Controller Advice

[HomeRacingWorld]

Sure. Just use a good quality wire and make good solder connections. I have done it many times.

[HomeRacingWorld]

What kind of design you thinking of? Going for a larger or smaller one?

Always like hearing about new tracks :)

[goosenapper]

A 37ft straightaway? Holy smokes! Tape some wings on that car and it might just take off! :lol:

[SpeedyNH]

you should use proportionally heavier wire the longer you run so you don't add too much loss.

here's a rule of thumb: for every three wire gauges, the cross-sectional area of the wire is effectively doubled, and thus the current carrying capability or twice the length for the same reduction.
e.g. for replacing 18AWG, 15AWG would get you twice as far as the original one with the same Voltage drop, and then if you go up to 12 gauge, you can go four times as far. if you come up with an odd wire size, just go up to the next (lower) number and you'll be ahead of the game.
you can double it up too, for the same effect; i do it all the time, but it sometimes gets silly when you have eight conductors on each side (equiv. to nine wire gauges, three times doubling) because you didn't have any heavy wire! :shock: (sometimes i buy generic house wire because it's cheap- a run of 10-3 with ground, paralleled 2x2 red/wht & blk/Cu will get you to 7AWG! :D )

the correlary is that if you don't, you have twice as much drop, whatever that was, depending on the current :( .
for short runs (less than a yard) at these low currents, you might not notice.
or maybe you will wilth longer wires and a big long straight, if i read you correctly, and also see the poorer response out of the further corners.
multiple feeds are also an advantage as the steel track conductors are nowhere near as good as heavy copper wire with appropriately good terminations.

speedy

[RichD]

Another possibility is to run 12 gage wires from the power track to some jacks where you can plug in the controller.

[SpeedyNH]

sounds good 2 me.

[Van Duzer]

The best and cheapest way to change out controller wire is to buy eletrical cord that has 3 wires in it. You can buy 50 feet of what ever gauge you for next to nothing. The out side covering will kept your wire tangle free. You can also use it to wire you track, we did this for all of your store tracks.You can't find this quality wire for cheaper anywhere else. This idea come from our slot car guru Dave Hendrickson

[SpeedyNH]

well, you'd like it to be be stranded so i'ts vaguely flexible (as opposed to solid conductors).

[buspor63]

I'm thinking Van Duzer's plan calls for three conductor appliance cord, should be stranded and at the Depot or Lowes.