I just put a maxtrax setup up and last night, and this has been going on since the initial setup a year and a half ago when I had the AFX/Tomy setup:

On the right pickup shoe, which would be on your left when the car is turned over, I have noticed that the shoe has a tendency to spark & burn a hole right through the shoe. This has happened multiple times and on both the maxtrax & the tomy track so I believe I have determined that the power supply is the problem. How do I fix this?

HELP!!!!!!!!

Cheers,
Xence

Could be a loose connection if all connecctions aren't checked when attaching the power sourse.

Gonzo

It could be that your pick up shoes need adjusting.
If the flat portion of the shoe is not sitting flat on the rail you will have the shoe riding on the heel (rear) or toe (front) of the shoe. This smaller contact area leads to a higher wear rate and a decrease in conductivity (?) through the shoe. And if you compound that with a power supply with a good supply of amps you can possibly get what you are getting. (especially if the rails are dirty.) So, that being said.
1)clean the rails until they are nice and shiny.
2)adjust the pick up shoes until the flat part is flat on the rails.
You will know when this is right when you have a wear mark that runs from the toe of the shoe to the heel of the shoe.
Good luck and have fun.

I would have to agree with noddaz, clean rails and flat shoes are very important...

I would also check my pickup shoe tension, a lot of times burn marks on the shoes indicates you don't have enough tension in the spring. Try stretching the spring out a bit and see if that helps.

On the right pickup shoe, which would be on your left when the car is turned over, I have noticed that the shoe has a tendency to spark & burn a hole right through the shoe.

Does this happen with all cars or just one? Just one type of chassis, or any type chassis?

Joe

Hook a car battery to the track and run a while.
If the problem goes away,it was the power supply.
If you still have the problem,it is the wiring or the
car.

Hi Xence,

Dirty rails and dust bunnies will create a good spark show if your not a religous cleaner of track and go for extended periods of inactivity. Do your cars sit as well? Normal oxidation of rail and pick ups makes for the arcy sparky too if ya dont buff things up.

Fatigued springs or whacked out shoe adjustments are the most common cause, especially since you've mentioned "holing". With very few exceptions every out of the box inline magnet racer I've ever seen will hole out the toe of the shoe rather quickly on sectional track ...unless the pick ups are adjusted ....and even then the pick ups are to be considered a NWI regardless. (normal wear item) Take a look at AW's AFX clones. I've not seen one that didnt require some tweakage to shut them up or settle them down.

Cars with bad arms that still function will toss some fire at the rail before they scatter completely, as do cars with excessive frictions that are left unrelieved. Probablly not your case though if all cars behave the same.

Did you start with fresh shoes when you went to your new track, or did you run your grooved or worn out pickups on your new rail?...which may be lower? I'm sure you've heard the woes of people having to readjust their setups for shoes or tires when switching from one type of track to another. It's a reality!
This would be my longshot bet.

Power taps? Got any? Hope so!

Really a how high is up question, especially without pictures. Most every time something goes haywire around here I eventually wind up solving it thru fundamentals I've neglected or overlooked in haste. Although you didnt give us any specifics on it; I wouldnt throw stones at your power supply if it is of adequate rating and meters out OK...unless you know something we dont?

Good luck! :thumbsup:

ok didn't expect this sort of response. I'm VERY grateful for it. I'm going to try to read the responses and answer what I can. If I miss something please forgive me, not meaning to ignore anyone.

The sparking happens to all cars. This happened on my old tomy track as well. I've gone through and have flattened out pickup shoes, re-adjusted anything I could get my hands on... I'm still seeing this. Micyou3 came over last night and he has absolutely none of this on his home track and he has a tomy track. Even his cars were experiencing the same things. I'm really starting to lean towards the power supply. Someone suggested using a car battery ... hmmmm that's an idea. I very well may try that. I have a maxtrax track so how does one go about putting power taps into one of these? When I spoke with Dave (maxtrax guy) he was saying I shouldn't need 1 but if I did to just order another powertrack from him and give that a whirl.

I've tried new shoes, old shoes, same result. I believe I'm going to try that car battery that tjettim suggested. I've got far too much money invested into this to have something as minor as a powersupply stop me from enjoying my track.

I can see how faulty connections could be doing this but this hapens on all 4 lanes so I would guess I could rule that out?

One thing to note: I bought this power supply from some company that I had never heard of. I have no idea if they're still even open. I honestly believe this is my culprit. Micyou3 has suggested to bring his power supply over as well. I don't 'believe' that the rails are getting oxidized. I'm on there pretty often. On the average I would say usually at least once a week.

I WILL try to clean the rails though just to eliminate one more possible problem. Also I'm going to just sit on one car and figure out how to make the PU shoes as flat as possible although I have several cars that have VERY flat shoes. Again though I am grateful for ANY ideas and these are all solid. I'm going to do my best to try as many, if not all of them, that I can.

Anyone know where you can get a solid power supply for a decent rate? Just in case that is the issue?

Cheers,
Xence

It sounds like you have what is called a "dirty" power supply. From the sounds of it there is probably some AC ripple in there somewhere. Is the power supply you are using rectified and filtered? If it is not, it is probably not putting out clean DC power. Which is what the evidence, i.e., dirty blackened shoes and burn thru's on the shoes suggest.

Hey Xence,
Have you tried turning the lights out, to see where it sparks the most?
Or to see if there is a bad connection?

You can use 2 car batteries tied together, that would give you 24v.
Then use a rheostat/potentiometer to dial the voltage down.
I had an ac powered power supply, I switched to batteries and was amazed at how clean the cars ran.

You can pick up a potentiometer/rheostat, like this one, at an electronics store for around ten bucks.
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/74/l_67f86f2e4fcd412d94405aee0a7c8f2b.jpg
This one's a little too strong, the window of adjustment is kinda small.

Hope this helps,
If not, I enjoyed posting it anyways.

Rich..... racing in the dark is fun.

has this been fixed or not ? fcb

If you use a car battery to test the track make sure you put a fuse in the curcuit... Nothing like 300 amps + during a dead short to make a mess of your track....:freak:

If you use a car battery to test the track make sure you put a fuse in the curcuit... Nothing like 300 amps + during a dead short to make a mess of your track....:freak:


Ouch! You'll never forget the smell. ;) rr

no I have not fixed this yet. I was so disgusted & frustrated I hadn't touched the track afterwards. I'll be fiddling with it sometime this weekend.

Cheers,
Xence