[ScorpiusWireless]

SSD is limited to 6 car IDs
It has always been limited to 6 car IDs.
It will always limited to 6 car IDs.

I once offered a $1000 to a fellow to prove otherwise. 6 years later still no cigar.

Prove me wrong 

[flat4]

Well, SSD is designed and patented for 6 cars, then if all the firmwares are modified to work with more 6 cars, is it still SSD?

[A Gillespie]

Even with the standard track sensors it's possible to force the car in front into a lane change , filling it up with even more is not going to work with all the cars on track  .

[Henk]

You're right Rick, Scalextric Digital has a maximum of 6 cars. The same applies to Carerra D132, if I'm right Carrera D124 has a maximum of 4 cars.

Both brands are made by "toy" factories, who aim a the home market.
Sytems like Scorpius and Oxigen are aimed at the clubs, a completely different ball game!

The question should be if 6 cars is enough for home racing with friends and family?

The average family size in the UK is 2.36, other west European countries are also around 2. So an average family would be about 4 persons, and I don't count single parent households.

Per car you need a certain amount of track, let's say 3 meters. This means that 6 cars will need 18 meters, how many families own a house big enough for such a track (and the space for the 6 drivers)? I think it's a minority.

Imho SSD and D132/D124 are perfectly suited for home racing, I see no need to build a digital track at home for 15 to 20 drivers.

Hence you should not compare apples with pears 

[ScorpiusWireless]

Well, SSD is designed and patented for 6 cars, then if all the firmwares are modified to work with more 6 cars, is it still SSD?

Nope.

[ScorpiusWireless]

Even with the standard track sensors it's possible to force the car in front into a lane change , filling it up with even more is not going to work with all the cars on track  .

Even with the standard track sensors it's possible to force the car in front into a lane change , filling it up with even more is not going to work with all the cars on track  .

Lots of people dreamed about 12 cars or more. And who could blame them. But we tried in early 2007 with extensive tests on a specially
made drag 10m drag strip at 25V to test accuracy.

The power base code employs a checksum as a tool to identify corrupted packets and remove but it only works with IDs 1-6. Any real engineer can deduce this with a quick look at code.

The LED space ratio (the time the led is emitting compared to the time it is not emitting) is inverted when changing lanes and if you try to invert ID 7 upwards there’s not enough window of opportunity for the LC to gather enough data to recognise lane changes. ID 8 was dismal and ID 9 didn’t even trigger the LC at 3m/s. 
So unfortunately using an extended SSD protocol cannot work. That’s when I suggested to John we develop a proprietary code for 16 car IDs, at a much higher frequency for Scorpius development. A blessing in disguise and we have never looked back. We later upped it to 24 car IDs.
I offered $1000 if anyone could send me a car that can do more than 6 IDs. No one took me up on the offer.

.

[ScorpiusWireless]

You're right Rick, Scalextric Digital has a maximum of 6 cars. The same applies to Carerra D132, if I'm right Carrera D124 has a maximum of 4 cars.

Both brands are made by "toy" factories, who aim a the home market.
Sytems like Scorpius and Oxigen are aimed at the clubs, a completely different ball game!

The question should be if 6 cars is enough for home racing with friends and family?

The average family size in the UK is 2.36, other west European countries are also around 2. So an average family would be about 4 persons, and I don't count single parent households.

Per car you need a certain amount of track, let's say 3 meters. This means that 6 cars will need 18 meters, how many families own a house big enough for such a track (and the space for the 6 drivers)? I think it's a minority.

Imho SSD and D132/D124 are perfectly suited for home racing, I see no need to build a digital track at home for 15 to 20 drivers.

Hence you should not compare apples with pears 

Sorry Henk I know all that. And agree with most of it.
This is about the technical reasons related to firmware.

Cheers bud.

[MrFlippant]

SSD is 6 cars.
If it's more than 6, it's not SSD.
Ergo, SSD cannot be more than 6 cars.

[Scuderia_Turini]

The desire to modify SSD to handle more than six cars always seems/seemed to be a techy thing more than a demand from users.

[ScorpiusWireless]

I think it’s pretty well accepted 95% of racing is 6 cars or less.

But if you’re in the 5% what to do?

In fact I needed it so much so I decided to make my own out of “demand” first. 
After that we went “techy”.
If Carrera brought out a 12 car power base as an option I reckon it would sell. Not a lot but enough.