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welcome to the dark side I also started out small and it has wraped into this http://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.p ... opic=78471

Watching this close Mike, I have been curious about the digital racing myself.

Bob

I like your light weight table idea. Very cool! I have a SCX off road set that I want to build a table like that for.

http://www.slotcar-today.com/en/notices ... g-2129.php

Morning Mike , is this the guides you were talking about.
Bob

Good Morning Bob, It is good to hear from you sir. Yes that is the guide. The advantage of it is that with the original SSD set up, you have to put a lane changer (LC) in a straight section because if a car is drifting, the LED will miss the sensor which is mounted in the bottom of the slot. The issue is compounded for us no mag racers. It limits there you can put your changers. Wanna changer in the middle of some esses? Forget it because unless your car is in line with the slot ( no drift) the sensor won't pick up the signal from the LED. With the LED in the guide, that problem is solved. If you want to digitize a car with the motor in the front, likely the motor is sitting right where your LED should go. With the LED in the guide and the chip extended back to under the interior tray or even in the boot, problem solved.

Mike, I have been looking at the Digital stuff for a while, and was not sure if it was something I wanted to try or not. Since I spend more time solo racing, like most on here, I like the idea of the ghost cars. I think the realism factor is pretty cool too, with up to six cars running on two lanes. I am in the process of acquiring some more track area in another room of my shop, and I would have room for a decent sized track. I don't know anything about digital other than what I have been researching, and I like both the Carrera and Scalextrics systems. I an very interested in your thoughts on this as your track comes together.

Bob

dge467,
I am glad you like my table. It is really light weight, was easy to build and the bill at Home Depot only came up to about 65 bucks for all of the material in it including screws and construction adhesive.

Bob T,
I know very little about digital other than what I have read on these online boards. If you look at the digital section here at HRW, you would get the impression that Carrera is the dominant system since the majority folks on this board use D132. But if you go over to SCI or SFI, that is not the case. There is a huge following for SSD on those boards and a lot of user or vendor modification possibilities for the latest C7042 6 car power base which is the one to have if you choose Scalextric. It can even be connected to a PC for better display and race management. It even has an analogue mode, not that I would use it since I have a nice analogue wood track. The PB that I am using currently is the previous C7030 6 car PB which doesn't have as many bells and whistles. The C7030 can be updated by a couple of guys on SFI to do much the same as a C7042 but the C7042 has it all right out of the box. I have a C7042 and several more LC's possibly coming in today's mail. I will report what I find when I get it set up. You saw the pics of the two chips I posted. Either one wouldn't be too much trouble to mount in almost any car, including open wheelers. Carrera chips are HUGE though they to do make an F1 chip. Perhaps that one is small enough, I don't know. As for robustness, I think both systems are about equal. Scaley used to be ahead of Carrera regarding features but I think the more recent Carrera offerings have equaled that out.

I could get excited about the digital classic ROAR type cars that we could get into exchanging if you go SSD.

I am thinking how cool it would be to have my Cartrix F1 cars in digital form, and running a vintage style track with multiple cars!
I think I would have Lane changers, with a few pieces of regular track to tie them together! Although any vintage sports car class would be pretty cool running that way.
Somehow I feel a deep pain in my wallet coming on!

Bob

I would be concerned about those finely detailed Cartrix cars loosing their bits from banging around on a digital track. Now a group of those old Strombecker Maserati F1's now you have something that will stand a crash.

The other good thing about the C7042 PB is that it allows you to dial down the power for running those old cars. Do I sound like a SSD salesman? I don't want to. I only tell you about what I know. And that ain't much.

I just migrated to digital about four weeks ago. I am stumbling a little on the learning curve, but I agree that this is a whole new way to enjoy slot racing. There are still some large drawbacks that go beyond compatibility issues, but it is really a game changer in a very positive way.

Czar, What brand did you get? Are you mounting it permanently?

I have tried all 4 brands of digital at one time or another. It is basically a 2 horse race now between SSD and D132/124. Both are good systems with different pluses and minuses. You can't go wrong with either. Most Scaley cars have the DPR hatch, Carrera sells D132 ready to go for great prices. D124 is awesome with an aftermarket PS. Carrera is a little more aggressive in product development. But the last scaley powebase had good features (but a cryptic user interface). Slotforum has a lot of SSD "power users". I'm not an expert, but i'll trade what i know for feedback when I build my wood oval, first scratch build Chassis, etc.