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Scorpius-wireless Digital Slot Car Project.


aussieslotter

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So what colour the PCBs solder mask?

I was thinking purple. 

The pic below is sort of similar to what the Multi Purpose Decoder will look like colourwise. Sexy huh?:P

 

B3DD3C23-B540-46B0-ADF6-E7A07A9E7732.jpeg

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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      NEW NAME FOR MPD....MAXIMUS

Hi Guys,

 MPD.... what is it?

Multi Purpose Decoder, perhaps Multi Protocol Decoder. Definitely it is both of these.

Scorpius had the worlds first multi protocol chip and also the first to multi purpose a car decoder into other products, ie Locator Pro. So it is definitely multi protocol, multi purpose.

Im thinking it needs an identity. Something with a bit more grunt. Seeing this board can perform over 20 roles it deserves something BIG!

Maximus MPD or Maximus for short will be the new name.

From the Latin: the greatest

maximus, maxumus, princeps, summus, ulterior, ultimus
 
So there you have it, Maximus has arrived.;)
 
 

 

 

 

E933A8C4-A798-43B9-B5B9-B37788C6E3C8.jpeg

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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The real one looks nice Rick, I take it it will provide on the line lap counting, nothing worse than laggy laptimes which means a scramble to reslot your car within 2 seconds to avoid a missed count, really competitive stuff.. 

And good to see future projects sticking with led beacons, this way you don't get sensors interfering with lane change solenoids and dumping the rms into thinking the car is on the pitlane... Brilliant stuff.. 

Scorpius Digital B)

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Hi Ade,

A real shame that :lol: All that extra in car hardware and annoying cabling to sense solenoids. I wonder was that ever considered? Obviously not. More stress equals less fun. Let’s look at the positives, it gives cheap and quick sector timing :lol:

For Nano chips only the best factories in the world can achieve a high success rate. Quick and efficient, equals lower prices with higher quality. This maintaining customer satisfaction and zero forum complaints.

When it comes to Nano chips things like micro vias, solder masking, accurate pick and place etc cannot be achieved in even small quantities outside a quality assembly house. Fact. A cottage business won’t cut it and in any case you need a real engineer with real experience. And a properly paid engineer will cost much more than to pay an assembly house. And I’ve seen some extremely poor quality solder mask presentations amongst other things lately which makes assembly houses look very good indeed.;)

Rick 

Edited by aussieslotter
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Below a typical backyard job. Via not concentric ....on any nano chip accuracy will need to be 0.05mm. I can understand why a self proclaimed engineer refers to themselves as a hobbyist. :lol:
 

 

9DC22BBC-F284-4766-A133-148579952E8D.jpeg

Edited by aussieslotter
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Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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At long last I've posted a new version of the SRMS. We'll be posting more in a bit about it, but for now I wanted to share the most important change. 

SRMS 1.14.x.x and all future updates now require 3 dongles for dynamic throttle control. This was a hard decision but the right one. Previous 2 dynamic throttle support could run 3 or 4 cars at most before latency issues made the car hard to drive and not a whole lot of fun. We've tested 10 cars under the new system with no noticeable issues and in theory it'll run up to 23 cars.

Here's how the setup works. 

Direct Drive: 1 dongle, but none of the advance RMS features including pace cars fuel weight simulation, tire simulations, and all the future support we have planned.

Pace Cars: 2 dongles. Both constant speed and recorded pace cars will run with two dongles as before. As with a single dongle none of the advanced features are available.

Dynamic Throttle: 3 dongles. All current and most likely all future RMS features are supported.

 

Starter · #2 · 2 d ago
 
Here is how the cars/controllers need to be setup for each use case the RMS supports:

No pace cars, no dynamic throttle
Code:
One dongle required

Car and Controller: 
   ID: [1, 24]
   PIN: [0, 999]

Car and controller share same id/pin pair.  Dongle data is 
used for lap counting and other pit features.
Pace car only (no dynamic throttle)
Code:
Two dongles required

Human car/controller
   ID: [1, 24]
   PIN: [0, 999]

Car and controller share same id/pin pair.  Dongle data is
used for lap counting and other pit features.

Pace cars:
   ID: [1-24]
   PIN: [0]

Pace car data is sent out on the same channel as the pace
cars assigned id.  The pin is always 0.
Recording for pace car playback
Code:
Two dongles

Controller and Car
 ID: [1]
 PIN: [0]

One dongle reads the controller values and saves the data.  The other dongle
reports car locations which is paired with the throttle levels for playback
Dynamic throttle (with or with out pace cars)
Code:
Three dongles:

Human/Pace cars:
 ID: [1, 23]
 PIN: [0]

Controller:
 ID: [24]
 PIN: [1, 23]

Throttle data is read from the controller which is modified based on the race configuration
and sends data to the car through the third dongle.  Pace car data is sent out on
the third dongle.  Dongle1 reads car data as always and applies fuel consumption
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Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

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         SCORPIUS R&D WORLD FIRST 

 

 Seems a few hobbyists with zero software skills and who have done zero development work in any race management system nor have ever designed, built and programmed a dongle think one dongle can simultaneously do the following: 

1. Successfully receive one hundred proposed 30 bit (approx once accelerometer data is included.) telemetry messages from 24 cars. 

