That was quick. One of the new sets of tyres just arrived. They are the PN racing 8 degree slicks. I ordered them 3 days ago from Kenon Hobby in the US. These tyres certainly are soft and sticky so I put a pair straight on the test rig and compared them to the tyres I have now. They seem to have about 20% more grip than the current ones. This was encouraging so I mounted them on the micromouse. That is when the first little issue came up…
It is true, I am losing my grip. A while ago I posted a link to a Japanese site demonstrating the grip available from a particular micromouse. A common way of doing this is to lock the wheels and place the mouse on a tilting surface. As the slope of the surface is increased, the downforce available to the tyres is progressively reduced until the mouse slips. Part of the downforce is lost due to the angle alone and is proportional to the tangent of the slope.
I like to check out the various Japanese micromouse builders's site to see what they are up to. Google translations sometimes make some sense but it is very hard work. I was looking on this blog the other day: R & D daily: work out. The author (whose name I…