On Sun, 2 Aug 2009, David Roden wrote:
I'd say that if you have basic electrical chops - meaning you know what a complete circuit is; what capacitance, inductance, and resistance do; how a diode behaves; and so on - you should be able to catch on to an ET with no problem.
I don't think people really need to know how diodes behave to be able to handle an Elec-Trak. Sure, there are diodes in the circuit, but they are fairly low fail-rate components, that likely people won't have to mess with.
If you don't have that, do some calling around to see who you can find who might be able to give you a hand. Contact the local golf course. Ask large battery suppliers. Check with motor shops. Call a forklift distributor. That sort of thing. Your best bet will usually be old-timers at well- established businesses.
Or spend a few hours learning about basic electric circuits. :) The amount of circuits covered in an intro college physics course is sufficient to understand the nice Apollo-era electronics in the Elec-Traks. For the physics 2 course I teach to engineering majors, I actually wrote an entertaining in-class activity based on the Elec-Trak, in which students have to design a voltage divider for controlling the speeds of the main motor (essentially how the first three speeds are controlled on my E-15, before it starts messing with changing the current through the primary windings of the motor).
Mike