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| Switchbox |
The main bottleneck in the pinewood derby race is making sure that each car is in the proper lane before the race. With an 8-lane system this delay would be greatly compounded. To solve the problem, two "Switchboxes" were created.
At the start and the end of the race, switch boxes temporarily hold the cars.
When the race is over, all 8 cars go into the switch box. Thus they are in order and all facing the proper direction.
The switchbox is then brought to the start of the track (and the empty switchbox at the start is placed at the rear of the track). When the car laden switchbox is placed at the start of the track, it is offset by one lane (thus the car that was in lane-1 is now in lane-2). The car in lane-8 is not raced, and lane-1 is empty and ready to be used for the next racer.
Using the switchbox will insure that every car races 8 times, and are run in the correct direction.
Using the Switchbox
(Cars finished the race and are at the end of the slow-down area)
(Cars are pushed on to the Switchbox)
(Switchbox is removed from the end of the track)
(Starting section of track with Switchbox removed)
(Switchbox is placed offset behind the starting section of the track)
(Cars are transfered into their NEW lanes, note lane-1 is empty, waiting for the next racer)
(Race is ready to start, need a car in Lane-1)
Website Technology by Bangsberg Software Engineering
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