Panorama update

I thought it was about time I updated the panoramic photo linked off the front page of the blog.

Here's the state of the layout as of today.  Moving from left to right, the changes include: quad bikes parked by camera tower, first aid building, commentary building, wall clock in the shape of a wheel, more art on the walls, Spitfire flypast, lots more figures in the pit lane, cardboard control tower replaced by the vintage version originally on the left-hand side of the track, big screen, trees, more spectators, timekeepers' hut, additional camera tower, entrance hut with turnstiles.  Click on photo for big version.

More spectators and a new car

I got a load more Chinese figures a while back.  I mounted them in groups and grassed the bases.  The figures I'd painted I placed on painted foam.

The Chinese figures look ok from a distance so I've used them around the big screen and filled out the grandstands with them.

I also treated myself to another car last month, one that I used to enjoy using on Gran Turismo.  This isn't the most exciting colour scheme for the Mazda 787B but it's a great car.  It's the first car I've bought from MrSlotCar, a Canadian company owned by a slot car racing champion, and these cars are designed for racers with high-spec components, including machined bronze axle bushings, hardened steel axles, adjustable motor pod for spring suspension, and adjustable front axle height.

Upgrading the electronics

I've been having increasing problems with the refuelling/pitstop detection getting stuck on.  All the sensors go through a USB gamepad as the switching device, and I'm already on the second of these, so through it was about time for an upgrade.

The race management software I use (Ultimate Racer) is configured for a variety of inputs, including a set of devices made by Phidget.  The board I wanted (the Phidget 1012) is around £100 in the UK but I found a little used one on eBay for half that.

The board is about 3x4 inches with 16 digital inputs, 16 digital outputs and connects to the laptop via USB.

I connected Herman's sensor board to the Phidget as well as the two buttons on the side of the track layout that start/stop and pause/resume the race.  (I'm not actually using any of the components on the sensor board on the right of the picture below - it was just convenient to solder the wires that carry the inputs to the Phidget at the top of the board, and means I can revert to using that board if something goes wrong with the Phidget).

So far in testing, the fuel sensor sticking problem has not recurred, so hopefully that's sorted.

But the added value of the Phidget board are the digital outputs, which allows the powering of other track-related events.  The first project for these was controlling the power to each lane of the race layout.  This is safer done through relays so I wired together a small circuit board (about 3x1 inches) with compact relays (£2 each from Maplin).

The black wire at top-left is a 12V feed.  The two black wires at the bottom go to two different output connectors on the Phidget card.  When the output is switched by the race software, the relay switches the current flow through the red wires.  These are wired through the block on the right to the power supply to each track.  I've wired the relay so by default the red wires are connected (so that the track can be used without having to turn on the laptop or race software).

This affects racing in a couple of ways.  The minor benefit is that pressing pause/resume now switches the power off and on to the track.  But more importantly, when a racer now runs out of fuel, the software switches the power off to their lane, and they have lost the race.

Here's a diagram that shows the wiring (hybrid of a sketch and a circuit diagram - but hope it's clearer this way).  I'm only using power supply but have drawn it twice below to simplify the drawing.

I've got a few other projects in mind for the Phidget outputs - watch this space...

Two childhood favourites combined...

When "blocks-that-look-and-work-like-Lego-but-legally-aren't-Lego" meet Scalextric!

Stop! Police!

A good racing session with Stuart today.  We spent a couple of hours in the loft before it got too cold for us, and then came down to warm up with FIFA and Driver on the Playstation.  The speed camera policeman was unperturbed by Stuart's cars coming off the track, not even blinking when a deslotted Hummer bore down on him, coming to a halt just a few mm away...

The ticket is in the post, Stuart.

Z4

After Louise got her new car last month...

... I started looking for a Z4 slot car.  Cartrix used to make a BMW Z3 which I found a few years back for Andy in the same colour as his car but surprisingly, no-one seems to sell a Z4 convertible.

Carrera though do sell a Z4 M Coupe, and it's too nice (probably, but watch this space...) to attempt a soft-top conversion as I did for my 350Z.

The model is a pretty good recreation of the race-ready BMW Z4 GT3, which is a 480 bhp V8-powered Z4 M coupe that BMW sell to customers (with a spare quarter million quid) to use in motorsport.

A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist

My enthusiasm for Knight Rider is pretty obvious - here's the first car I bought for myself, way back in 1999:

Surprisingly, nobody sells a Knight Rider slot car.  Scalextric did in the 1980s and it was an abomination:

Apparently, Scalextric used the tooling for the Triumph TR7, lengthened the nose and stuck some bits on it.  Consequently, the proportions were all wrong.  I've got one (obviously) but have always been looking for a plastic kit I could convert but these are so rare now and I've never yet seen one for sale.

But I recently discovered a company called Betta & Classic, one of the oldest slot car companies, which manufactures dozens and dozens of lightweight bodies.

I bought a few bodies from them that I'd like to build but can't find anywhere else and the 1984 Pontiac Firebird Transam was the first on the list.  They are very light and so coupled with racing chassis, they'll go very fast.  I prefer a scale speed that looks right on the track so just bought a standard chassis from Pendle to go with it.

The bodies come in thin white plastic or even thinner clear plastic.  Of course, if you buy both, you can cut holes for the windows out of the white version and just pop the clear body up inside for a perfect match.

 First thing to do was paint the gold skirts:

...then mask them off to spray the whole car black:

 With the chassis built and interior painted, it's ready to put together:

This is a much better proportioned model, as you can see below next to the old Scalextric version.  Michael Knight definitely prefers the new model ;-)

So the new car isn't KITT but as well as being a model of the exact version and year that I used to own, there is still a close Knight Rider connection.  (Sorry, this is where it gets really geeky...).

In the pilot episode of Knight Rider, the hero is initially a police officer called Michael Long:

Unluckily for him, the dodgy-looking lady on the right shoots him in the face halfway through the episode.  Luckily for him, he doesn't die, takes on the surname of his saviour Wilton Knight, has reconstructive plastic surgery, and... the Hoff is born.

Michael Knight joins the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG) and gets issued a black Transam called KITT.  But they chose a Transam because Michael was already familiar with the car because, as you probably guessed by now, Michael Long drove one but in black with gold skirts (which you can just make out in this screen grab):

So the new model represents both my and Michael Knight's first car!