[dazee]

So slowly but surely things have moved on a bit from here.  I will post up a few photos and video of it later, but have smoothed out joins, put a base of paint down and glued in the track wire.  Still some clean up to be done on the slot and for the wire where I am a little messy with glue, but overall I am pleased with how it runs at this stage.

Now comes a question for the collective.  Where do you strike the balance when you make your track between fast or technical?  Are you building for the limits of the car or the "driver"?  Are you making a Monaco track or a Paul Ricard?  Do you plan a  forgiving circuit or one that levies a heavy penalty?

At the moment before I get into a lot of scenery time  I am looking to see where I should perhaps add some extra track area in some corners, or leave and fill in with scenery as a corner you can not take at high speed.  The table size and scene I am going for already means I am targeting smaller cars and rally cars, not the bigger DTM style cars.  What is your preference on a small layout?

[JasonB]

Personally I like to combine a fast, flowing section with a tight, technical section, but obviously that's not always possible on a small layout. So I think the smaller the track, the more you're pushed towards a tight and twisty layout.

I mostly collect classic rally cars, which would probably suit a smaller layout, but can also be a lot more fun than larger cars around the technical sections.

[dazee]

I struggled a little with the video today.  For some reason when it was uploaded to my blog it was always displayed upside down.  Even though locally it always played correctly, it got flipped after uploading.  So I gave up, inverted the video and now it plays upside down locally, but the correct way up in the blog.  Love this techy stuff   

I forgot I have trouble posting video here before, so a little short video in the below blog post.
https://dazee-projects.blogspot.com/2020...-test.html

One nice continuous copper wire for each power line all done.


And one of those corners where I am considering to add a little on to keep the flow going.


both inside and outside on this one to help with that transition into the corner when running in the reverse direction.

Like you Jason I do like the technical parts instead of flat out, especially on the small table where flat out is not an option.  A little worried that scenery may suffer, but at the speeds that would be reached on the track this is perhaps minimal now as no magnetic assist it will be a slower track.

[dazee]

A little Dragon Ball that will help with the track scenery.

[Steven.G]

Brum??

[BAracer]

Grommet??

[dazee]

Says on the box "Yamcha's Mighty Mouse".

Penfold? 

[dazee]

Track is starting to take shape, but weekend work was mostly devoted to replacing and making more robust, the lap timing sensor.  Hopefully, now the new one will last for years.  But with lockdown being in effect here I decided to spend a morning getting more organised and clean up my work area for painting the cars and scenery.  An hour on the computer, another hour on the laser, and I'm feeling all pleased with myself.  A successful mini-project done!



Sized for a work area of a sheet of A4 paper, no more excuses for losing any of those small pieces or spilling paint.

[dazee]

Some more baby steps in the track progress.  I have now finished up the models for the scenery.  Next to wire them into the control unit so that they can signify completed laps and fastest lap.  Once the wiring is done I can quickly finish the scenery and start some racing.







Unfortunately I was way too far into these before I thought about actually learning to paint - and subsequently that the paints I was using were terrible for painting miniatures.  I have since started watching a bunch of videos from a very talented miniature painter, made some purchases and have some plans for progressing the big track    Worth checking out if you like miniatures and scenery.  Squidmar Miniature Painting.

[dazee]

Finished for now - at least to a level where I can kick back and just enjoy it for a while.


Landscaping will continue to progress and get more details filled in, but mainly now will just continue to run the track to wear it in.


Main items left to do as improvements...  The track sensor can be a pain in the ar$e.  It is currently a photo gate and generally very good and reliable.  But if you have lifted the track or transported it and it needs adjustment, well my adjustment screws are on the underside of the track, so a pain to get to and adjust.  I plan to fit a plate under the sensor to raise and lower it using screws from the track surface on the start/finish line.  These will get covered with some scale cones.



The final item I want to change is the main display and behind it, the logic used on racing.  Currently, it is just a 2 line LCD and the only control on the whole setup is my big yellow reset button which just cuts the power for a restart.  I have a nice little TFT touch screen display to fit in there that not only will display more information but open up the possibility for setting the number of laps, or time limit, save and keep record times, etc

A short video of it over at https://dazee-projects.blogspot.com/2020...nning.html running the cars slowly just to check for any inconsistent power pick ups.

Having the second arduino there to do the tones and lights for marking laps and best laps is great.  Not only does it allow you to keep focus on the actual driving of the slot car, but it removes any possible impact that has on the timing of the laps.  The timing circuit now just sends a short pulse to one of two pins for each and every lap.  

Overall very happy with how well this has turned out and runs.