14 replies to this topic

[warrick]

hi
just having a problem with my controller.on 1 track at my local shop the controller basicly wont work.the car stop,goes 3/4 of the way round the track but seems to work fine down the straight.does it no matter what car i use but works fine on every other track.borrow a controller & the cars work fine.red light does come on when its playing up.any helpful advice appreciated.
cheers
warrick

[aussieslotter]

Got a similar problem with my King 46K motor with SCP-1. Big motor but only uses 1A once its going.

[SlotsNZ]

Doesn't your own description indicate that there is a problem with something related to that one track?

It may be that the supply is unregulated, and the voltage drops under load.

I would ask the track owner to tell you details of the power supply, compare that to th supplies on other tracks, and also whether the track has the same wiring as his other tracks.

[warrick]

yeah i know the obvious thing is to talk to the track owner,but i & others,have mentioned it before over the last few months
with no real interest on his part.probably as it only affects a couple of us with the slot it controller.what i really am after is if
i can narrow it down to the controller or the track?is it a design fault in the controller or is it just the track?
thanks for the info
cheers
warrick

[aussieslotter]

The way you descibe it it has to be the controller. I mean if you used another controller and it worked. Unless its a combination of both. Maybe the track shorts out at that point and the controller senses a short?

Edited by aussieslotter, 09 April 2010 - 07:48 PM.

[dangermouse]

Was the other controller (the borrowed one that worked) a slot.it controller or a different brand. I had an unregulated power supply - with my Parma controllers this wasn't a problem cars ran fine but with my slot.it SCP-1 I could run a few cars with out any noticeable problems but then others where doing just what you described. If you can run cars fine with the controller on other tracks without this happening then I am not sure that the controller is faulty rather I agree with slotsNZ check to see what the PS is it may be unregulated.

If the other controller that worked is a slot.it then not sure what to tell you
DM

[aussieslotter]

It may not be the actual controller at fault but it only happens with that particular controller. Id love to know the answer out of curiosity. Also says the red light comes on, another clue. Could easily be a faulty controller. The track has something to do with it as it stops 3/4 the way around the circuit. I dont see how regulated/unregulated has anything to do with it.
The red light comes on on my SCP-1 also.

Edited by aussieslotter, 09 April 2010 - 10:30 PM.

[dangermouse]

Do you mean the red light that comes on when you hit maximum power - when you squeeze the trigger all the way to the end.

I can't say I know a lot about electronics - only that I had a similar problem car would fly down the main straight and then stop go around through the esses and through the small back straight before the hairpin - it seemed to do this more when I was working the trigger than if I held the trigger constant down the straight. It was suggested I try a regulated power supply and when I switched from a unregulated to regulated the problem went away.

This was Mark's explanation
by way of SlotsNZ -
"That Triang supply is un-regulated, and it throws out anything from about 10 to 20 Volts DC depending upon the load from the car. And it's probably not pure DC, but rather a crudley chopped square wave made from the stepped down AC out of the actual transformer. I bet that old supply didn't have a full bridge rectification circuit......

That sort of voltage at peak would cook the Slot.it, except that it has a couple of protective layers of electronics that shut the door on the power - within a couple of milli-seconds before the supply can do it any damage.
Then it opens the door, the excess voltage starts to rush in again, so it shuts the door again. Open, Shut,open, shut,open, shut....The bit that leaks through gets the cars going....It probably happens more with long can motors, or higher powered cars too......."
...................

In the SCP-1 manual it talks about the ways the controller protects itself against damage - " So, the Slot.it SCP-1 continuously monitors the current drain from the track and cuts power if the current is higher than 6A. The situation is checked every few tenths of a millisecond, and if the short circuit goes away, power is restored. The 'diagnostic' LED flashes with one flash every two seconds while this condition is detected."
cheers
DM

Edited by dangermouse, 10 April 2010 - 11:00 AM.

[aussieslotter]

As the manual says its an amps issue not a voltage issue. Just for the record my supply is a lab quality regulated type. I might invest in the cartridge that does high powered motors, but I was only going slow. One way to find out.

[dangermouse]

DM

(cleaning up my mess)

Edited by dangermouse, 10 April 2010 - 10:55 AM.

[aussieslotter]

I was aware of that DM Its possible the motor has as fault too, or it picked up some debris and its touching the comm. At this stage I need to do more investigation

[warrick]

one point,i may have misled people when i said it only plays up on 1 track.i meant 1 lane of the track,sorry if i misled anyone.the other point the second controller was not a slot-it.when the red light was on ,it stayed on even with the trigger realeased until i pulled the trigger again.i am beginning to think that it really is a lane fault with perhaps a shorting problem as although everyone else can use the lane,performance is reduced slightly by varying degrees per person.i think that perhaps the slot-it protection parameters are more sensative than others & amplfying the problem.if it persists i have an old parma controller i will just have to revive for that lane.
thanks everyone so far for your thoughts.
cheers
warrick

[dangermouse]

now the truth comes out
be worth trying to get the owner to check the wiring and setup on that lane then...I wouldn't want to damage my SCP-1 on a faulty track.
cheers
DM

Edited by dangermouse, 10 April 2010 - 10:54 AM.

[aussieslotter]

warrick, on Apr 10 2010, 10:20 AM, said:

.i think that perhaps the slot-it protection parameters are more sensative than others & amplfying the problem

I assumed it was one lane anyway.
But yes its a combination of both the lane and controller as I thought.

[aussieslotter]

aussieslotter, on Apr 9 2010, 10:56 PM, said:

As the manual says its an amps issue not a voltage issue. Just for the record my supply is a lab quality regulated type. I might invest in the cartridge that does high powered motors, but I was only going slow. One way to find out.

Edit: Just found out the 30A cartridge not available anyway.