Controller
Information
Information previously found on the
news page
New Controller Circuit
English slot car racer
Paul Bucknell with help from Chris Frost has developed a controller
circuit which uses a single transistor instead of the commonly used
darlington pair type (MJ11015).
The advantage is the much reduced voltage drop between the last band of
the controller and full power.
A side benefit is that his new circuit requires a wiper board with a
total resistance of 25 to 35 ohms.
A Parma Plus controller with a 35 ohm resistor appears to make a good
handle (no wiper board to find, no hardware to build and the number of
turns on the resistor gives the effect of a many band board).
The articles linked below explain fully.
The Pitlane guys want to build a couple of these but the required
transistor MJ14003 is difficult to source in New Zealand. They are
available by special indent from Farnell in One
(www.farnellinone.co.nz). If you are interested in building one of these
controllers and want to cut the cost of the transistor contact the
Pitlane Club (see clubs page) as they have a number of transistors
on hand.
Since this article was published Kevin Gibbins has been in contact to
let us know that he has being using an equivalent transistor the
nte30
successfully for some time. This transistor is available directly from
the American supplier (www.nteinc.com).
Kevin previously raced with the Christchurch Club and is now a member of the
Wellington Slot Car Club.
Update
Paul Bucknell recently emailed the following
information:-
You may be interested
to know that I’ve now found an alternative transistor that looks the
part. It will take slightly less current than the
MJ14003 I specified in the article (50amps instead of 60) but is
still plenty big enough for the job. The transistor number is
2N5684 and seems to be more commonly
available in the UK than the MJ14003. It might therefore be easier to
get hold of in New Zealand. I’ll be updating the article when I get a
minute, but thought I’d drop you this line anyway just to keep you up to
date.
SCD Controller Page
ABSlotSports Controller
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