Claims
- 1. A toy vehicle game comprising a guide track defining a pair of lanes along which two vehicles may move in side by side relation, means in said track in each of said lanes for separately supplying varying current flow of reversible polarity to at least two separate vehicles on said track, said means including a pair of laterally spaced current supply contact strips and a ground strip in each of said track lanes with the strips being in the same relative position in each lane, each of said current supply strips being electrically connected to a corresponding strip in the other lane, operator operable control means connected to said current supply strips for enabling the operator to separately supply current of reversible polarity and varying value thereto, and a drone vehicle for use on said track including a body, means for driving said body along said track including an electric motor, means in said drone vehicle respectively associated with the current supply strips and ground strip in a track lane for simultaneously collecting current from said current supply strips and means connected between said respective current collecting means and said motor for continuously supplying current of only a predetermined polarity to said motor from said strips in the track regardless of the polarity of current in the current supply strips.
- 2. A toy vehicle as defined in claim 1 wherein said vehicle includes a drive transmission and said means for supplying current of a predetermined polarity to said motor includes a pair of oppositely arranged diodes respectively connected between the current collector means associated with said ground strip and opposite sides of said motor.
- 3. A toy vehicle game as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for supplying current of a predetermined polarity to said motor includes a diode bridge connected between the motor and the current collecting means associated with said current supply strips.
- 4. A toy vehicle game as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for supplying current to the motor includes a pair of oppositely arranged diodes connected between said contact means and opposite sides of said motor.
- 5. The game as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for supplying varying current includes a power supply comprising a half-wave rectifier adapted to be connected to a source of alternating current and connected to said operator operable control means, said control means including means for selectively supplying the positive or negative half cycles of the alternating current to its associated current supply strip and means for varying the magnitude of said supplied positive and negative half cycles.
- 6. The game as defined in claim 5 wherein said means for continuously supplying current comprises means for supplying full wave rectified voltage from said strips when said control means are operated to separately supply positive half-wave rectified voltage and negative half-wave rectified voltage to their respective supply strips.
- 7. A toy vehicle game comprising a guide track defining a pair of lanes along which two vehicles may move in side by side relation, a pair of controllable toy vehicles each of which includes an electric motor and means for steering the vehicle into one or the other of said lanes in accordance with the polarity of current supplied thereto while continuously driving the vehicle in a forward direction; means in said track in each of said lanes respectively associated with said controllable vehicles for separately and independently supplying current of variable polarity and value to said controllable toy vehicles and a non-steerable drone vehicle for use on said track including a body, an electric motor and transmission for driving the drone vehicle in a forward direction; means in said drone vehicle for simultaneously collecting current from said respective current supply means for the controllable vehicles and means connected between the respective current collecting means on the drone vehicle and the drone vehicle's motor for supplying current of only a predetermined polarity to said motor at a value which is proportional to the value of the current supplied to at least one of the controllable vehicles.
- 8. A toy vehicle game as defined in claim 7 wherein said means for supplying varying current includes a half wave rectifier adapted to be connected to a source of alternating current; said means for supplying current of only a predetermined polarity to said motor comprising means for supplying full-wave rectified voltage to said motor when the currents supplied to the respective controllable toy vehicles are of different polarities and half-wave rectified voltage when the currents supplied to the respective controllable toy vehicles are of the same polarity.
- 9. A toy vehicle as defined in claim 7 wherein said means for supplying varying current includes a half-wave rectifier adapted to be connected to a source of alternating current; said means for supplying current of only a predetermined polarity to said motor comprising means for supplying half-wave rectified voltage to said motor when the currents supplied to the respective controllable toy vehicles are of different polarities and full-wave rectified voltage when the currents supplied to the respective controllable toy vehicles are of the same polarity.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 747,442 filed Dec. 6, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,798, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
747442 |
Dec 1976 |
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