Electric Pig Race?

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Teeeman
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by Teeeman »

An Estes D motor in a most impolite assembly to Mr. Piggie?

:)

Up the power, stronger (faster) motor... lube everything... increase traction of Mr. Piggie's feet...

sidewinders fired from his back at other piggies...

any rule against defeating the 'non propulsive' piggie functions to better utilize all power from the motor?


-T
"I dunno..." - Uncle Eddie, Christmas Vacation
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GravityRacer
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by GravityRacer »

If you are not too limited on weight, I know where you can get some tungsten to move the cg lower on your new turbocharged pig.
TAL
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by TAL »

As already stated I would also consider putting grip tape or something on bottom the feet, along with maybe trying some extra weight in the feet to keep him bottom heavy.
Mike Doyle
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by Mike Doyle »

Here's a little piggy update: today we carefully stripped off the "skin" and seperated the two main halves to study the mechanism.

It's pretty ingenius how they implemented the walking & oinking + tail wagging functions totally mechanically with a built in pause. The secret is a split gear with a small triangular ramp that spreads to engage a separate part of the drivetrain after so many revolutions.

I trimmed off that ramp so all we have now is a walking pig that doesn't stop to oink & wag his tail. That alone should save precious time in the race.

Next up we plan to build a custom battery pack using 6 AA's instead of the 2 C's that fit in the stock box. That will increase our voltage to 9v up from 3v and should yield a nice speed increase without over-stressing the system.

We'll test and report back. I'm also planning to add small rubber "hooves" using those soft conical rubber bumpers from the hardware store. I think mounting them slightly angled from the vertical plane on each foot will yield a better stride for the pig and slightly increased stability.

I'm also planning to "sipe" them which is a micro grooving process common to off road tires to increase their grip.

All in all it's a fun little project and I can't wait to see how it runs.

One other thought I had- stacking multiple 2032 lithium batteries in place of the two C's. Those are two expensive to buy 20 of and I'm worried after investing that much that they wouldn't last very long, but it would fit and yield a voltage multiplication beyond 6 AA's.
Mike Doyle
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by Mike Doyle »

Here's an update on the pig project: today I picked up some small conical shaped rubber bumpers that are the same ones you'd see on a car's glovebox door. I mounted them to the feet like hooves and gave the pig a test run.

Instead of moving forward, he pretty much jogged in place since the rear legs only stride forward and backward without any vertical component. I tried it again without the rear hooves and he walked backwards!

After a few more tries with new locations, I finally settled on a forward "cat's claw-like" location on the front feet only. Now he really moves well.

Next up is a custom battery pack and heavy gauge wire for the motor & switch wiring harness.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by Darin McGrew »

Thanks for keeping us posted. This sounds like such a cool project!
Mike Doyle
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Re: Electric Pig Race?

Post by Mike Doyle »

Well the race was today and there was a little confusion about the rules which were pretty sparse to begin with.

Apparently the rubber claws I'd attached to the front feet had to be removed since there weren't any on the rear feet. One rule stated what you did to one foot, you had to do to all of them.

In the process, some adjustment was lost and when the pig raced, he did a large U-turn (albet a quick one).

He did win for "Best School Spirit" and my Son had fun which was the whole point.

Just wanted to close out the thread, thanks for all the input guys.
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