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As a side note…..
The above cars are of course white car kits so needed some colour to be added.
The colour schemes were laser printed onto matt white polyester self adhesive A4 sheets with three cars per sheet. The product I used was from Labelplanet with product code LP1/210MWR. The adhesive works nicely too. It’s easy to remove if necessary without leaving residues.
The cars are fitted with white (hard) chassis so they can be driven either magless or with magnets fitted.
Next, they need lights and colour-coordinated rear wings.
c
(This post was last modified: 28th-Aug-24, 10:10 AM by
Dr_C.)
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After the system not quite being ready for racing trials last weekend, some good progress was made this week.
Cars on IDs 7-12 are now running correctly at racing speeds, slow speed traversing R2s and fast (ish) on 4 metre straights.
But that is only six cars… next to add IDs 1-6 into the mix.
c
(This post was last modified: 30th-Aug-24, 06:49 PM by
Dr_C.)
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•
Posts: 175
Threads: 17
Likes Received: 363 in 144 posts
Likes Given: 76
Joined: Oct 2023
Same method as shown earlier is used for chipping the cars with decoders on IDs 1-6.
A ‘triangular’-ish circuit board is used which has a six pin header socket and a downward facing surface mount Infra-Red LED fitted. This is wired to the pick-up and motor (hence the total of six pins) and then hot-glued into place.
The decoders are then ‘plug-and-play’ using the six pin interface.
This approach is great for trials of the new system. And, using matching pin configurations for SSD and O2 - it is straight forward to change system as and when desired.
IDs 1-6 now ready to join the trials of the new system to be followed by a lab based characterisation of throttle response times and max safe speed for lap detection etc.
It’s a twelve car system which, in principle, is scalable to twenty four cars or thirty six cars. For now twelve is plenty.
c
(This post was last modified: 1st-Sep-24, 11:58 AM by
Dr_C.)
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There are now twelve cars which are matched with twelve wireless throttle controllers. Initial track level testing is progressing well but so far with limited numbers of cars at a time and on a relatively small test track.
These cars strobe on IDs 1-12 for lap counting and lane detection i.e. extending the Hornby method from six to twelve cars (and beyond).
This provides three current modes of play:
1/ Twelve cars on a DC or AC powered track with high speed sensors for the S/F line, pit in and pit out. This combination is designed to run with PC Lapcounter.
2/ Six cars running on an SSD track using an ARC PRO with Scalextric app or Magic app. Here the main benefit over the standard setup is adjustable braking and control of front/tail lights.
3/ Six cars running on an SSD track using the C7042 APB and RCS64. Here again a key benefit over the standard setup is adjustable braking and control of front/tail lights. A further benefit, of course, is the wireless throttles.
At present with the new wireless system, throttle signals are not routed through a PC or smart device so simulations requiring PC/smart device manipulation of throttle settings are not implemented. However, a key aspect of the design of the new wireless system is that all throttle signals are routed through a wireless hub which already has USB connectivity. Once this feature is switched on, PC controlled throttle manipulations will become possible. This opens up exciting possibilities for advanced simulations and AI pacer cars.
c
(This post was last modified: 2nd-Sep-24, 11:20 PM by
Dr_C.)
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The new system still remains to be proven so there are some ‘sensible’ next steps:
First, continue to progress robustness trials of the new system in twelve-car mode (and of course the six car modes with ARC PRO and APB respectively as mentioned above).
The secondary next step, is to ensure development continues in a manner which remains compatible with the 24-car and 36-car system targets.
So here the plan is to split the 36 car IDs into the following groups. BTW this is simply for convenience of planning and hopefully this will not create any fundamental system restrictions.
IDs 1-12 will remain the current 12 car AMG race pack as shown earlier and these will remain matched to high spec wireless controllers.
IDs 13-24 will become a race pack of pacer cars which are controlled from a 12-car throttle ‘panel’. Later this can become a PC-controlled autonomous car control panel e.g PC reads the track sensors and determines whether individual pacer cars should speed up, slow down or change lane.
IDs 25-32 will become a secondary race pack of AMGs (making a total of 20 cars for human drivers). These will also be wireless throttle controlled.
IDs 33,34,35 & 36 will be support vehicles such as safety car, ambulance, fire tender and maybe a marshal car.
Use of these higher IDs for support vehicles makes sense as Pc Lapcounter is currently limited to 32 race IDs.
Could this be entertaining? Let’s see…
c
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Once the additional cars are prep’ed the system development can move to the next stage - a full characterisation of the lap detection method and a full characterisation of the control method.
For lap detection a ‘speed trap’ will be used which reports ID number (in the range 1-36) and vehicle transit speed (targeting 100% reliable detection at 10m/s on all IDs). More on this to follow in due course.
c
(This post was last modified: 22nd-Sep-24, 06:25 AM by
Dr_C.)