My first Digital experience

[btaylor]

Well, I got my first taste of digital racing this weekend. Very interesting to say the least! I had been following Nor Cal Mike's progress on his Scaley conversion cars, and the Six car at once capability that Scalextrics has to offer. I am a Hardcore Carrera Fan, but the idea of chipping my Vintage F1 Cars left me with the Scaley chip and remote mounted sensor being the only option. That coupled with the ability to run digital or analog on the same layout, made me choose the Scalextrics set up.
So, was my first experience fun? Yes, I have to say it was!. Being a most time lone wolf racer had me kind of excited about the pacer cars or ghost cars as they are called, and I was not disappointed with this feature. The cars can be set to randomly change lanes, and the speed at which the pacer cars travel can be set individually. So after a mind numbing trip through the set up booklet, I was up and running multiple cars, with me being in control of one of them. Weaving through the other cars to get to the pit lane proved to be harder than I expected, and I was often blocked by a pacer car when passing the pit lane. This set came with a pit lane challenge game, that has you being the first car to turn out three pit lights wins the race. That being said, the pacer cars can also enter the pits randomly, and turn out the lights in that cars lane. Needless to say, my first digital "race" was won by the damn computer! I was blocked often enough, and missed the green light to enter the pits often enough, that a ghost car actually beat me by one light.
In the end, I was left with visions of my vintage F1 cars winding through my soon to be road course, and being able to see more than one or two at a time in action will be fun I think.
I am not big on electronic technology, and digital anything is way over my head, but I have to admit, this kind of slot racing is definitely worth looking into if you have thought about it at all. There are a few programs out there, that allow for a bunch of add on pit stop functions that should make this even more elaborate.
I will post my experiences with this new fangled technology as I gain more insight as to its function.

Bob

[HomeRacingWorld]

If you had fun then you are on the right track (ahem).

Good for you Bob!

[CVGshadow]

2 thumbs up. It gets easier, the manual for the power base can be confusing at first, but the scaley system and chip size lend themselves well to modeling. If you run alone its tough to beat digital.

[chappy]

Fun Fun Fun, thats what it is all about for solo racers.
Well done Bob
Keep the updates coming.
Bob C

[Nor Cal Mike]

Bob T,
I am so glad that I know have a partner in crime in this SSD thing. I look forward to seeing your builds when you get them coming. There's gonna be a whole lot 'a chipin' goin' on. If you are setting up pace cars you are further through the instruction booklet than I. :auto-driving:

[btaylor]

Mike, I had searched the internet for a "Digital for Dummies" version of the instructions, only to find out that was what I had!
In time I will get the hang of the set up, just need practice. Viewed a few chip instructional videos as well, so the info is out there, I just have to know what to look for. So far, so good as they say, it did what I wanted it to do. Now I just need to make it do HOW I want it to do! The power reduction settings were very cool, and allows for some great pacer car running. So now the three McLaren street cars need to be turned into three vintage sports cars. Not a problem, as I have several bodies waiting. :D The first cars will be coupes I think, till I get the hang of this, then some detailed roadsters. I need more track to really get a feel for the overall experience.

Bob

[oldtymer]

Bobif an old guy like me can figure out digital u should be able to master it...after all you saw how quick I figured out that match thing..lol

[oldtymer]

Come up to Illinois...I'll show you some nasty digital moves for when your losing..lol...I cant feed you like Harry but you're always welcome
Fred...aka Pickles

[Nor Cal Mike]

[btaylor]

Fred, Nobody can feed people like Harry and Cindy do! but I appreciate the offer, and could use some good dirty racing pointers!
as far as the match thing goes.....I still think you have it wrong :lol:

And Mike, those F1 chips look small enough to fit in anything! is there a reason we cant wire the lights off the motor like the analog cars? I use Led's, and never have a problem hooking them up.

Bob

[Nor Cal Mike]

I don't know Bob. The current comes into the chip as square wave AC and it gets rectified to DC in the chip. so It seems to me that hooking the lights up at the motor would work. You'd have to try it and see I reckon.

[btaylor]

Played around with some various layouts last night. I got in some more track, and set up a 4x18 layout, using the two lane changers I have (dual crossover straights) and the pit row. Its just on the floor right now till I get some bench work done. The longer track made for a lot more fun digital racing, as the cars get stretched out a bit between each other. I am still using the cheapo cars till I get a table built, and the final track design finished, but so far this is great stuff!
One thing I found about digital racing that I had not thought of till now. In a race, You can actually qualify for position, and start the grid that way. very realistic for sure. cant wait to get some early F1 cars built for this!


Bob

[RazorJon]

the only digital racing I have done was at Chris Agee's Had a lot of fun with it, we raced 1\24

I would like to try a oval digital track with pit stops

[Nor Cal Mike]

Looks like you are getting well under way Bob. If you have a 4X18 going, you have collected enough track to make critical mass. IMHO you are better off using the XLC's that you have and not bothering with the curved ones (CLC's). The CLC's work just fine but it seems that I am always in the opposite lane when I want to use one for some reason. I only had CLC's to start but bought two CLC's to go with them. The CLC's really don't represent a good racing line which is the primary reason that I would want to use them. their arc only makes the curve sharper rather than easing it like a real racing line does. They also only come in 90 degree, r2 bends. If they came in 45's and you could use one to straighten a line through a dog leg, that would be cool but sadly it would take a lot of hacking on plastic to try to accomplish that.

I look forward to seeing what kind of track you come up with once you get your table built.

[btaylor]

Well Mike, its been quite a while since this topic has been used. Do to some stupidity on my part, my oval came down for now. So, I put up the SSD track to see what I could do. This is the final layout, minus the borders that are missing. and I may put two more straights on that left leg. but for now, this is my get to know the digi track. So far, it has been a real fun course. the straights are good for some speed, and the middle gives me the technical part we all need. We will see where this goes!