by RichD » Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:56 am
2 or 3 inches should be enough. Sometimes people have a problem where the cars count only when they are going slowly, so they think that the dead strips need to be longer. The actual problem is due to the fact that the cars produce a voltage that can confuse the lap counter. The voltage is proportional to the speed of the car and high performance motors are also more of a problem. Reversing the wires that connect to the dead strips will fix the problem. If you expect to run your track in both directions you will have to switch the wires or have a reversing switch for each lane.