Newbie question about digital.

[downtowndeco]

I'm thinking ahead to my next layout. Are there any advantages to digital, other than being able to run a large number of cars on a 2 lane layout? I have a hard time finding 2 or 3 guys to race with, let alone 5 or 6. Am I going to get anything out of digital that I can't already get out of analog? Thoughts?

[BRS Hobbies]

It depends on which system your looking at. For example, Carrera DIGITAL 132 has the option to use cars as ghost cars that run at a constant speed and change lanes at random. This can be a lot of fun for solo racers since you can leave the magnets in the ghost cars and race your car without the traction magnet for more of a challenge. Other advantages are if your car jumps lanes, you can keep racing. You also get a really nice timing and scoring setup using the AppConnect with the Carrera digital control unit.

The Scalextric ARC PRO has a lot of cool features using the App, such as -
1) Yellow flag function that brings all the cars to a slow speed. Then put any car(s) back on the track and restart the race.
2) Simulated weather conditions that have you change tires to wet or dry. If you don't have the right tires for the current weather than your car won't run as good.
3) Adjustable throttle profiles.
4) Pace cars that run at a constant speed.

Of course the big downside is that all the cars that you use must have an installed decoder chip for the system that you are using.

Brian

[patwa]

I have been running Scaley digital for years now and it has every thing you could want.
Variable power to each car individually. Pace cars at variable power levels and you can decide if you want them to change lanes or not. A track call button to stop all cars, so you can retrieve a car with out all the others smashing into it. A great display with tons of information. The chips are small enough to put into just about any car you like. I have them in Roadster type Indy cars, no problems, even the Marmon Wasp in 1/32. A great Pit lane set up. Plenty of race types to choose from. Choice of braking type. I do not use apps or computers, keep it simple. Plug and play fun. It changes the game as far as I am concerned.

[buspor63]

I'm really pleased with my Carrera digital setup integrated into a wood track. To me, the real benefit of digital is being able to run nose to tail, then execute a pass and carry on. That said, If I didn't routinely have 3-6 friends show up, I would have routed another three lane analog track.

[tracyridge]

by buspor63 » Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:44 am
I'm really pleased with my Carrera digital setup integrated into a wood track. To me, the real benefit of digital is being able to run nose to tail, then execute a pass and carry on. That said, If I didn't routinely have 3-6 friends show up, I would have routed another three lane analog track.

…… I agree with him!!




john

[GRUNZ]

what digital can give you over analog is a more realistic racing experience where cars are not running in parallel lines and where you do not need to break a race in heats so that cars are rotated across lanes. For the hardcore analog racers sharing the lane with other cars is a concept that is hard to go over: they really do not get that you need to look ahead to avoid colliding with a slower car and make your move to pass at the right time.

Then, depending on which system you get and the RMS that you run with there is the aspect of strategy. With a scalex digital system combined with a RMS like RCS64, you can get simulations of weather/tyres/fuel that dictate the way the cars behave on the track: for instance in wet conditions using hard tyre will give you the sensation that the car has almost no brake and delayed acceleration (similar to when the tyres are spinning on a wet surface).
To change tyres to adapt to the weather conditions, you need to go the pits and virtually change the tyres for the right type (through the RMS menu option). Now, it needs a bit of time before you get your head around but what this gives you is a more strategic game.
It is similar to long (analog/digital) races, eg. 3/6/12/24 hours, where the most reliable car/team is the one that usually wins (not always the fastest).
However, you can get all of this in 30 min races...which you can squeeze in a regular race meeting.

[borninthe50s]

I have a small Scalextric Arc Pro Digital track mounted to a 4'x8' board that fits into a closet in my apartment. I really like that it's wireless and that the third-party app (Magic Arc App) I use for car and race management is so flexible regarding power levels and throttle profiles that I don't need after market controllers or power supplies. Also, this app lets me play a solo race game using a "fast" and a "slow" pace car that I really enjoy. I don't really use the weather, tire, fuel and kers features, since theses don't work with pace cars and require some pretty sophisticated and dedicated racers.

All of that said, the conversion to digital is pretty expensive, especially if you have an existing stable of non-digital cars, and is not necessarily turnkey depending on your level of sophistication.

