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When racing the other night the lane changer (from outside to inside lane) on the Carrera track would flip randomly. We could race for 15 minutes with no problems and then, without touching the lane change button, the flipper would shift and send cars into the other lane. Usually the flipper would remain in the lane change position. Sometimes it would happen every lap, even though we would manually change the position of the flipper back. Sometimes when cars were nose to tail the first car would be shunted and the following car would not. Again, this is without touching the lane change button. Sometimes you could change lanes with a press of the button and the flipper would return to the correct position, sometimes not. I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and whether there is a solution. Personally, I think the track piece is defective. Any thoughts?

If you swap it with another one on the track does the problem stay with the previous position or move with the suspect lane changer to the new location?

What are you using for a power supply? How long is the track? How far from power is the section in question?

Didn't move the track. The power supply is the Carrera wall wart/ Distance from power tap is between 12 and 14 inches.

Not sure if room lighting might trigger the sensor, perhaps?

One problem I have frequently is one car switching lanes and the following car not re-setting the flapper. This happens if you are using an off brand car with a shorter guide, or an older Carrera car with an older chassis. I have an older Torino that I spliced a chip in and it causes this problem. However, the problem is most common on some of my tilted track pieces, because this causes the guide flag to lift slightly. I have my track tilted and going up and down throughout most of the run.

The biggest problem we have is people cutting in to pit lane too fast. The sharp curve causes the guide to lift enough to miss the re-set switch. This means the pit lane switch remains turned. Pit lane is on the main straight and the next car comes down full speed and hits the lane change which then sends the car hurling violently. We have had truly horrifying crashes in this manner. The solution is to enter pit lane slowly to ensure your car is not leaning and missing the re-set. In practice this has not really worked out too well.

Ken, I appreciate your suggestions and experience but this piece is dead flat, on a straight away, it happened when cars were going at speed (though it is only one piece removed from a corner exit, or when they were going slow. We ran across the track at very slow speeds trying to see if we could observe any variation in the performance of the track piece. And, it is a completely random event. At one time we raced about 15 minutes without incident. During that segment, cars would stay in their lane when passing over the track section. Cars would change lanes when the button was pushed and then the flipper would return to its normal position. Then, inexplicably, cars would be shunted into the other lane and the flipper would stick in the lane change position. I even put a small dab of Inox on the moving part of the track to be sure it wasn't sticking. I am suggesting Tim return the track piece to Carrera and let them figure it out. I know they will only replace the track and we will never hear another word about it, but at least he can regain the integrity of his track.

Did this happen with all of the cars or just a particular car? I have found the same issue with my SSD set up and it seems to be when the car has had a large hit and or the chip is on the way out. Do the cars that have this problem still reliably count laps? This is usually the give away that the chip is about to die.

It happened with all the cars. Lap counting was not an issue. I think the track is bad.

Swap the track and you'll know for sure.

I had a similar issue and was sure the track was defective. Then I was sure that both tracks I tried (spares) were defective. Once moved to a different location they were fine. In my case it was me running the track with a variable PS at voltage just low enough to be an issue at one location only - all others worked fine.

Only time I had that trouble was when the track voltage was low. Try a different wall wart if you have one, or Run some jumper wires. If you can it wouldn't hurt to send it back, just in case it is faulty, but I am guessing when you get the new one back the issue might be the same. Inside the electronics picks up power for the rails. They have feeder wires that are a wiper type arrangement that goes inside the rail. It could be one of those is not connecting properly. If that is the issue then a new piece would cure your problem

Cheers


Dan

I should have followed up earlier, sorry. My friend took the misbehaving track piece and substituted a regular straight. He place the lane changer track in another spot on the lay9out, it is works fine. Problem solved, no idea how or why.

AHA! Perfect, glad to hear it.

I have this issue in one particular spot due to lighting. When placing a small piece of electrical tap over the eye there is no accidental changes...obviously no intentional ones either.

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I'd find a different location for it.