Looking for ways to perform tests at 160mph?

Question

We're developing a wireless product (one component is fixed and another component is mobile) that has to perform at high speeds. Do you have any suggestions on how to move a mobile component (size and weight of a match-box) at speeds of 160mph next to the (i.e. ~10ft away from) fixed component in order to perform some tests? For example, driving a speedy car at a specific place (I'm in San Francisco area), or using some other method?

Answer 1

My first choice would be to hire a private plane and a pilot. I am not sure how to ensure the stationary and moving objects are within 10 feet of each other. That migt be tough.

The other option would be to build a "gun" to fire the moving object past the stationary one. This would take a lot of tweaking and a device to measure the speed of the object leaving the gun. I would probably use a round barrel with a "wad" to push the device down the barrel. 160 MPH might probably wouldn't be feasible for compress air. Black powder is unpredictable (I don't know how close to 160 you need). Maybe a liquid fuel? Then there is the issue of stopping the projectile without destroying....perhaps fire it into a bunch of foam rubber, cellulose insulation, or polyester stuffing...

Final thought...I don't know the availability of your funds, but perhaps offer some track time to a race car driver if they help test your product. Contact an ASA or Bush team and offer to rent the California or Las Vegas race track if they will let you mount the object in the vehicle in a safe manner. This will be a spendy test as I am sure renting a track will be spendy. Along that same lines, every major race track seems to have some sort of race car driving experience such as the Richard Petty Experience. Contact them and see what it would cost to have a "private party" and help testing your product. The downfall with this is that if you need more than one day of testing, it will get expensive quick.

Kind of a pickle of a problem.

Answer 2

You should find an abandoned road or airstrip in your area and do this with two automobiles approaching each other at 80 mph.

This will give you (in a relative way) the same effect as if the one component is stationary and the other is traveling at 160.

Radio and infrared (wireless) both travel at the speed of light. Sonic (ultrasonic) is such high frequency that - although you may get some doppler effects, I would think you could build your transmission system with a wide enough discrimination to account for this.

Testing of this type should simply be confirming what you have worked out with near certainty on paper.

Answer 3

Safest and most economical way is to securely put your mobile component on the end of an arm or disc connected to an electric motor - the motor's RPMs will be noted on the data plate and just simply compute the distance from the axis to move it at 160 mph - by using this method, you can vary the speed by just moving the component closer or further from the axis - and you can calibrate the disk or arm before hand to indicate the rotational speed in MPH.
The proximity concern would also be overcome.

Answer 4

Don't understand the point of the experiment. How does going 80 mph, 160 mph or 200 mph affect a wireless connection? Are you testing for vibration, magnetic flux, field propagation, or mechanical strength? If a full size test is required, hire an helicopter for a day at about $5000.

Answer 5

At 160 mph and 10 ft radius, it's only about 35 rpm

Why not put it on a tether and twirl it around the fixed component? or even rotating a solid spar at 35 rpm

Answer 6

60

Answer 7

Typically, high-speed trains travel at top service speeds of between 250 km/h and 300 km/h (150 mph and 186 mph).