What is new in the digital world?

[Czar]

Following up on my question about the state of digital racing, I will pose another question, directly related to the health of the digital world. In the past 3 months, 6 months, or year, what has been (in your opinion) the best new advance, or accessory that makes digital racing more exciting and/or realistic? This would exclude the release of new cars using the same old chips that have already been available. It would also be instructive to know if that advance came from a major manufacturer of digital products, or a third party, independent source.

Actually I would like to see this thread (or one similar) become a sticky so digital racers can have a concise listing of the new features of digital -regardless of manufacturer- as they become available.

[proxieken]

I am at a loss to really think of anything else to add to the system. I have a Carrera digital set up and recently added a set of kill switched for each driver with a variable delay off relay. I can set a delay of 2 seconds, and if you come off and hit the kill switch the other drivers get to advance until the power dies. This sets an automatic penalty for crashes. I got a full set of lane gates in the mail from digital racing solutions to add. With an aftermarket power supply I should be able to push 6 ghost cars with magnets and run 6 drivers without magnets for some very busy races! Set the delay to 0 and use the kill switched to keep the ghosts from clobbering me when I come off the track.

I looked in to the driver displays, start lights, position tower, wireless apps, etc. There seems to be a lot on offer. I am running the Yingling software and it has methods for bracket races, random breakdowns with variable repair times, and now Carrera is offering a 4 lane digital timing system as well as sector timing. It is possible to run a series of races with a penalty for wining using the software and run a very competitive series much like real racing. The Australian Touring Car Masters takes away 100 RPM's for winning. I liked the idea and digital can do this perfectly.

And if a sound system becomes available I will hook that up as well.

Right now I am extremely pleased with what is available and what it can do. I just wish I had more time to enjoy it.

[BARC 1]

I also run Carrera and the Yingling software. I can't think of another thing I need right now other then the lane change (prevent) modules to prevent crashes at the LCs.

Other then some onboard sound, I am not sure what is missing other then beating the dead horse over analog compatibility

[Czar]

I did a poor job of writing my original post. I am not asking what you would like to see in the future for digital. I am asking: what is new in digital racing? Hs anything been released in the past year that is an addition to digital racing, that has not been available before now? Ken, your kill switches sound very neat. But, they are not available to everybody. Not familiar with the lane gates, so that is type of item I hope we can put into this thread.

[BARC 1]

Just curious as to what you think digital needs?. I can't think of anything outside the bigger picture stuff like compatibility and the inclusion of analog option, and if we can't think of anything then I doubt much more will be coming.

I am very happy with my Carrera set up and since I did the analog mod myself I have almost no wants or needs. Carrera has a large selection of add ons, some of which I will never use already, so they have a lot of stuff covered, and kudos to them for covering the market so well.

So all I am suggesting is there may be very little in the way of new releases, but IMO that does not reflec badly on the state of digital. Speaks more to how well they have done.

Cheers

[dw5555]

I have to agree with what's been said. What else do you need? I can't think of anything I would want that's not out there already or is going to come out shortly. (sector timing)

Dave

[PWflyr]

What's new in the last year?

How about the Carson chip? It is an aftermarket D132 chip that fits into Scalextric DPR cars. It is plug n play. Allows you to easily run Scalextric cars on a Carrera digital track.

[MrFlippant]

I would agree that the Carson DPR chip is the most impactful development in the digital slot racing world in the last year. It has enabled DRAWW to easily include Carrera Digital track owners as race hosts in what is usually/primarily a Scalextric Digital racing series. I'm glad of it, as DRAWW was founded as platform agnostic, even though most of our membership from the start was SSD. It's good that Pioneer and some 3d printed chassis include the DPR hatch, so that we're not limited to Scalextric cars forever. Hopefully more follow suit.

The compatibility of oXigen chips with Carrera track is great, but I'm pretty sure it was officially released last year, or earlier. Otherwise, I might have said that. Alas, it requires an oXigen controller as well. AFAIK, there is no such thing as a single chip that will respond to more than one digital system's signal provided by the RAILS, e.g. the power base itself. That would be cool.

[lancelotalove]

What about features that were neat on other systems that went away when other manufactures stopped digital or stopped altogether.
Ex. I liked the fuel tower that SCX had. 8 or 10 LED bars that were all on with full fuel tank and stared turning off LEDs as fuel was burned. would have been nice if they were 6 green for full, 2 yellow, 2 red. I think they were all red.
Scalextric pit game does not do that, and i dont think pit pro had enough LEDS. I dont know about Carreras driver stations.
Lance

[ourwayband]

Carrera driver stations do that exact thing..

[Nor Cal Mike]

Out of curiosity, I just looked up the Carson DPR chip. I
http://www.slotcar-union.com/en/power-c ... 71309.html
like it better than Carrera's own chip given its smaller size. But alas, at 34.90 Euros, it costs about the same as an entire Carrera digital car.

[BARC 1]

I guess it is because it is a plug and play way of getting Scalextrics cars on a Carrera system.

I personally would just use the Carrera chip. If I can fit them in 143 scale cars I am not sure why I could not get one to fit in a 132 Scalextrics car. However I do understand the economics of smaller runs and I imagine as much as this chip appears to cost the end benefit for Carson is probably not that much, and it just costs what it costs.

I used to buy Carrera chips, but the whole Carrera car is only and $15 more, so Lately I am looking at buying cars instead of just the chips. So I am new to digital, but to me that is a pretty big development to see the cost difference between analog and digital so small.

Cheers

Dan

[Nor Cal Mike]

The advantage of the DPR format for a racer who wants to run Scaley cars on his D132 track is the plug and play ease of DPR. One chip can digitize a whole bunch of Scaley cars if you don't mind moving the chip around. If a D132 club wanted to run, let's say a classic Trans Am series, Carrera doesn't make a decent Trans Am car. it would be affordable for a racer to buy only one chip for that series and use it across a pretty decent spectrum of Scaley and Pioneer cars.

I hear ya about the high cost of small lot production. And who wants to work for free.

[oldtymer]

[kidvoltage]

The Digital Racing Solutions Lane Gates are a nice addition if you have Carrera Digital. They prevent cars from changing lanes when they are too close together and collision would be the result. You can still get butt-whacked but at least you won't get cut off at the pass.