Could you provide some background about these tiny sledges?   Just for the
rest of us down here who do not have any clue about them... ;)  My sledges
have dogs in front of them....
Thanks!

Rafael Fraga

----- Original Message -----
From: Jinx <joecolquitt@CLEAR.NET.NZ>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 9:29 PM
Subject: [EE]: Sled propulsion


> Does anyone have suggestions (and hopefully practical
> experience) for methods of propelling a sled on a track ?
>
> Sled weighs about 500g, hopefully much less but it will be
> > 200g. Length of travel can be anything up to 2m. Shorter
> is better but not important. It's required that the sled reach
> full speed by the end of the track (obviously !). This speed
> needs to be accurately set from 10m/s to 45m/s
>
> My thoughts -
>
> Air (how would speed be regulated ? Bleeder valve ?)
> Electromagnetism (ie rail gun - ambitious ?)
>
> Things like shotgun cartidges are out. Driving force has to be
> something reasonably non-consumable (eg air, electricity) and
> that can be reset fairly quickly and repeatably, say within 20s
>
> Water would be too messy
>
> I don't know if motorisation in some form would work. For example
> direct drive with a stepper or clutching a flywheel
>
> At the end of the track I thought the sled could be sent down a
> downward curve, deccelerated with electromagnets or track
> braking and then travel upside-down in a loop to get back to the
> start position
>
> TIA
>
> ==============================================
> Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing
> - Wernher von Braun
>
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