[BARC 1]

Carrera Digital here, with modifications and chipped lanes to run analog as well. Chipping lanes is an absolute must for me now with analog. Gives you variable power to each lane, adjustable brakes with the options of running races using the fuel mode. It was easy to put the guts of a Carrera digital controller in a Parma handle, so I have a pistol type controller which I prefer. Having said that, the Carrera digital thumb plunge controllers are nice and comfortable to use.

The Carrera decoders are pretty robust. Haven't had a failure since I started this( going on 2+ years). I have run my Old Cox 1/24 scale cars with their big 16D motors and never had a problem. Carerra has good circuit protection as well. If a short occurs across the rails the unit will just shutdown and restart itself. It has fully protected all the electronics, and as I mentioned I have not had to replace any decoders that are used to power the lanes.

Digital with multiple cars is a different kind of racing. The idea of running 6 cars on a small footprint layout though is a dream. Way too much going on. 3 maybe 4 cars is doable, but to run 6 cars you need a good sized layout . On my bedroom sized track, anything more than 3 cars is a crashfast that gets old in a hurry.

[Czar]

Former Carrera digital here (two years). Digital does offer more realistic racing because you can change lanes and, make strategic passes, and run out of gas. But, what lead me away from racing digital, other than having to spend another $35 - $50 to add a chip to non-Carrera cars, was my track configuration. IMO the average home track is too small to make digital racing viable. I think everyone who races digital will tell you it can (and often does) turn into a crash fest. Why? because the track is not suited to changing lanes, especially if there are several lane changers. How long does it take to run an average lap on your track? Let's say, for discussion, you have a 100 foot track and an average fast lap is 10 seconds; if you have two lane changers, space along the layout, you will be making decisions about lane changing and keeping track of other cars, about every five seconds. More lane changes, less clear running space. If you have a track that is shorter and lap times are quicker, there is just that much less time to plan your move. It can be fun, or it can be very frustrating, but it really takes a lot more thought building your layout than building an analog track. Like Barc says, if you increase the number of cars, the crashes will increase. Also, if you are used to running several different makes of cars, I think you will get tired of having to put a chip in, or just letting them sit. If you want to try digital, go for it, but not everyone who tries digital becomes a convert.

[GRUNZ]

It really depends on how people are used to race. I have a small layout when compared to the tracks that digital clubs in Europe have.
Here is the layout pic:



The table is roughly 5.5m x 2.3m. Lane length is 25.3 m. Lap times can be around mid 8 sec to low 7 sec depending on the class we use.
We race magless using slot.it P6 rubber and we do not go crazy on RPMs: SSD chips output is around 14V DC so we currently like to use "low RPMs" motors like the standard carrera & scalex, the 16K MRRC, and the NSR 17K Baby king.
We have plenty of speed to challenge us but still the cars are easy to handle.
We mostly run endurance races of 20 min up to 30 min.
We are manly 5 guys meeting every weekend: so we do self-marshaling. This means that when one deslots, he has to track call (this is all handle beautifully by the RMS we use - RCS64). However, to avoid that people go crazy on track calls, each drivers has an allotted amount of track call points - or damage points as we call them in RCS: every time you track call one point is taken from your pile. Once you are out of damage points, you need to pit to repair your car: repairing time is customizable; we are using a 20 sec repair time which means losing at least 3 laps.
I can ensure you that once people get close to running out of damage points they will start driving more carefully.

Anyway, we have been doing this for a couple of years now and most of the races we have long stints (up to 50 laps and more) where no one track calls so the flow of the race is not interrupted.

Of course, the flow of the track and the lane changer placement play an important role in all this.

About digitizing cars: I get a kick out of it! I have hundreds of cars but it is not like I am going to put chips in all of them. I usually have some ready to go and if I want to try something new, then I pick the car and put the chip in it.

I am also an analog racer (wood with copper braid): sometimes I want to try one of my analog car on my plastic track so by just removing the power base and putting in a half straight connected to a controller station (a controller plug connected directly to the power supplier).
So this means I can use my analog controller as well.

[downtowndeco]

Thanks to all that chimed in, I appreciate it. Now I've got something to think about. :)