Scaley Digital Controller

[Drifter]

Hi guys, got a q on scaley digital controllers. How many wires do they have connecting to the track 3? and what do they ( the wires) do?

D.

[Kenny]

With SSD, the controllers connect to the powerbase, not the track. The contoller,magically, controls the car allocated to it by the powerbase, somehow.

There are only 2 wires from the controller to the powerbase.

[Kenny]

With SSD, the controllers connect to the powerbase, not the track. The contoller,magically, controls the car allocated to it by the powerbase, somehow.

There are only 2 wires from the controller to the powerbase.

I firgot I'd been drinking beer.

The 2 wires communicate with the powerbase.

You can join them, make them as long as needed, as long as the polarity is kept the same.

[Drifter]

Thanks

[MIH]

.... You can join them, make them as long as needed, as long as the polarity is kept the same.

 

Actually, for SSD throttle controllers, it doesn't actually matter if the wires are reversed! The powerbase only sees the resistance of the throttle and the resistance is the samne, no matter which way around the wires are.

 

Ian

[Drifter]

So what happens when the brake button is pressed or the lane change button?

[Kenny]

So what happens when the brake button is pressed or the lane change button?

 

Only a guess here, but the brake button probably breaks the signal, and the LC button does something similar, only different.

[aussieslotter]

Each button brings a resistor into the circuit. The PB senses the resistance on the throttle circuit, brake and LC buttons.

[Drifter]

So I wonder why they have a limitation of six cars? I'm wondering if they will bring out a four lane powerbase and increase the number of cars you can race at once.

 

Drifter

[Kenny]

So I wonder why they have a limitation of six cars? I'm wondering if they will bring out a four lane powerbase and increase the number of cars you can race at once.

 

Drifter

 

Drifter,

I think there is something you are missing here.

I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but you won't ever see or need a four lane powerbase.

Digital (SSD) is basically ONE LANE with up to six cars.

You could have a 26 car powerbase, but it would still be digital on basically, one lane, regardless of how many lanes you actually have.

Isn't 6 on the track at once enough??

[MIH]

Nice description Kenny.

 

Reality is that there are technological and performance reasons in restricting to 6 cars.

 

In brief, the data to send to the cars must be bundled into packets and all sent to the track for the cars to read. You could extend the number of cars, but in adding more car data, you reduce the number of times per second the data goes to the track. Digital can send some 40-50ish packets per second

 

Now imagine how far your [standard motor] car travels in one second - its quite some way - almost 6 metres. Working backwards, this is a command about every 12cm - when coming up to a corner, thats a big difference between an 'off' and getting around. Adding more cars, just makes the command distance even longer... Faster motors also makes it longer.

 

Ian

[Drifter]

Sounds like it would be fun to muck around with , is there any open source code out there?. There is mention of using the aux port in the new six car power base for race management software (RMS) .

 

Drifter

[aussieslotter]

Its possible to fit many cars on the rails but the problem is the lane change code. 6 IDs is around as much as the system can detect reliably.

[Drifter]

So how does it work> you press the lane change button and the power base tells the lc to switch when car id xyz approaches the lc????? Or does the car activate the lc via ir led?

 

Drifter

 

ps I'm curious to see if it is possible to replace the power base with a pc to extend the functionality of it all.

[MIH]

The powerbase sends signals to the track.

 

The cars receive the signals and decode them. Inside the signal is throttle (64 different motor speeds) brakes, and lane change command

 

The cars constantly send out their car ID down onto the track via the LED.

 

The track detects the LED signal at either a lap counter, or at a lane changer

 

When lane changing command comes into the car, the LED signal is inverted (ie instead of the LED being most ON, it becomes mostly OFF) The lane changer detects this difference, and switches the flipper appropriately.

 

Quite simple really - but all the good things are.

 

For other details, see my site http://www.electricimages.co.nz/

Ian

Edited October 22, 2010 by MIH

[aussieslotter]

The car continuously transmits its ID which also doubles as a no lane change command (also count laps).

When you press the LC button the PB sends a signal up rails to car and the cars sends a lane change command (signal inverted) via its LED. Note the lane changer only knows a car wants to change or dont change, it doesnt know which car is what.

Edited October 22, 2010 by aussieslotter

[Drifter]

Thanks guys, Aussieslotter & MIH. I had a good read of MIH 's link ,very interesting.

 

Two questions though, with a 6 car base does the system run fairly reliably i.e lap count and lane changes, with all six cars flying around or is there some missed detections when the system is at capacity?.

 

Q2 Can I assume then when an analogue car is placed on a digital track it won't move due to the AC current?

[aussieslotter]

The AC can be also seen as pulsed DC (square wave not sinusoidal). This allows a code to be carried over the wave.

If you place an analogue car on a digital track it goes full speed.

No missed detections and reliable. There was a detection issue but already some code has been issued. (C7042)

Edited October 23, 2010 by aussieslotter

[Drifter]

So with regards to the controller resistance, would it be possible to install a pot in series to limit car speed/throttle for younger/new drivers or would this upset things i.e lane changes and braking buttons?

i understand the new 6 car pb (will be grabbing two when they hit AU ) has throttle control limits but I'm looking to be able to adjust available throttle dynamically.

 

Drifter

[aussieslotter]

Why dont you get your PB upgraded to PB Pro and do it via the menu. (Assuming you dont have a 4 car PB). Or get the new PB coming out.

What I did years back was drill a hole through the casing and limit trigger physically with a brass rod. A bit radical for most. Or you could pull the controller apart and put some sort of limiting device on the trigger.

Edited October 27, 2010 by aussieslotter

[Drifter]

re Pb pro, can you adjust max throttle whilst the car is in motion on the track? This is what I mean by adjusting it dynamically, as the driver gets the feel you can tickle it up a bit or if they're struggling it can be turned down.

 

 

Drifter

[aussieslotter]

Not sure but if the best way would be to set it up BEFORE the race within the practice period.

 

MIH, just an idea, if you made only 16 motor speeds would it free up much space for more code on other aspects like braking?

[MIH]

Yes and no. But it does depend on what you're asking... more data packets to the track; or more control to the car?

 

I would want more than 16 speeds, unless you could trim each cars to interpret the 16 codes appropiately for its mass and power. Its easy to quickly match an analogue throttle (tru-speed) with a car, but nigh on impossible to do the same on digital.

 

Thing is too, though, is why would you have brakes on at the same time as the motor??? When braking, you don't expect to keep power on the motor! So the same data bits can be used, but for different meanings. Its not a data size issue, its how much intellegence is placed into the car chip and matched up with intellegence in the controller. But for SSD, this would considerably complicate the throttle controller too - and increases the cost of the 'toy'.

 

Ian