Services: More Speed

The #1 question I get is "can you make my monorail go faster?". You bet!

Will you be happy with it? "Power without control is nothing", to me a monorail that jumps to full speed is not very interesting. One that smoothly accelerates from a stop is much more realistic but that requires radio control or autonomous so for now I will stay with just "more speed.

I raced model cars for many years and more speed *always* causes more problems than anticipated!

There are a number of ways to get more speed, the most popular (and probably least expensive) is a more powerful motor. Changing the gear ratio is more effective (and more difficult). WhisperJet is the best method and of course the most expensive. Higher voltage batteries have been tried by some modelers but there are potential issues (burn out the sound board, LEDs, motor, and power switch).

More powerful motors (for Tamiya mini4wd or Kyosho Mini-Z RC cars) are easy to find, power, reliability, and price usually go hand in hand. ***These motors are listed as the same size as those in the monorail (130 size), most Tamiya motors and Mini-Z motors will fit, some require modification.*** Tamiya motors are rated for 2.4 to 3 volts, Mini-Z motors are rated for 4.8 volts but motor voltage does not mean much.

The original gearbox is noisy (the Mark VII is even noisier) and increasing the speed increases the noise. High speed Mark VII models can be rather noisy. This is why I spent 5 months developing WhisperJet.

here is more information on faster motors:

As for installing a faster motor, I no longer recommend it. Most monorails have other problems that will only be amplified by the faster motor. Since the on/off switch is marginal I recommend installing a solid-state power switch for reliability.

I used to install Tamiya's "Torque Tuned" motor, including improved brushes for the motor (the original ones will not last long, the motor is designed for a 2 minute race). Tamiya's Rev-Tuned motor also works well. Some modelers like Tamiya's Hyper-Dash motor but I think it is too fast.

The Tamiya motors are not balanced, getting one that runs smoothly is a matter of chance..

*The Disneyland Mark VII has an internal circuit that greatly limits power to the motor. I bypass the circuit (keeping the original remote) to allow a faster motor while maintaining all remote functions. Details are here: dl_motor_upgrade

Faster motors make more noise, the next step in the quest for speed involves changing the gearing in the monorail.

here is information on changing the gearing:

More power - a high speed monorail (600KBytes)

At some point the monorail will no longer stay on the beam, see the high_speed video above. The monorail kept tipping over and the drive wheel lost contact with the beam, slowing the monorail. On the last lap it fell off the beam so that is the limit for speed!