pit lane mini rc charger

[flatlander_14]

i originally posted this in the mrcc forum abouta 24 hour leman's track. the idea is that you never have to pick up your zip or bit or whatever, you just drive it into pit lane and let it charge there for a few minutes. the blue and red things represent wires, they will pop out just a little bit and should be flexible so that they dont interfere with getting the car off of the charger. heres my (very) sketchy doodle

[d00kie]

WOW, looks possible. Some suggestions of mine.

As the car enters the pit lane, have guide rails guide it onto the charging contacts. Sorta like a V shaped lane; the car enters the top of the V and the charging contacts is at the bottom of the V.

Have tiny speedbumps before the car drops into the pothole for charging. That way the car will slow down so it doesn't just run over the potholes.

I'm no circuit expert but maybe we could have a LED bulb to show that contact has been made. A timer would be nice too.

[flatlander_14]

yeah, i forgot to mention a V-thing to guide it onto the charge points, its an easy obstacle to overcome so it slipped my mind. i wouldnt do speedbumps because as soon as it goes up then a wheel dips into the slots, it will be left with the wheels off the ground and the chassis dragging ont he top of the bump. the LED bulb would be simple, wire it so that the LED and the charge leads are both on the same power source(be it 4AA or AC charger...) much like when you do the direct charge mod to a zipzap controller it will turn off the LED and that means it is charging. the timer could be a 90second limiting thing(sorry, forgot the name) kind of like the one you replace in a controller as suggested on www.questformadness.com as soon as the led turns back on i think that would be the cue to go