Detection Hardware

A few months back I made an interface box which is wired between the detection components on the track and the laptop.  The soldering was never up to much, and it gave up recently.  I've been looking at more complex USB interfaces that would give the laptop control over inputs and outputs (e.g. controlling start lights or power) but they are quite expensive.

So for a fiver I bought another USB Gamepad yesterday and this morning it donated its innards to make a new interface box - USB socket at one end for the laptop, terminal block at the other end wired to the gamepad circuit board where the buttons would have made contact.  All housed in an old video box.  I'm still using the Scalextric RMS hardware for detection at the moment but now I can again use the start/stop and pause/resume buttons fitted to the table.

The hills are alive (part 2)

Using the same high-tech Paint-o-Vision approach as a previous post on scenery, I've been sketching out my summer project to finish the hills at the back of the circuit.  It currently looks like this...

...and here's the design which gives a rough idea of what I'm thinking about...

Unfortunately, in 1/32 scale my "mountains" are only about 4 storeys high - so a bit of artistic license will be needed.  Or else you can just pretend they're a lot further away!

Race Team and Track Officials

I had a fun morning racing against Aaron and Keiran.  After the first outing for their Evos (at last - sorry for the delay, boys), we also played with a variety of other vehicles of which the highlight was the dream TV tie-in of Starsky and Hutch chasing the Duke boys' General Lee.  Afterwards I finished varnishing up the latest set of figures.

The race team follow the action in the pits, making notes and checking timing.  The pit board shows the current lap record for the circuit.

The track officials keep an eye out for incidents - perhaps I should have painted a black flag instead given the driving techniques sometimes employed on the track...

Boys and their toys

Taking a lead from last year's Santander TV commercial where Lewis Hamilton drove a Scalextric car, McLaren have now released a video of him racing against Jenson Button on a Scalextric representation of Silverstone.

Monsieur Bibendum

Or the Michelin Man to you and me.  Courtesy of Halfords at the bargain price of £3.59 comes this rather pungent-smelling air freshener.  Hopefully, the odour will fade, but what remains is a huge (in Scalextric scale) Michelin Man, sat on a Michelin Pilot sports tyre - just perfect for the inside of one of the hairpins.