CO2 Dragster Track
Age: 16
Inspiration: http://www.pitsco.com/Dragsters_and_Race_Cars/CO2_Dragsters/Racing/Impulse_G3_Race_System
Purpose: CO2 Dragster Track for my teacher's engineering summer camp
Significance: I learned about frying solenoids, the inherent resistance of all conductors, debugging, and the importance of decoupling capacitors.
As a mentor at my teacher's engineering summer camp, we decided a cool project for the kids would be racing CO2 Dragsters. We searched online to find a CO2 Dragster race track, but the cheapest system we could find was $1200, so I told him I would make him one. The final product is seen above. Everything from the launching mechanism to the circuit board to the software was completely original and designed by me. The system worked well, but the launching mechanism was inconsistent because of the nails we used. Since using the track, I have discovered a better way of launching the cars. All in all for around $200 the track exceeded my expectations.
Inspiration: http://www.pitsco.com/Dragsters_and_Race_Cars/CO2_Dragsters/Racing/Impulse_G3_Race_System
Purpose: CO2 Dragster Track for my teacher's engineering summer camp
Significance: I learned about frying solenoids, the inherent resistance of all conductors, debugging, and the importance of decoupling capacitors.
As a mentor at my teacher's engineering summer camp, we decided a cool project for the kids would be racing CO2 Dragsters. We searched online to find a CO2 Dragster race track, but the cheapest system we could find was $1200, so I told him I would make him one. The final product is seen above. Everything from the launching mechanism to the circuit board to the software was completely original and designed by me. The system worked well, but the launching mechanism was inconsistent because of the nails we used. Since using the track, I have discovered a better way of launching the cars. All in all for around $200 the track exceeded my expectations.