Track tape for a roadcourse

[btaylor]

Good thinking Joe! I wish i had done that on my back straight! it was a job to do only two lanes, but four tapings on that 12ft back wall. Quite a reach, and very rough on the back!. I did all my track by hand, it came out to 220 ft of tape.
A double taping tool would be pretty cool if you can make it work.
Bob

[bobbyraz49]

I suggest buying copper tape at Hobby Lobby. Look for a 40% off coupon on-line or use a cell phone to find the coupon and then display at the register.
If you need more than 1 roll....buy on another trip to Hobby Lobby.

P.S. I hope there is one near you !!!

[RichD]

I have some pro type duct tape, it is not the same thing as the usual cloth duct tape and it REALLY sticks. If you needed to pull it up your paint would come with it. It never hurts to have extra taps, if it was me I would put them where there are joints in the track surface. Tape is more likely to break at a joint in any case. If you you have a 50-60 foot track with only one set of taps and no breaks in the tape the voltage drop at the far end of the track will be minimal, probably less than half a volt. Based on my personal experience it probably is not a great idea to try to do two rolls at once, if you try it let us know how that worked out.

[slothead]

I bought 2 rolls of copper tape and could have started taping but am still adjusting elevations and planning touch ups on the track paint now that I can see imperfections.

BUT, was just wondering if conductive paint might be worth experimenting with? It might require more power taps but could be fun to try on a test section. Anyone tried anything like this or got an opinion? I see Radio Shack has pens with conductive ink.

Slothead

[dreinecke]

I used speaker wire with no issues. I also did no taps... Never have and my track is almost 90 feet long.

[slothead]

David

You used speaker wire for the leads from the power supply to the controllers, and then to the track, but don't have any power taps at all around the track? I was planning on using speaker wire as I have plenty on hand, but even with continuous taping across section joints I thought power taps (jumpers) would be needed.

Perhaps my plan to put a relay at each corner of the table to feed 10 power taps in excessive, but I would think a few would make sense. Even if just at the front, back, left, and right end of the track.

Also, if I can get out of work in time to get to Radio Shack today I'm going to get a marker with conductive ink and try to draw rails in on a scrap piece of MDF I used to practice routing. I'll connect a battery to the ink rails and see if a car actually runs. Since the pens are expensive (around $23) this doesn't seem like a viable option to tape or braid, but should be an interesting experiment.

Slothead

[btaylor]

I am only running one power tap as well on both my tracks, one is 55ft. Before i went to a variable power supply with enough amperage, i experienced power drop at the farthest end of the tracks away from the tap. but when i provided 2 amps to the lanes each, i never have power loss anymore. It sure simplified the wiring,and the variable is nice for the various car and motor classes.
Bob

[RichD]

I have used conductive ink to fix breaks in copper tape, it is good for that. The conductive part of conductive ink is silver, so the ink is very expensive. It would cost thousands of dollars to do a whole track with conductive ink. Probably the ink would quickly get rubbed off, especially in places where there are a lot of crashes. The company that I worked for made conductive ink and I worked on that for a time. Computer keyboards have silver ink inside, the ink is silk screened onto Mylar sheets to make the circuits.

[slothead]

i got a tube of conductive ink at Radio Shack and tried it on a 3 foot piece of scrap MDF - couldn't get a car to move using either a 9V battery or a 13.8 volt power supply. I wanted to check the voltage with my meter but the batteries in it had leaked and it wouldn't work.

The tube of 'Bare' conductive paint was about half the size of a tube of modeling glue and cost $9.99. Plus, it only has a 6 month shelf life and with no date on the package mine was probably dead when I bought it. I enjoyed doing the test but it is totally impractical. If it had worked, and the paint came in gray, I'd consider using the rest of what I have in the pit area for a lane to drive cars out onto the track.

Slothead

[RichD]

Conductive ink does not have an infinite shelf life. I was working on it because there was a problem with it wanting to gel in the can. I was wondering how you connected the ink to your battery. In any case the ink would not be able to carry much current.

[slothead]

I routed a slot in the MDF and used copper tape for about the first 2 inches, the went the rest of the 3 feet with conductive paint. I wrapped the tape over the edge of the MDF and put screws through it, then connected the power supply to the screws with wire. The paint overlapped the tape by about 1/2 inch.

The cars I tried ran on the tape (full power) but not on the paint. When I pushed the cars they seemed to move easier when the power was on as though some current was getting through, but not enough to turn the motor.

If it had worked I was going to use that strip to test my AC2Car setup to power the track with an AC train transformer, but now I'll route another slot on the back side and use copper tape.

Slothead