2nd-Jun-20, 04:47 PM
I don't know how much more I know about electronics than you, but that is a reasonably clear old-school circuit board - so I'll have a go...
The brown striped resistor is there for the LED, essentially to drop the voltage so the red LED lights up and does not blow. There's a diode in that circuit too to rectify the input current to the LED...
There are four pairs of diodes (black cylinders with silver tops), most likely in the power circuit to each lane - maybe two in each, depending on what that blue switch is doing... The diodes 'rectify' Alternating Current (which the power packs deliver) into Direct Current, which a slot car's motor needs to work. Each diode also drops the voltage about 0.6 of a volt - so a circuit with two diodes will drop the 15 volt AC input to around 13.8 volts DC at the track.
The green things either end... I presume they are resettable fuses. But I could be wrong.
Why change the excellent two-input set-up? I guess it was to simplify the operation. From browsing UK slot car Facebook groups, these powerbases are the #1 reason for the question "why is only one lane working on my Scalextric set?". In my opinion, it is the best analogue powerbase Scalextric have produced, precisely because it had separate power for the two lanes and avoided the dreaded power surge when your opponent crashed.
The brown striped resistor is there for the LED, essentially to drop the voltage so the red LED lights up and does not blow. There's a diode in that circuit too to rectify the input current to the LED...
There are four pairs of diodes (black cylinders with silver tops), most likely in the power circuit to each lane - maybe two in each, depending on what that blue switch is doing... The diodes 'rectify' Alternating Current (which the power packs deliver) into Direct Current, which a slot car's motor needs to work. Each diode also drops the voltage about 0.6 of a volt - so a circuit with two diodes will drop the 15 volt AC input to around 13.8 volts DC at the track.
The green things either end... I presume they are resettable fuses. But I could be wrong.
Why change the excellent two-input set-up? I guess it was to simplify the operation. From browsing UK slot car Facebook groups, these powerbases are the #1 reason for the question "why is only one lane working on my Scalextric set?". In my opinion, it is the best analogue powerbase Scalextric have produced, precisely because it had separate power for the two lanes and avoided the dreaded power surge when your opponent crashed.
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