Matt K Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I am running the c7042 powerbase with my scalextric digital setup. I have several lane changers and crossovers. After some early issues, I have been running the last several weeks without any issues. I added several power taps to the initial setup and overcame some early power issues. We clean the track regularly and use INOX very sparingly from time to time. After some early crashes and broken slotcars we began to take the magnets out and just run everthing "magnetless". This made us slow down quite a bit and actually "drive" the slot car and utilize brains to pass not just raw speed in the straights. Where our problem comes in is that 1 of our classes uses the scalextric impact resistant gt cars. We decided to take the magnets out of these cars as well to keep the speeds down also. All of the "regular" slotcars seem to still run fine and trigger lap counting just fine. By regular, I mean the regular weight and more detailed cars. The impact resistant cars, however; are now having problems. They miss triggering the lapcounter about every third lap or so. Sometimes more often than that and others more infrequent. They are lighter right out of the box than the rest of the cars and once the magnet is out they weigh next to nothing. I can slide them across the sensor and sometimes they register and other times no. The minute I put any downforce on the car and slide it across the sensor they register. They seemed to register just fine with the magnets. I have from time to time noticed other cars fail to register laps that had magnets, but it is VERY infrequent. Could the lack of a magnet in the lighter cars be causing the problem? Thanks for any help! PS - Also, what about a resister to cut down on interference from the motor? The cheaper cars do not come with one soldered in. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattcrackers Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 Hi Matt, Did you ever get the cable for the APB and upgrade the firmware, if you are still using the APB straight out of the box you will get lap counting issues. Others also say it depends on where in your layout you have the APB as some cars will not register laps. If your APB is near a corner and your cars are sliding they will miss the sensor most times. I have my APB in the centre of a 5m straight so I have no problems with sliding cars here although I do have the problem with NSR cars only counting every second lap when the mags are in at full speed down the straight, let of a tad before the APB and they will count the lap. You could also try adding some weight to your high resistant cars to make them heavier. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagleby flyer Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 I have found that the track coming into the powerbase track has to be quite level. I use a steal ruler to check levels. The lighter cars may be jumping a bit at the track joins, especially if it's a faster section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt K Posted August 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 The APB is about 4 feet out of a corner, however; the corner is tight and people must slow down through it and then excellerate past the APB so I dont think that the cars are sliding. I have still not updated the firmware so I guess that is still causing issues. The track sections are laid flat on a very level table so I am quite sure that is not an issue. Tonight I had issues with all cars missing laps, not just the impact resistant cars. I guess it seems that the issue is still the old firmware. Thanks again for all of the help Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigmaman Posted August 31, 2012 Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 Mate has this problem as well. We have the upgraded firmware as well. Only happens with certain cars. Generally the F1s. Quote www.sigmamansmodels.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattcrackers Posted August 31, 2012 Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 I have found that the track coming into the powerbase track has to be quite level. I use a steal ruler to check levels. The lighter cars may be jumping a bit at the track joins, especially if it's a faster section. Have to agree with eagleby flyer with this. I did raise all pieces of standard sport track in,before and after my pit lane by using 1mm card (doubled to 2mm) and cut to shape to bring all of the standard stuff up to the same height as the APB, XLC's and Pit Lane track pieces. I did this because as eagleby flyer I thought that the cars were crossing the APB sensor 'on the up'. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt K Posted September 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Thanks for the help guys. I will try some of the suggestions. Did addid the height seem to fix the issue or only help it out a bit? Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattcrackers Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Making the track all the one level has seemed to fix the lap counting problems except for the NSR cars as I said earlier, this may be because the guides on the NSR's are white and not black. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIH Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Black guides are mandatory for Scalextric lap counting because the detector uses a 'light beam break' method. If the beam is still 'seen' by opto detector, then no lap gets counted. Always use black slot guides for Scalextric digital. (Even blue appears to be borderline) Ian Quote Linux: A '90s reincarnation of a '80s Operating System based on a '70s design philosophy Website: www.electricimages.co.nz InCar-PRO: Chip Main Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussieslotter Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Perhaps a firmware upgrade is required so the opto sensor is ignored and just use the cars ID to count laps. Quote 3 stooges, 2 apologists and 1 deep endless mess. www.scorpiuswireless.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RikoRocket Posted September 2, 2012 Report Share Posted September 2, 2012 Update to 1.09 and it does exactly that Rick. You can then use any guides - black ones are no longer mandatory as it no longer uses the blade sensor at all in digital mode (it does in analogue mode) It will cure your problem Matt. Quote .............................PM me for C7042 Aux to PC cables............or Pit-Pro... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt K Posted September 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2012 Thanks Riko! I will be doing just that asap! Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P. R . Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Jjust changed my layout too a new design, had troubles counting laps was only counting every second lap. Started reading to figure out what was going on, updated to ver 1.09 solved all lap counting problems. Thanks guys... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RikoRocket Posted January 2, 2013 Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 Thats what forums are for! Quote .............................PM me for C7042 Aux to PC cables............or Pit-Pro... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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