2 . Successfully receive one hundred proposed 30 bit (approx once light status is included ) messages from 24 controllers.

3. Successfully send one hundred proposed 30 bit messages (approx once light status is included ) for up to 23 ghost/pace/simulated cars.

300 hours of intense testing over 12 months proves this.

Has anyone achieved the above? No? Didn’t think so :lol: Team Scorpius have and were first. Credit to Dave Aufderheide who leads the works in software development for slot cars.

Rick 

 

 

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Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

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                        THE DONGLE FACTS 
Hi Guys and Hobbists, 

I just did some research online and the closet thing to 24 car telemetry,  24 ghost/pace car and 24 car simulations ala Scorpius is another race software company who has limitations to 8 cars with simulations and zero telemetry.:lol:

I think that makes the score 72 to 8 in terms of functionality.;)

And the limitations? Dongle updates, lack of dongle updates and a 2 year wait on improved protocols from a manufacturer.

So you can see other teams struggling with 8 whilst we boast 24. It is certainly not the fault of the software developer as you can only work with your given :)

Picture below: Worlds smallest and most advanced digital slot car dongle.;)

Only the clued in people will get it that fast,  accurate data flow for  24 car telemetry,  24 ghost/pace car and 24 car simulations ala Scorpius in fact requires 3 dongles.

Rick

DBEE4A3C-D7D0-46AB-814D-9F5DB93A9EF8.jpeg

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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Hi Greg,

It clearly says functions (possibilities) not cars on track at one time. :)

Pretty cool huh 24 cars that have full on telemetry, ghost cars and simulated cars!!!!;)

I bet you wish your system could do that?:P

 

Rick

 

 

B5DAE8D3-D603-4F53-9F7C-D1C39404E70E.jpeg

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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You also clearly compare them using the numbers of 72 against 8. 

All I'm saying is, if you're going to put numbers out for comparison purposes, use the same math for everything.

Yes, I look forward to my system doing that. I've gotten used to those things with much older technology in SSD with RCS64 and 6 cars. It has been great for the last several years. Good to see that you're finally adding simulations to your system as well.

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         COLOUR CODED DECODERS

Scorpius was the first company company to use a non green boring as hell pcb mask. We used green, then blue and even red. 

Do the cars go faster? No, but there is an important reason that I will now explain to the hobbyists:

Scorpius plans not only to release the Maximus decoder but also a dedicated SSD decoder with integrated lights and RF/BT connection. as well as a dedicated Carrera decoder with integrated lights and RF/BT connection, a Scorpius F1 decoder, 12x8 with RF/BT and accelerometer, a braid plate decoder for SSD and a Nano chip for Scorpius. Different decoders will be easily identified by colour as well as different production run of one particular decoder. 
So next is purple. Or orange or maybe black. 
So there you have it. :)
 

Rick 

 

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, MrFlippant said:

You also clearly compare them using the numbers of 72 against 8. 

All I'm saying is, if you're going to put numbers out for comparison purposes, use the same math for everything.

Yes, I look forward to my system doing that. I've gotten used to those things with much older technology in SSD with RCS64 and 6 cars. It has been great for the last several years. Good to see that you're finally adding simulations to your system as well.

Thanks for the positive support Greg much appreciated.

72 to 8 a factor of 9

72 to 24 a factor of 3

Take your pick.;)

Simulations are multi times harder to implement in a wireless system. The trade off is 2 way comms, ie telemetry (huge) and 4 times more cars!

 

Rick 

 

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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39 minutes ago, MrFlippant said:

You also clearly compare them using the numbers of 72 against 8. 

All I'm saying is, if you're going to put numbers out for comparison purposes, use the same math for everything.

Yes, I look forward to my system doing that. I've gotten used to those things with much older technology in SSD with RCS64 and 6 cars. It has been great for the last several years. Good to see that you're finally adding simulations to your system as well.

Greg I actually got 2 distinctions for maths in the Australian Mathematics Competition in high school run by the Australian Institute of Mathematics in Canberra, Australia. For a distinction you need to come in the top 5% in the competition and only a handful of students are entered from each school from around the country. Sorry to disappoint you ....and yes I can email you the paperwork as I still have it after all these years if you like:)
 

Yes it’s 9 times the possible functionality or 4.5 times assuming all the simulations work. (Do they?)

You may be missing the point however. The data flow comparison differences are MASSIVE. 

Happy to clarify anything you don’t understand on the system. 
 

