Abstract: A slot car racing toy features toy cars that engage a slot formed on a track and through which slot they pick up electrical power. The electrical power supplied to the slot is generated by a manually-driven electrical generating means which also supplies the power to a sound effects unit.

Abstract: The present invention provides a paper tray for a printer or a like device that includes both means for holding paper prior to printing thereon, and means for receiving paper exiting from the printer. In this way a single paper tray can both supply to and receive paper from the printer, and therefore it is only necessary to provide access to one side of the printer in which the tray is inserted. The printer may therefore be incorporated as part of a stack of other electrical/electronic items such as audio-visual equipment.

Abstract: This invention provides a speaker assembly for particular use in conjunction with lap-top computers or similar. Adjacent housing portions are provided to contain speakers and are interconnected so that the housings may be movable between a co-planar position and a non co-planar position. The non co-planar position allows the speakers in adjacent housings to have some focusing of the sound propagating from the speakers to provide enhanced performance despite the relatively small thin nature of the speakers provided in each housing. When in the non co-planar configuration, the front faces of the housings provide a concave overall appearance to the speaker assembly towards the user and help support each other against overturning.

Abstract: The present invention provides a paper tray for a printer or a like device that includes both means for holding paper prior to printing thereon, and means for receiving paper exiting from the printer. In this way a single paper tray can both supply to and receive paper from the printer, and therefore it is only necessary to provide access to one side of the printer in which the tray is inserted. The printer may therefore be incorporated as part of a stack of other electrical/electronic items such as audio-visual equipment.

Abstract: A radio-controlled walking toy horse (10) is disclosed as including a body portion (14) containing an electric motor (28), four legs (16a, 16b, 16c, 16d) engaged with the body portion (14), in which the legs (16a, 16b, 16c, 16d) are movable by the motor (28) to move relative to the body portion (14) in a walking-like manner, and a position sensing and feedback device for stopping the motor (28) only when the legs (16a, 16b, 16c, 16d) rest on a common plane, whereby the toy horse (10) can support itself on a floor surface (52).

Abstract: A lap counting mechanism is described for a race-track for toy cars of the type in which the cars are guided in slots. The guide member of the car, which in use is received within the slots, is provided with a left-right asymmetry and the lap counting mechanism is able to detect this asymmetry. This allows at least two cars to be clearly distinguished by the lap counting mechanism and so the number of laps that an individual car has done may be totaled accurately even though the cars may swap tracks and slots. The sensing means and the associated asymmetry may be electrical, optical or magnetic. Means are also provided for detecting the speed of the cars and for generating sound and light effects.

Abstract: A printer head includes a wireless print head provided with a memory buffer for storing data corresponding to at least one line of data. The print head is also provided with a motor and runs along a guide means in a self-propelled manner, the print head further includes power pick-up means for taking power for the motor from the guide means. In one embodiment for example the guide means are a pair of parallel metal rails connected to a power supply and the print head includes metal wheels and brush means. In this way the amount of cabling required to connect to the print head to a controlling computer may be minimized.

Abstract: The present invention provides a paper tray for an imaging device that includes both device for holding paper prior to printing thereon, and device for receiving paper exiting from the printer. In this way a single paper tray can both supply to and receive paper from the printer, and therefore it is only necessary to provide access to one side of the printer in which the tray is inserted. The printer may therefore be incorporated as part of a stack of other electrical/electronic items such as audio-visual equipment.

Abstract: The present invention provides an electric motor with a reduced number of windings on one of the coil windings. The effect of this is that when the motor is in operation, the current that flows through the coil with the reduced number of windings differs from the others, and this difference can be detected to allow accurate control of the motor. To avoid any mechanical imbalance caused by this difference in the number of windings, mechanical compensation means is provided on the arm with the reduced number of windings. Preferably this comprise a further winding that is not electrically connected to the motor circuit.

Abstract: A steering control mechanism for a model vehicle, e.g. a small toy vehicle, includes an electromagnetic coil wound around the wheel shaft of one of the wheels of the toy vehicle. Adjacent and facing one end of this coil are provided one or more permanent magnets on the vehicle chassis. Current is selectively applied to the coil so as to cause the wheel shaft to rotate either towards one or the other pole of the permanent magnets. The mechanism also includes position sensing means which may provide a feedback control signal to a controller to provide for progressive turning of the wheels and/or to provide automatic centering of the wheels when it is desired for the vehicle to move in a straight line.

Abstract: A cordless printer head, for example of a bubble-jet or ink-jet printer, is provided with memory to allow it to store data to be printed and a control device for driving the printer head. This avoids the need for a continous data transmission to the printer head requiring a costly cable and associated space and other problems. Instead data to be printed can be downloaded to the printer head at intervals by a data transfer device provided at the end of the movement of the printer head.