Waving the chequered flag

I bought a rather shabby looking vintage Scalextric starter some time ago.  I'd given him a quick lick of paint and a simple flag, and he stood, checking his watch, next to the start/finish banner.

Under the rostrum is a piece of string that you can pull to make his arm wave the flag.  This needs automation!

First job was to repaint the starter and his rostrum, and replace his flag.

Next step was to make a jig for a motor to pull the string, and fix it under the layout table.

I fitted a disc on a 12V 60rpm motor that is operated by the Phidget output linked to the Ultimate Racer race management software.  This provides power for a few seconds at the end of the race.

It works a treat.  You can see it in operation in the video below (or follow this link).

Get your knee down!

At the Swindon swapmeet back in the New Year, I bought a couple of SCX motorbikes.  These had a central rod through the axis of the bike with the (comparatively) heavy motor below and light rider above.  The idea was that in the bends the motor would swing out and give the effect of the rider leaning in.  It was reasonably effective but didn't work great with Scalextric track, particularly the tight hairpins, and I quickly sold them on.

However, I recently discovered an alternative made by Speed ISS.  They produced a series of leaning motorbikes from 2009 to 2011.  I'm assuming they didn't do well as their website no longer active and the bikes are available for a good price.  But they work much better than the SCX models.

As you can just make out on the top and side of the box above, the bikes come with their controller, so as well as the normal throttle, you have a wheel to turn which activates a servo on the bike to make it lean one way or the other.

So rather than happening automatically like the SCX model, you decide when to lean in.  There's a little bit of "pat your head and rub your tummy" about this, especially as the position of the lean wheel means you control the throttle with your left hand and the wheel with your right, but it soon all clicks into place.

I bought models of the Ducati Desmosedici ridden by Nicky Hayden, and Valentino Rossi's Yamaha YZR M1.  I chose these two partly for the colours but mainly because the other two bikes I have by Scalextric (non-leaning) are also Hayden and Rossi (bottom pair below).


Although the company website is no more, there remain a few promotional videos on YouTube.  This one shows a bike in action.

So how does it work on an analogue track?  The box contains not just the bike and a controller but also a little box of tricks that plugs into the Scalextric power base, and then has the power supply plugged into it.  This allows the controller to not just send speed signals to the bike but also a signal that actuates the powered servo to lean the bike.  This is pretty clever and also has me wondering about how to adapt this so that other cars could have servo-operated effects - a real ejector seat in the Aston perhaps?

It's not perfect - there is some buzzing from the servos at times - and you do have to concentrate to control them.  But it does add to the racing and the leaning makes a real difference - you can go faster through a corner when you're leaning (and of course are likely to deslot if you accidentally leaned the wrong way!).  An interesting addition to the collection.

If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire...

The A-Team!

This is another fine bodyshell from Chase Cars.  Apart from Scalextric's General Lee, slot cars representing classic TV cars from the eighties aren't easy to find (Scalextric's Knight Rider being not worthy of the name), so Gareth is filling a great gap in the market with his cars.

The bodyshell comes with an interior and windows.  I used a PCS chassis this time.

The heads of Hannibal and BA are cast separately and are pinned onto their bodies which form part of the interior.

Many toy versions of the A Team van (a 1983 GMC Vandura) are all black with the iconic red stripe.  And I suspect most people have the same memory.  But the van is actually gun metal grey above the stripe and only black underneath - like in the screenshot below (although unlike other vehicles they used in the series, this one doesn't have the stripe going right up to the back corner as usual - but it was the clearest photo I could find which shows the two colours).

So the van has to be sprayed in stages with the different bits masked off.

And then varnished once the detailing has been painted by hand.

The bodyshell is completely empty so I fixed a couple of pieces of plasticard to glue the mounting posts to, and hot-glued in some foam to hold the interior in place.  I sprayed the wheels red too and cut some metal rod to the right width for the van.

The finished item:

Drives really well too.  I pity the fool who has to race against this one...

Repositioning the start line

I moved the start line yesterday.  Simple to write, much more complicated to do.  I needed to take the drill and jigsaw to the table to cut the new hole under the track for the infra-red sensors, and then extend the wiring for the sensors and start lights.

Having the start line around the corner from the long straight has three advantages:

• the risk of crashing on the corner at the end of the long straight is much reduced, as racers can't achieve the fastest lap or win the race by keeping on the gas all the way down the straight, now that they must slow down to successfully reach the sensor around the corner
• the risk of missed laps is also reduced as the lap sensors and refuelling sensors are now further apart (previously laps would sometimes be missed with very fast cars as the signals from the sensors came too close together)
• both racers can more easily see the start lights and the race status board

The chequered grid at the start line was originally a sticker.  It was starting to look a bit grubby and scuffed so I upgraded it.  I cut up the sticker into squares and stuck them in a chequered pattern.

I then sprayed the gaps with white paint and then applied a layer of matt varnish.

I also upgraded the pit lane:

• replaced the home-made borders with genuine items (which hold the barriers much more firmly in place)
• replaced the barriers in front of the pitlane with concrete "jersey wall"-type barriers
• moved the refuelling sensors to a position half-way along the pit lane, and fitted the sensors right up to the rail to make it easier for narrow body cars to be detected

Lastly, with health and safety in mind ;-) I fitted some yellow and black anti-slip tape to the raised joist.

Given all the changes since the last one, I took a new panorama photo and a short video of the track.

Volvo builds a life-size Scalextric track

Volvo has created a supersized Scalextric track to solve the problems of huge electric car batteries.

See here for the full story.  Moving stuff along a track is probably better done by trains!