Rick 
 

 

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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46 minutes ago, MrFlippant said:

You also clearly compare them using the numbers of 72 against 8. 

All I'm saying is, if you're going to put numbers out for comparison purposes, use the same math for everything.

Yes, I look forward to my system doing that. I've gotten used to those things with much older technology in SSD with RCS64 and 6 cars. It has been great for the last several years. Good to see that you're finally adding simulations to your system as well.

Except no telemetry. And  I can’t see that coming anytime in the next decade. Unless you buy a complete Scorpius system.:)

We have 32 LB IDs as well, how many on your system? 

Rick 

 

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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48 minutes ago, aussieslotter said:

         COLOUR CODED DECODERS

Scorpius plans not only to release the Maximus decoder but also a dedicated SSD decoder with integrated lights and RF/BT connection. as well as a dedicated Carrera decoder with integrated lights and RF/BT connection, a Scorpius F1 decoder, 12x8 with RF/BT and accelerometer, a braid plate decoder for SSD and a Nano chip for Scorpius.

I thought the Maximus decoder would be able to do all those things. Why release dedicated decoders?

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51 minutes ago, aussieslotter said:

72 to 8 a factor of 9

72 to 24 a factor of 3

Simulations are multi times harder to implement in a wireless system. The trade off is 2 way comms, ie telemetry (huge) and 4 times more cars!

No one asked about how it's done, they only care if it's done, and if it works.

I have 8 cars with simulations on a wireless system using one dongle. Using your math, that's 24 of whatever you're talking about. If oXigen doesn't do all those communications, yet still achieves the desired end result, then you're bragging about needing to do more work, with more dongles, to get the same result? By your logic, one dongle should be able to handle 8 cars with full simulation, therefore the same work is being done by both systems. I don't expect RCSO2 to need three dongles to acheive that result, but if they do, then the math is still the same. One dongle per 8 cars with full simulation. 

Edited by MrFlippant
typo
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9 minutes ago, MrFlippant said:

No one asked about how it's done, they only care if it's done, and if it works.

I have 8 cars with simulations on a wireless system using one dongle. Using your math, that's 24 of whatever you're talking about. If oXigen doesn't do all those communications, yet still achieves the desired end result, then you're bragging about needing to do more work, with more dongles, to get the same result? By your logic, one dongle should be able to handle 8 cars with full simulation, therefore the same work is being done by both systems. I don't expect RCSO2 to need three dongles to acheive that result, but if they do, then the math is still the same. One dongle per 8 cars with full simulation. 

No one asked but I told.

By my logic.....? Or yours? 

And I didn’t mention any brand nanes and prefer not to. I’m just stating what Scorpius does. 

When it does 24 cars the way Scorpius does let me know.

So you have a 24 straight car control function. 24 ghost cars function and a 24 car telemetry function? 72 possibilities. Get it? No? That’s ok.

If they go 20 cars they will need 3 dongles. Trust me we lead the industry in this area and no one else has attempted it for your cross reference.

They are struggling to get 8 basic cars controlled with one dongle mate. Huge difference. Massive difference. 72 v 8.

 

Rick 

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, MrFlippant said:

I thought the Maximus decoder would be able to do all those things. Why release dedicated decoders?

Is a Maximus decoder required if you don’t need lights or an accelerometer or a hall sensor?

Wiil a Maximus decoder clip into your Scalextric braid plate?

Wiil a Maximus chip fit where only a 12x8 space is available?

Does a Carrera only user need SSD protocols?

Does anyone want to pay $59.95 for functions not required when they can buy a more basic Scorpius decoder for $29.95?

Etc 

So no.

All very carefully planned:)

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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23 minutes ago, MrFlippant said:

No one asked about how it's done, they only care if it's done, and if it works.

I have 8 cars with simulations on a wireless system using one dongle. Using your math, that's 24 of whatever you're talking about. If oXigen doesn't do all those communications, yet still achieves the desired end result, then you're bragging about needing to do more work, with more dongles, to get the same result? By your logic, one dongle should be able to handle 8 cars with full simulation, therefore the same work is being done by both systems. I don't expect RCSO2 to need three dongles to acheive that result, but if they do, then the math is still the same. One dongle per 8 cars with full simulation. 

It can’t achieve the same result it hasn’t got telemetry mate. Your comparing 24 to 20 also. Has more than 8 cars been tested and proven? No? There’s a reason  the software team is waiting on a dongle protocol upgrade for more than 8 cars. Have a think about it. Unless you have the knowledge gained from attempting this it’s impossible to make an informed statement.

Scorpius does 24 cars with ONE dongle so  there’s your proof ;)
This information can be verified online quickly. I can PM you the link.
Rick 

Edited by aussieslotter

Smoke, mirrors and obsolescence. It’s a jungle out there.

www.scorpiuswireless.com

 

 

 

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