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Dan De Bella's Pro Slot Ltd has been designing and manufacturing high-end 1/24th scale (pro) slot racing equipment for many years and Pro Slot motors in particular have won numerous Pro Wing Car, Group and Eurosport World and National Championship titles. In 2005 Dan has also taken up 1/24 Modelcar racing. After speaking to a lot of Modelcar racers around the world he decided to produce the motor that everyone has been waiting for - one designed for slot racing and not for windshield wipers or electric windows!"
Proslot Euro MK1 - the first dedicated Modelcar motor!
Dan has been developing the all new Pro Slot Euro Mk 1 motor for almost a year. It is a replacement motor specifically designed for the 1/32 and 1/24 scale model car racing market and is exactly the same size as the Cheetah/ Falcon/ Fox and Mabuchi S-Can motors.
Dan explains: "From all the guys I spoke with all over Europe, the most important thing from their side was that the new motors should all be about the same speed. It had to be an exact fit motor, interchangeable with motors used in existing production chassis. It didn't have to be really faster than the others (this is easy) but with just more torque and brakes. They want them tamperproof (so to speak). They explained that people really don't like too much change. The most important thing they wanted was consistency.
This I believe I have accomplished. The motors we are now testing all run great and are very close in performance. It was explained to me that in some competitions guys purchased many motors to get a "real good" one. Now everyone only needs buy how many they need."
Euro MK1 R&D
All the parts of the Pro Slot Euro Mk 1 motor have been designed and developed by Pro Slot themselves, except the magnets. Dan mentioned that in the months spent testing, he found that all of the existing similar size motors had all sorts of magnets in them. Since his specialty is micro DC motors, he pursued Mabuchi to obtain the correct magnet material for this application and has been successful.
The motor uses a Chinese produced commutator, but one that is excellent. As Dan says, "we also use it in our C-Can line of motors. It is pheonolic filled and works great". The total weight of the motor is around 21 grams.
Dan ads: "I am further able to seal the motor with a foil tamperproof tape (for hand out motors) to avoid people getting inside the can. The springs and motor brushes are replaceable without disassembly."
With the tooling for the Pro Slot Euro Mk 1 complete a quantity of the motors have been send to selected European and American (model)slotracers. Final testing will determine the correct winds and turns and wire size for specific 1/32nd and 1/24 applications, Dan is waiting a few more weeks until after the holidays, to get more valuable input from the racers taking part in the test program.
Here are some figures of the five sample motors Dan produced with winds similar to the most popular motors currently used by scale racers:-
#1. 100 Turns of 32 gauge, same as the SC007 35000 (.21mm wire)
#2. 130 Turns of 33 gauge, same as the Fox 10 26000 (.18mm wire)
#3. 140 Turns of 33.5 gauge, same as the Slot.it V12 2b-29000 (.185mm wire)
#4. 155 Turns of 34 gauge, same as the Slot.it V12 2b-25000 (.175mm wire)
#5. 180 Turns of 35 gauge, same as the Slot.it V-12/2-23000 (.165mm wire
During testing (no load, stable 12v) Dan got these results:-
#1. 37,000 rpm 800 ma
#2. 29,000 rpm 680 ma
#3. 26,000 rpm 600 ma
#4. 23,000 rpm 600 ma
#5. 20,000 rpm 400 ma
Pro Slot uses state-of-the-art high tech test equipment to ensure accurate readings and some serious stall torque values were achieved, needing 3.5 amps on the low side up to 8.5 amps to stop the motors!
So there you have it. The first three winds being prepared are 25,000, 29,000 & 35,000 RPM, for wall pack transformer use. The retail price of the motor will be 15.95 Euro, or the U.S. equivalent of $19.14 (based on today�s exchange rate).
Russel Sheldon
The text of this article is based on various post made by Russel Sheldon on www.slotforum.com
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