Need help with run issues

Howdy David and welcome. 

These are Scalextric cars?  You might want to switch to SCX cars, though eventually they will all slow down.

We can provide test cars if you need some.

If they start out fast and then slow down over time that was our experience with the Scalextric cars as well.  We ran them as part of a 4-hour Enduro at Randy's track and as we all remember, they slowed so bad that after 40 minutes we just put a stop to that session.

You have oiled the motors and axle bushings?  You'll want to do that about every hour of running.

What part of town are you in?

Hello David,

Pretty hard to diagnose without actually seeing what's going on. Need more info.

What kind of a power supply are you using to power the cars? What is the current rating of the power supply?

Are you applying that voltage/current directly to the track and cars, or are you using some sort of a controller to slow the cars down?

Have you checked the applied power at the cars with a volt meter to be sure you have constant voltage?

-------------------Bill

David,

Another thing that may contribute to your problems is using the Scalextric controllers to control the speed of the cars. The controllers are nothing more than a wire wound resistor with a flat metal strip that slides across the wire which varies the drop in voltage seen by the car's motor. When set for a constant speed the controllers will get hot and probably burn the wire on the resistor.

I'm with you on the suitability of the Hornby wall wart! Like you stated they put out 800ma, but that's at the full 15.9 volts. Set at 30% using the Scalextric controllers you're probably getting just barely enough current to the cars to make them go. Like the controllers, the longer they run the warmer they get and I'm sure that power figure is dropping.

So I think a better power supply is an excellent idea. You might try a power supply for a computer. It should put out plenty to run two cars. If you need to vary the voltage to slow the cars down, I would try using a quality 110 volt dimmer switch on the 110 volt side of the power supply. Drop the input to the power supply and you should be able to more effectively drop the power supply's output.

The last thing I would mention  is to connect the wiring from the power supply to the track in more than one spot (i.e. if you track running length is 12 feet, have parallel power connections at 6 feet and another at 12 feet). This will more effectively distribute the power evenly.

Hope some of this helps! I'd like to come by and take a look at your project, but unfortunately I'll be tied up until Monday afternoon.

Keep us posted!!!    ---------------------------Bill