Digital Vintage Road Racing Roadsters

[Nor Cal Mike]

[btaylor]

Mike, Its cars like this that make me want to try digital! Very nice set up on that Jag. I am curious to see what total cost of a conversion like this runs, I can see a bunch of vintage Strommies converted to digital.
Way cool stuff here Mike, I am very interested.

Bob

[HomeRacingWorld]

Great conversion going here. Well done.

[TsgtRet]

Nice convert. My ROAR car is a Strom D-Type, I used blister package plastic for the windscreen attached with Testor's Clear part cement and Window Maker. For headlight covers I've used the ends of clear plastic spoons shaped with my Dremel on some of my Strom bodies.

[Nor Cal Mike]

Thanks for the kind replies guys.
Bob, I am the wrong person to ask since I came into this thing through the bacK door so to speak. I can tell you that I recommend SSD simply because the chips are small enough to fit I n almost anything you want to put it in. If SSD is your choice, The C7042 Advanced Power Base (APB) is the one to get. It has timing /lap counting built in, allows the power level & throttle curve to be dialed up so down. that is very important with these types of narrow cars. It is also easy to connect the APB through a PC too.

[btaylor]

I had inquired a while back to see if It was cheaper to start with a set, or buy the individual pieces to build a digital track. I had thought about doing a conversion on my road course, and adapt Scaley switch tracks to my Strombecker track already in place. I still like the idea, and your making it easier with these Conversion cars!

Bob

[Nor Cal Mike]

It would be really easy to build adapter pieces. After I made a trade of some of my Artin track for Scaley, I bought a digital expansion set off of EBay that had the early 6 car PB, two jelly bean cars, two controllers and one curved lane changer (CLC). That put me in business and the other digital cars and pieces came rolling in. I think that getting pieces and adapting to another kind track or wood would be a good way to go cheaply. I like the wood option best.

[btaylor]

Mike, I may give this a try. I would want to keep the track analogue, and be able to switch over to digital when wanted. Does this sound like a possibility from what you have done so far? Since my track is copper taped, making adapter tracks is no problem at all. I am not sure if the corner radius of the two tracks would be close enough to insert the lane changers in place of an existing corner. I would want to incorporate them as well as the straight sections.

Bob

[Nor Cal Mike]

A C7042 APB is what you need to run full analogue in addition to digital. It has an analogue option built in. You will have to do away with present power supply and drivers drivers station. The APB does not come with power supply's. It will take two. Most guys buy toshiba lap top chargers off e auction site. They are cheap, plug right in are at the right voltage (15v) and at 5a a piece, have plenty of power. Remember that the APB has the ability to dial down power to individual lanes in analogue, individual cars in digital and adjust power curves in all.

[btaylor]

The more I hear, the more I like this! Is there a pit lane option for this track? I suppose I should just get off my duff and look into it myself! I really like the actual pit lane option that some of the Digital tracks have, it adds a lot to me. I use the fuel option on my road course, and we really like the way it changes up a race.

Bob

[Nor Cal Mike]

Whew! I just got home from jury duty. After 3 hours of sitting around, I got excused. All of my posts this morning came from my Ipad from the courthouse.

Bob, Yes there is a pit option although I don't have it yet. I am leaving enough room to fit one when the time comes. If you go the SSD route, Scaley sells a cable that will plug the APB directly to your PC. Yo will may have to download the software to go with it too but as I recall, you are using trackmate. Maybe that is already digital ready, but I don't know much about that stuff yet.

[seal666]

Mike, like bob t youve got me thinking of getting some digital. Was going to upgrade analog power supplies to variable units, but the digital terminal seems to lsolve that issue. How do the controllers function, currently use parma #% ohm units. Also does the pace car feature work in analog?
Bob E

[CVGshadow]

Trackmate is not digital compatible, but there are several software solutions specifically for SSD. Additionally, the forthcoming ARC pro powerbase will use a tablet based RMS for fuel load simulation.

[Nor Cal Mike]

Bob E Yes the pace car function does work in analoge. But if you are going digital anyway, why not have 5 digital pace cars going while you drive one? As for the controllers, I don't know much about them other than they ARE NOT resistor controllers so you Parmas will become paper weights. There are several aftermarket digital controller options out there and one that is pretty affordable. I haven't gotten that far yet. The stock Scaley ones are what I am using. They work fine and are dirt cheap on ebay. Since you can control power curve and brake effect inside the APB, you have a lot of those premium functions already without the aftermarket jobs.

I have been dreaming of a more scale track that can run multiple cars almost since I have been back into slots. I have built and experimented with a small AC2car track, tried Artin digipro ( I still have all of the Artin digi parts. Anybody want'em?) and even went so far as to buy three of Wes's Magsteer cars & controllers. I think I have found a home with SSD in that regards. Things are going to start changing big time around here next year. My wife is getting ready to retire, we might sell this place and move to a smaller place at the coast which will mean downsizing my slot car scene. In downsizing, I mean the size and number of tracks will be greatly reduced not my passion for building and playing with slot cars. That is partly what is behind this change.

One thing that I have noticed reading the digital boards on the various slot car sites, is that digital guys talk a lot about the technology and racing of mostly out of the box, plastic, RTR cars. You see very few people with the passion for kit bashing or modeling like the stuff we like to do around here on this board. If you guys come on board, maybe we can start a new niche in digital slot racing. Digital ROAR?

[Nor Cal Mike]