[woodcote]

Thanks Leo. Because the the car is in the fully-isolated loop (under direct control from the driver station rather than via the relay switch), it is completely unaffected by the polarity change. 

Isolating the entire loop and powering it independently was one of my tweaks to the ‘traditional’ method that Henk linked to and it solves several issues - a much shorter dead strip and no chance of the car ‘beating’ the polarity switch. Both those would give more than a stutter and risk a stall. If I could fit a slightly softer spring on the flippers, it would be near perfect...

Apart from a couple of low speed stalls on the upper loop flipper, the only issue is remembering to use the manual button to cycle through a couple of changes when I initially power up the system - otherwise the first change doesn’t work.

[Scuderia_Turini]

Brill, I had not realised the reasoning behind the isolated loop sections.

Leo

[AdeC]

This is very clever; and an idea I may look to steal in the future. Good work!

[woodcote]

Thanks Ade! Please do steal it and re-work it - that's why I've posted it here. With working from home here to stay, every slot racer's home office needs a single-lane track tucked round the walls...

[BARacer]

Hi Woodcote

How did you deal with the transition between the inclined track and any flat section to avoid the risk of grounding?

I'm wondering whether you did it in the joints between lots of shorter track pieces, or cleverly lost it by bending the track pieces themselves, or using the geometry of corners to achieve it...

[woodcote]

Mostly it's trying to work any gradients into the natural geometry of the track and trying not to force the issue too much. A sudden angle where two track pieces join can cause problems with grounding - depends on the car... A higher ride height and/or a sprung guide will always help.

Short track pieces certainly give a smoother gradient - same for flyovers on a 'standard' circuit. So does supporting the track - ideally with a long, continuous piece of flexible board (even cardboard) underneath.

I've never gone into bending longer pieces of tracks, although I see other people do.

[rallyhub]

Maybe choosing mdf for your track would be even better?

[woodcote]

There are challenges creating gradients on a wood track too... however this thread is specifically about using the Scalextric Digital pit pieces to create a Y for a Scalextric Sport turnaround loop (plus all the polarity change electronics). A more general thread about building hillclimbs would be really interesting. There’s an old magazine article (possibly in the Library?) that would be a good starting point.

[JasonB]

Bending Scalextric track isn't difficult, or at least I managed it without too many problems.

Just take a rolling pin, or a flat sided bottle, lay the track on top and apply gentle pressure on both sides, and roll back and forth.

Patience is the key. If you press too hard you can buckle the rails. Just take it nice and steady, apply pressure on both rails with your thumb and index fingers a couple of inches away from where the bottle or rolling pin is and do a bit at a time, gradually working across the length of the track.

I should also add that you probably want a full straight to make a proper, smooth transition, and I'd say you can probably manage around 10-20 degree inclines, possibly more, depending on the ground clearance of your cars.

Having said all that, the inclines on the Mediterranean-themed single-lane hillclimb / rally-stage look manageable without any need for any track bending, so I'm just adding this for information.