit confused looking at the Rivergate site where it states not to use the Bulldog supplies (I presume on the high voltage setting), with batteries.

Looks like 24v capacitors are also connected in parallel with the supply. What uf is the minimum?

HI Dennis
Here i Have 4 X 55 amp bulldog supplies connected to 4 N200 Batteries
have two 1Farad Caps in parallel race power here is now 13.6 volts it was 14.2 volts had no issue with 14.2 but as we learned more about what makes good track power the cars were as fast on 13.6 as they used to be on 14.2 and the racing was much better
If you have multiple supplies and batteries in parallel you need to have all supplies working to to within 1/100th of a volt if not a supply will just sit there doing nothing with another one caring all the load
the bulldogs have an output adjustment screw on them next to the fan it is very sensitive to adjustment
If the track has a buss bar under the drivers panel Connect each Battery to it individually(on the positive side ) and each supply to one battery only the Negative side to a Earth or return buss bar. The caps can connect to Positive buss barr and the negative buss bar they don't need to be close the the buss bars mine are to different places about 8 FT from the buss bar seems to create smoother cleaner power

If you have 2 rivergates would it not be better to split, 1 on 4 lanes and 1 for the other 4. A common negative should not be an issue.

I would never attempt to balance the power supplies as I expect the complexities to maintain and the impacts of drift in would be an ongoing problem.

You could even do something smart and have the 4 outside lanes .1V lower.

lindsayb wrote:If you have 2 rivergates would it not be better to split, 1 on 4 lanes and 1 for the other 4. A common negative should not be an issue.

I would never attempt to balance the power supplies as I expect the complexities to maintain and the impacts of drift in would be an ongoing problem.

You could even do something smart and have the 4 outside lanes .1V lower.

Now that is SMART

Thanks for the info guys.

Looks like the track will initially have 2 supplies, probably connected to 4 lanes each and no caps or batteries.

Evidently Mobile Raceways have removed the caps in their King supply.

Down the track, IF there is a major event (Adam Miller/ Nationals etc) then some upgrades will be considered.

Of further interest, I heard yesterday that one of the 1/32nd tracks in the centre might be replaced with a new 6 lane track with a layout similar to a small King.

Dennis i can to you from practical experience that with no caps on rivergates the power is not clean enough and if you have no batteries the power will be even less clean as the batteries act as storage for the power and they also filter AC just as caps do
Here when i changed the power system to use the buss bar system i diidn't have the caps on it at first then i hooked up the the caps to find that the cars now sounded much crisper and lap times dropped over 1/10 second they also help to reduce back emf and this will help keep coms cleaner
As for the spilt system not my cup of tea if you a have a issue with one side racers on that side will only be effected if the problem is rectified during the race this is unfair better to have all racers effected for the same amount of time
Caps are not that expensive 1 farad caps will set you back about $100 each

Thanks again Carl/guys for the info. Will relay it.

It will be interesting to see what "Satin" paving paint grips like, looks silky smooth on the track.