RC45's Slot Car Layout...

[RC45]

Well - in between trying to secure future contracts and generaly contribute to the world economy, I also find time to do constructive things - like hobbies...

I had an interest in slot cars, but the 'round and round as fast as you can go" is nto what appeals to me... so I went off and made a routed track, and decided to make it all digital controlled - I just figured it's the obvious thing to do...

Little did I know I am one of a handful of digital pioneers in this hobby... go figure.

Digital control systems have been around for model trains for over 10 years.

Anywhooo - here are some images (maybe now the Enzo video I posted will make sense... )

Some images of early construction...
























And some later ones...





And here is the traffic circle I have in the town center..!! And depending how you throw the car around, it will either keep tracking around the fountain, or if you let off will go straight and you are on your way














The simplicity of implimenting DCC for model railroad is what lends the equipment so easily to slot cars.

Each train (car) has a decoder - and you just program a unique address into the decoder (I use the number on the car) and dial that address up on the controller - and away you go.

Here you can see the addresses dialed into the controllers... #96 and #21


The #00 is the address that Digtrax lets you assign to an analog car - that is a way to test analog cars before you do the digital heart transplant...


This is a Z scale decoder in a MRRC Cobra



This is an HO scale decoder in a Ninco Xsara WRC.






And finally - the Digitrax control station.



Did I mention I have only been in this hobby 2 months...

[T-Bird]

very nice RC45 first time I've seen a setup like that especially with the roundabout

[TT]

Dang all the ones on rc45.net aren't working!

As for the ones I can see, coolè

[RC45]

Originally Posted by TT Dang all the ones on rc45.net aren't working! As for the ones I can see, coolè

Me neither... hmmm... I need to look into that - it's all sitting on fishfreeks servers... hhhmmm

Can you cut and paste the links into a browser?

[TT]

Sure, with copy and paste I could see them... and.. nice idea!!

[RC45]

Originally Posted by TT Sure, with copy and paste I could see them... and.. nice idea!!

OK - I think I fixed it then -- I guess that hot-link protection works real well... far too well... LOL

[TT]

Perfect now!

[RC45]

Oh, and for the uninitiated, the significance of the digital control, among other things, is that multiple cars can be independently controlled - even in a single lane.

But one of the things that I love as a sports car enthusiast, is the varied performance of cars.

Some are great handler with less top end, but awesome acceleration, some are so-so out of the gates but will top out at 200mph etc etc.

Now I know the slot-car crowd are used to balls-to-the-wall zip-zap ricocheting around the track with a little sled that happens to have a body attached... but what about if the cars behaved in relation to each other as they look in relation to each other?

Well - this is what I am working on now. DCC allows for many programmable Configuration Variables to be altered.

Values of these CV's affect all sorts of thing. The main ones I am playing around with now, are the ones that affect acceleration, deceleration and top speed. (custom speed mappings is what they are)

So now the F360 Challenge will outrun the F355 Cup car on top end, but maybe not acceleration - and there is no way the Citroen WRC car will out gun the Enzo flat out, but it may stop and turn easier.

In short, I am setting the performance of all my cars to prototypical settings relative to each other, with the top speed ratcheted down to a slightly more realistic level.

Another cool feature? A car with a certain address is easily controlled - if you want to generate some "computer controlled traffic" simply give a bunch of cars the same address and voila - instant rush hour.

[TT]

Originally Posted by RC45 Oh, and for the uninitiated, the significance of the digital control, among other things, is that multiple cars can be independently controlled - even in a single lane. But one of the things that I love as a sports car enthusiast, is the varied performance of cars. Some are great handler with less top end, but awesome acceleration, some are so-so out of the gates but will top out at 200mph etc etc. Now I know the slot-car crowd are used to balls-to-the-wall zip-zap ricocheting around the track with a little sled that happens to have a body attached... but what about if the cars behaved in relation to each other as they look in relation to each other? Well - this is what I am working on now. DCC allows for many programmable Configuration Variables to be altered. Values of these CV's affect all sorts of thing. The main ones I am playing around with now, are the ones that affect acceleration, deceleration and top speed. (custom speed mappings is what they are) So now the F360 Challenge will outrun the F355 Cup car on top end, but maybe not acceleration - and there is no way the Citroen WRC car will out gun the Enzo flat out, but it may stop and turn easier. In short, I am setting the performance of all my cars to prototypical settings relative to each other, with the top speed ratcheted down to a slightly more realistic level. Another cool feature? A car with a certain address is easily controlled - if you want to generate some "computer controlled traffic" simply give a bunch of cars the same address and voila - instant rush hour.

It was already impressibe w/o all these infos, but now I'm literaly speechless

[oscargarza88]

WOW :shock:
thats awsome! at first i thought it was just going to b zig-zag and a traight but no! its much cooler! with the hill and eveything! r u going to leave it like that or r u going to make it like with little people standign and all that?
and that seems harder than i thought! i thougt just put the car and go, and u only have 2 months! great job!

[RC45]

Originally Posted by oscargarza88 WOW :shock: thats awsome! at first i thought it was just going to b zig-zag and a traight but no! its much cooler! with the hill and eveything! r u going to leave it like that or r u going to make it like with little people standign and all that? and that seems harder than i thought! i thougt just put the car and go, and u only have 2 months! great job!

Well - as with model railroading, we prefer to refer to it as a "detailed sceniced layout"...

These are a couple examples (not my layout) of the type of scenery that is going to be in place...

[TT]

When do you plan to complete it? I see many more days of interesting work on it! And can't wait for updates!

[sameerrao]

Man! This is something special. When I was scanning thru the first fews pics and seeing the hair pin curves - I thought this will look cool with elevations and lo and behond a couple pics down the line my wishes came true.

I like the fact that some parts of the circuit is set up for two cars running parallel and others where they have to run in single file ---> you have race like mad to get ahead of the other car to get ahead when it becomes single file! Mega-cool feature

Can cars run uphill and downhill or is it uni-directional? Coming down the hill would be more tough to control - should be getting mega-oversteer methinks...

[DanielW]

that rally one is badass. good luck with your layout RC45, keep us updated with pics.

[SFDMALEX]

Holly Shit! Thats is quite impressive, keep it up!


Now may I ask were do find the time for something like this? There is no way in the world I could do something like this on my spare time...except summer.