http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:08:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The best thing about a track extension for your backyard RC track is that it does not cost you anything other than a few hours of  "healthy" shoveling and digging in the fresh air. Well  the "fresh air" part depends on where you live I guess... Anyway, we are back in ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/rc-car-track-extension-coming/ Click on the Image for Full Size! http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/hpi-racing-rs4-rally-against-tamyia-df03ra/ I finally got my PC fixed after setting it underwater during a surprisingly heavy and fast approaching spring rain-shower here in Hawaii. I also had the chance to do some track maintenance, the old Papaya died which now allows for complete view of the track from my driving position. The chicane ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/computer-fixed-racing-is-underway-again/ I managed to flood my PC during the last race in the rain :-( I do have a Macbook Pro that can run Windows (I need to run Windows for the Laptimer software), but it's a bit too risky to use it in the "dirt". If you have taken a look ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/flooded-pc/ The rc track has been relatively consistent lately which allowed me to run a suspension setup test. I started out with testing the extremes, such as super soft suspension in the front and hard in the rear and vice versa. Funny enough it turns out that the Tamiya suggested setup ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/suspension-shocks-and-ride-height-setup-tamiya-subaru-df03-ra/ It is absolutely amazing how the RC cars handling and riving characteristics change when switching from All Wheel Drive to Front Wheel Drive or Rear Wheel Drive. I did a Front Wheel drive test a while back, impressions and lap timing results are available here. Now I finally had the time ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/tamiya-df03-ra-rear-wheel-drive-test/ I finally had the chance to explore two (popular) slotcar questions: Who drives better - man or machine? At what Voltage does the computer beats the human driver and vice versa? How much does the slot car speed increase starting at 7 Volt  in 0.5 Volt increments? All data was taken using a Slotcar ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/computer-driven-slot-car-vs-hand-driven-slotcar/ Building a Slotcar version of my RC Rally track was the next logical bound to happen thing to do after building a drive able computer game version of the rc track. A designed the track based on my measurements using the Carrera Slotcar Track Planner. Unfortunately we only have the "cheap" ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/slotcar-track-based-on-the-rc-backyard-track-layout/ Here is a my RC backyard track re-created in Torcs to be enjoyed on a PC or Linux machine near you :-) Simply download Torcs, install it, unpack the backyard3.zip file and move the folder into your torcs dirt track folder. Watch the Video of my Torcs RC Car Track here or ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/images-and-track-download-for-my-rc-car-torcs-track/ It seemed like a fun idea to build a drive-able computer car racing game based on our R/C backyard track and our Subaru Tamiya Rally car. Needless to say that it does not come even close to any of today's Xbox360 or PS3 games, but that wasn't the point in ... http://www.alphalanding.com/rc-track/making-a-computer-racing-game-based-on-the-rc-car-track/