[Dr_C2]

I recognise that so far I have only shared some photos of Hornby/Scalextric lane changers with a bit of red paint added.

So two bits of further background:

1/ one of the red stripes shows where the ‘standard’ Hornby/Scalextric sensors are located. The secondary or ‘earlier’ red stripe shows a pre-decision sensor location. This is all about collision avoidance - which done properly (IMO) needs two sensors per lane i.e. the ‘pre-decision’ sensor followed by the normal ‘decision-point’ sensor. Next I will show some photos of the standard Hornby XLC pcb with the upgraded ATting3224 in situ plus the extra wiring for the two lanes of ‘pre-decision’ sensors. 

So that’s a Hornby/Scalextric XLC (dual straight lane changer) which is controlled by a total of four sensors.

2/ the C++ code that I mentioned I have written includes capability to read in parallel the ID and lane change button status for cars traversing up to a total of eight sensors - let’s think of this code as an eight channel ID sensor ‘detector engine’. And parallel processing means that the system can handle all eight sensors being triggered at precisely the same time just as effectively as when only one sensor is triggered. With careful programming all of this is achieved in an eight bit microcontroller running at 16MHz i.e. nothing fancy.

So what does all of this mean in plain English?

First, effective collision avoidance is within reach for Hornby/Scalextric XLCs - in this case using a simple solder-in replacement microcontroller and some extra sensors.

Second, the ID detection ‘sensor engine’ can be applied to other applications for example start/finish line ID detection and pit-lane ID detection. Both of these further applications are in raceway trials at present - so absolutely definitely a subject to return to in due course :)

Now back to lane changers - and next up some photos of the hardware.

c