Faller car system - in LEGO

[F0NIX]

Has anyone tried to make an "Faller car system" in LEGO?

Like this one:

Here is a simple explanation on how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eagvbT0tTjY

I was thinking of only adding one non-LEGO element: a metal string under the road plates. And then using a train magnet attached to the steering mechanism somehow.

Then there is the challenge to find a small enough motor and battery box to make a really small motorized car in LEGO :)

I will at least try to experiment on this with LEGO-parts...

[JopieK]

I have tried it, LEGO is not suitable for it...

[Rob Klingberg]

JopieK, can you provide more details about what you tried and what, specifically, did not work? I have been thinking about creating a city that would use the actual Faller system elements. Seems like all the base elements should work: motor (PF, in vehicle), battery (PF, in vehicle), magnetic switch (custom), steering arm with rare earth magnet on tip, magnetic wire under baseplates (use Faller wire), electromagnet under baseplate (Faller, would need to be installed in a raised installation or under a table), and voila. The only issues I could imagine (not having tested it of course) would be magnetic adhesion (could likely be solved with a stronger magnet) or turning radius of vehicles (not sure of how to design around this were it to be an issue).

Would be interested to hear what challenges you encountered, as again the Faller product is an amazing and very feature-rich system (though definitely not cheap!).

--Rob

[Modulex Guy]

The problem with the faller system to be adapted to LEGO is that the LEGO cars would probably be way to heavy for the small car system to work with, these cars are HO scale and only weigh a few ounces, a LEGO car is more than that. Also to modify the HO system to a LEGO car would be a very tough task and would be more hassle than it is worth.

[Hoexbroe]

I think it is a good idea to at least consider the posibilities, and maybe make a couple of trials to see if the concept could work.

Indeed the Faller stuff would be too weak and fragile for this use, but the IDEA of attaching a metal guide with tape under the road base-plates might work!

I would definatly try it out, alas I dont have any motor to try with...

Judging from the model railroad layouts which uses the system, a heavy wear-and-tear of the road baseplates must be expected, especially as the system allowes the magnet-guide of the vehicles to friction against the road. Pretty soon your baseplates will have huge marks from this.

But if you are willing to pay the price of writing off your baseplates, and do some experimenting to find a suitable metal guide and strong magnet, I think the basic idea of the system should work...

[AllanSmith]

You could use this system under roadplates.

I am currently experimenting with using slot car track (I have 1:64 Scaletrix Micro and 1:43 Carrera Go)

The Carrera Go looks to be a good size to fit on top of the road plates.

[AussieJimbo]

Nice job with the dodgems, Allan. That would certainly provide a workable solution.

As far as Faller System is concerned I'd love to see that. I think Polish Guy is correct in pointing out the weight differences involved.

Perhaps what we would need to do is bump it up a notch to include power steering. Rather than relying on the magnet to steer the vehicle which might not be strong enough to deal with weight and inertia of a Lego vehicle, it might instead need to be used to simply detect the path and rely on a stronger motorised mechanism to drive the steering.

Hard to do in Lego but I've seen a few posts on EB about using Arduino micro-controllers, this might be a good way to deal with the problem. You could do away with the mechanical tracking completely and replace it with electromagnetic sensors attached to the micro-controller. You could probably make this compatible with the clever little faller traffic light and switching mechanisms too.

:classic:

Edited July 4, 2011 by AussieJimbo

[Hoexbroe]

I am currently experimenting with using slot car track (I have 1:64 Scaletrix Micro and 1:43 Carrera Go)

The Carrera Go looks to be a good size to fit on top of the road plates.

Now that you mention this, I cant help thinking of this other product;

Here in Spain Scalextric offers this (Spanish Scalextric known as SCX in other countries, as the Scalextric brand name is owned by British Hornby in all other countries...);

This is a 100% LEGO compatible toy, a fusion between Scalextric Junior and Construblocks (Both brands owned by TecniToys)

Scale is 1:43.

As a Lego-purist and a dane, I would never buy this product, -neither am I affiliated with any of the companies mentioned. I just thought I would bring it to your attention here.

[Rob Klingberg]

On the topic of weight of Lego vehicles, weight itself is not the primary consideration but rather friction in the steering mechanism. The wheels of the vehicle would support the weight, and the internal motor would propel the vehicle. If you had a steering system with very low internal friction, in theory it should be possible to steer with very little effort (i.e., a moderately-sized magnet). Remember the vehicle would be moving forward under its own power, so all the magnet would need to do would be to turn the vehicle left, right, etc. The Faller cars have the magnet on a bar extended beyond the front of the vehicle to add leverage to the turning mechanism. It would be interesting to see if an extension bar like this would be needed to turn a Lego vehicle, or if you could mount the magnet flush with (or even under) the vehicle. I'm thinking I really need to order some Faller parts and try building a prototype!

On the topic of internally-guided (i.e., Arduino or similar microcontroller), you could easily build a line-following system and have the vehicle follow a black line on the road. There are numerous open source line-following microcontroller examples out there. You could also implement this with NXT/RCX I believe.

--Rob

[Mr Benn]

The thing I instantly thought of here are the cars at Legoland Windsor - in the Minitown area (or whatever they call it) they have plenty of vehicles running a set route around town - though I have no idea how they do it! You can see a few examples here:

[Modulex Guy]

The thing I instantly thought of here are the cars at Legoland Windsor - in the Minitown area (or whatever they call it) they have plenty of vehicles running a set route around town - though I have no idea how they do it! You can see a few examples here:

Those are elaborately custom and complex systems relatively similar to the faller system, just on a large scale. I would not want to know how much one of those miniland vehicles would cost to build such a system. I know the LEGOland parks have their own shops in the Modelshop for just these animatronics.

[Rob Klingberg]

Holy cow those Legoland animatronics are awesome! Agreed they take a full-time staff to maintain-- sure would be nice to have even a fraction of that in my backyard.

Allan, I think you should recommend your bumper cars design to them-- that is so cool! Any videos of it in action?

--Rob

Edited July 7, 2011 by Rob Klingberg

[AllanSmith]

Allan, I think you should recommend your bumper cars design to them-- that is so cool! Any videos of it in action?

--Rob

The Dodgems were

from the Bodville LEGO site in Australia (with his permission). You can see my dodgems in this

(about the middle). One dodgem did get knocked into a dead spot but normally they bump then wait for the next magnet. Edited July 7, 2011 by AllanSmith