by TuscoTodd » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:13 pm
Randy,
On the analog racing / proxies I have been involved with, there are no methods I know of to limit overall max voltage via an individual controller (other than to limit how aggressive you are with your trigger finger). There "may" be some more exotic controllers out there that have that feature, but the normal Professor Motor, Parma, Difalco, OMNI, etc controllers that are typically used in the normal racing I have been involved with have the same simply pots to adjust throttle and brake sensitivity that you mentioned. However, if a limit in voltage is needed, the only way to apply that is via turning down the voltage at the power supply, which effects all cars equally.
As far as the various driver controller settings - each car is raced by the same driver/controller combos as the cars rotate through the lanes. The controllers used by each driver are, as you noted, set up based on a particular driver's driving style. They are not set to the characteristics of the particular car being run.
However, if I understand the comments, the tuning of the chips on each car is being compared to the individual controller settings of differing driver controllers - so maybe I misunderstood how these settings are done?
Does this mean that the chip settings are changed as the cars rotate from driver to driver to tailor each to the individual driver's style of driving, similar to the varying controller settings of analog?
In other words, as an example, if driver one would set the chip at 80% power, 50% brake, to match his driving style, when the car rotates to driver two, is that driver then able to readjust the settings to best match his driving style which might be say 90% power, 100% brake for his run - with each subsequent driver potentially changing those settings to their driving style through the entire rotation? If so, then I completely misunderstood how these adjustments are being made and agree that those chip settings are somewhat similar (at least on the braking side) to the adjustment of a controller's pot to match a driver's driving style.
However, if the chip is set to a specific setting at the beginning of the race and is not changed as it rotates from driver to driver to tailor to the individual driving styles - I don't see how this equivalent?
I have driven cars in proxies that were overpowered/poorly balanced/ill handling etc. And what is typically found (and I think it has been echoed a number of times through the various posts) is that if you lower the voltage available, a car that was a handful can become much easier to drive. However, the original point I was trying to make was that any changes should be applied equally to all cars - not varied on a car by car basis. If car 1 is a handful and limiting it's power to 80% calms it down and improves it's handling, in my mind, that same limit should be applied equally to all the cars - as car 2 may be "ok" handling at 100% but if it is lowered to the same 80% - it may make it handle "great"! From the tuner/builder standpoint - this keeps things on an level playing field for all entries and allows the builders / tuners to see how well they did in setting up their entry for the particular venue.
Dave -
In regard to the comments about hosts limiting voltage based on their track layout, power supply - I never meant to allude to that not being appropriate. If a host feels the overall voltage is too high, I agree completely that they should limit the chip settings to something appropriate. Again, my thoughts are that those limits should be applied universally to the entire field. If it is determined that power should be limited to say 30% power - all cars should be limited to same 30%. Not some at 20%, some at 30% and some at 40% - based on how well each is able to use the available power.
Hopefully the above comments made sense.
Please note - I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers with these comments - just trying to understand and help to generate thoughts regarding the next digital proxy.
Thanks!
:)