Scorpius Wireless Controller

[Dangermouse]

[Dangermouse]

I hesitated for a while about buying one, Scorpius just dropped the price of them, by about $70 - I had wondered about some of the other wireless offerings as well, Rick offered a faster laptimes or your money back guarantee on it so I thought why not. My first impression is it is a step above my slot.it and Hammer controller. After a few more hours driving since my post I can't wait to learn more about the curve power settings basically you can set them up for a range of different motors which will be handy. eg NC1 classic S1, Plafit S4 etc

A friend who uses them for digital racing and races Plafit 1/24 cars is quite impressed. He has used some high end controllers and thinks this one is right up there with them.

Will post more after using it for racing tomorrow

cheers
David

[Dangermouse]

Just got home from racing and I was really happy with the controller. I managed a 5th, 8th and a podium (3rd) so not bad and probably my best result

The controller was very responsive and the cars just seemed smoother all round, still need to work out things like braking and power curves for set cars but the I am happier with it over my other controllers. Nice light feel to the spring (though you can change this if you prefer a heavier spring) and the brakes worked really well.

I had a bit of a laugh - during practice I tried racing from a few different positions - the number of times I caught someone out because they thought the lane was free because there was no one standing at the station...

cheers
DM

[Modlerbob]

For a physically challenged person like me a wireless controller would have obvious advantages as I have difficulty moving to the various driver's stations at most tracks. So my question is. Does the base station hook up to the driver's stations like any other controller and get moved to the other driver's stations like a normal controller or does this system require some form of permanent connection to the track?

[Nor Cal Mike]

Ya wireless would be a nice feature.

[Dangermouse]

Hi Bob

You put whichever track connector you use onto wires on the grey box (WAM) and then plug it into the driver station. I think the ones sold by Prof Motor come with alligator clips on it.

THE WAM box takes power from the track. There are 2 batteries in the controller (it turns itself off when not in use) to power the LCD screen. The track I raced on yesterday had relays on the track to turn power on and off for a race. I had power immediately power became available no problem at all.

cheers
David

[Modlerbob]

Thanks, finally a $200 controller that makes sense to me and would be worth spending the money.

[hksk25]

What polarity is this controller?

[Dangermouse]

The WAM is positive polarity

cheers
David

[Dangermouse]

Well after using the controller for a couple of weeks now, including taking it racing, I am still quite impressed. Aside from all the nice features I really like the fact I am not wired to anything, it is really neat not being plugged in.

The controller has a really good feel to it, cars respond well, the brake adjustability is excellent and the sensitivity setting, while I still have some experimenting to do, is really good as well. Once you have set it up it is as simple as choosing a setting for a given car. The pre-set curves are really handy and work fine without a need to change them. Once you get a feel for the controller you might want to do some minor tweaking eg. the % start and then you work which car for which setting.

There is a program you can download from the Scorpius website to adjust the sensitivity - you need a dongle (sold separately) to upload the settings to the controller or you can enter them at the controller yourself using the buttons and dials. I play around with a curve setting I like and then enter the values into the controller.

As for how it went racing, one podium (3rd) and two top 10 finishes (5th and 8th) now I know it was a combination of well setup cars and skilful driving :) - but I also felt the controller helped.

cheers
DM

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Bob, does that look as good from where you sit as I think it does?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I just looked at Prof Motor, and it seems that they are locked into Microsoft crap. Damn! No Mac, and more importantly, no Linux. Its useless to me. I will never poison a computer with Microsoft again. I can live to the end of my days with no Windows garbage.

Maybe if the product does well, they will mature enough to be Mac and Linux open-source compatible.

[Dangermouse]

We are a Mac house - I run an emulator on my Mac so I can view the program. About the only thing I use the emulator for is to look at slot car programmes :) - I also have an old PC that does my timing, though lately I have been using my iPhone for that.

You don't need a computer to use the controller at all. You can change settings on the controller, it just looks like it would be a bit easier using the program.

cheers
David

[Modlerbob]

Good to know that after the newness wore off you still like it. I'll be ordering one in a few weeks.

[Modlerbob]

Well I got the WAM in the mail Wednesday and later in the day I went down to the track to check out my wireless controller. It wasn't hard to get up and running with it's default settings and I really like the fact that the controller is not tethered to the driver's station. Unless I get the "dongle" that allows detailed programming from my PC that can be transferred to the WAM it is going to take me a while to get the hang of just using 3 buttons to make programming changes. As I recall I had a hard time setting up those early digital watches that required you to do it all with just two or three buttons.

I sent a note to the guy that built this thing basically suggesting that if possible a less complicated controller dedicated for analog use and including the dongle in the package would make it more attractive for us guys who don't do digital.